Viva Peru!

So you might have heard about my recent Peruvian development. You might not have. You might not have heard of me at all. Either way, I will relay the experience of my past week for all to read and enjoy!

SO. I guess it really starts back at the beginning of this summer. Actually it really starts in 6th grade at Ladue Middle School with my math teacher Ms. Nishiwaki, who I did not like AT ALL! She bred a dislike of math deep into my soul! SO then fast forward to college 2008. I went to BYU fully intending to study Elementary Education. Then first day of spring term 2010, first class, 8am, I went to my teaching math for Elementary Education. I then remembered- Oh yeah, I really don't like math. So I went to the Academic Advisement center and talked with Alberto Puertas. He suggested I drop my classes and take his career exploration class. SO I did! Then I decided I thought I wanted to be an English teaching major. Then first week of Fall semester I went to my English classes. And they stressed me out!!! And I was not enjoying them, so I dropped them and decided to try out sociology. Then my older brother Greg talked to me and I realized I wasn't so sure about sociology either! At that point, I was really in the dark. Not El Ed, not English teaching, not sociology, what on earth should I do with myself?!?! Take random intro classes? Drop my classes and work? Take classes part time? Serve a mission? I was lost. Real lost. So I decided to go back and talk to my good friend Alberto Puertas and see what he had to say on the matter. I went into his office on Friday afternoon at 3:30 (with the add/drop deadline being Monday mind you...). I asked if he thought if it was a good idea for me to drop my classes, and take a break- he said, oh yeah! That's a great idea! So I asked if he knew of any internships or trips I could go on with this short of notice? "Do you want to go to Peru?" "Well, yeah...." "Ok, I'll send you to Peru!" He informed me I was going to go to an orphanage and teach the children English and how to use computers and just play with them! So a few forms, a check, and a plane ticket later, 6pm Friday night, I am heading to Peru till December!!!

Not until I got home and got interrogated by my roommate Chelsea, did I start thinking about details. What the living conditions were, who was in charge, diseases, what the weather was like, etc. It just felt so right I didn't even think about that stuff!! Very luckily for me (and probably not by coincidence) my TA for my career exploration class, went to Peru this summer and is now in my ward!! So I talked to her and she gave me the contact information for some people who were at the exact orphanage I'm going to be at! ( One of them happens to be the current roommate of one of my roommates from freshman year! How crazzy?!?) So I've been talking to them getting more logistical details, and I couldn't be more excited! I'm actually going to my family reunion at the Outer Banks first (YAY!) and then leaving from there to go to Peru!! Do I know Spanish you might ask? No, no I don't! But I'm going to learn! Hopefully quickly too!

I went to a Peruvian Restaurant on center street with my roommates to celebrate, and later I read in my journal from a year ago (curious to see what I was doing on Sept 11...) and realized exactly a year ago I went on a date to a Peruvian restaurant! what are the oddS?!? AND when I went to the temple earlier the main New Era article was about a kid from Peru! AND my old roommate's new roommate served her mission in Peru, AND one of my best friend's husband served his mission there too!!This country is EVERYWHERE! :)

Everyone has been so supportive of me too, which has definitely helped matters! My family probably foremost, with my almost incessant phone calls of "what should I do?!? I don't know what to do! help me!!!!!!!" SO i've definitely appreciated their help! I am going to miss my amazing roommates terribly! They have been my support through this crazy process and I love them to pieces! ("come on, come on, I love you" that's for you Chelsea!) Oh, and I still need to sell my contract, just sayin....I'm also going to miss my little brother who finally came out to BYU, and then I hightail it out of the country! But he is so great and is about to serve a MISSION so I know he'll be just fine without me!! Also all my STL homies who finally joined me out here (AnnaLeah, Kaitlin, Kat, Travis, Scott, Jacob, Kathryn)! AND the new people in my ward that I've gotten to know have been so great, that it makes me sad to leave! But only kind of ;) It'll probably be good incentive for me to come back...It kind of sounds like I'm dying, but I'm not. At least I sure hope I'm not! ;)

So anyways....

I can just see the hand of the Lord guiding my life! It just amazes me and this process has simply taught me so much! I am so grateful for the power of prayer and the opportunity for me to talk to my Father in Heaven while trying to figure my life out! He's definitely got a better idea of what's going on than I do thank goodness!!! So ready or not, I'm heading off to a wonderful Peruvian adventure for three months, thanks to my loving Heavenly Father, my supportive parents, siblings, roommates, professor, and ward, and an inspired chain of events!! I'll keep you posted!!!!!

I should blog more often....

.....but I'm not going to today :)

Just thinking...

I was just looking at this picture of my roommates today:



and it made me smile and miss them. This is a pretty good summary of our apartment

Brittany: doing something stupid, yet entertaining
Kaitlin: Being nice and helping her
Chelsea: Documenting with her phone and laughing the whole time
Kate: Documenting with my camera, telling B she is doing something stupid and then telling her to get down so I can have a turn!

I loved living with these three girls this summer! They definitely helped me maintain my sanity! Well, it could be argued that they simultaneously contributed to my insanity, but we won't go into that.

Even though I love these girls to death, I have LOVED being home!!!!! It is so nice to have nothing to do and no where to be!!! I can do whatever I want! And I love it!!! I'm reading the book Ender's Game, for fun! No homework on it or anything!! (it's really good, by the way. you should read it!) This is probably the only time in my entire life this is going to happen, so I am going to soak it up gosh dang it! Let the summer rollllll
:)

Honey and Lime Enchiladas

So I thought I'd put up recipes I like so a. I have an easy place to find them and b. so my fellow readers can too enjoy in the amazing deliciousness that is the food created by them. So here's my pilot recipe. And it is STINKIN GOOD! And pretty dang easy! I got it from www.forcedtocook.blogspot.com- great website! Try it, you won't regret it!

(Pictures are a must! Mine didn't look quite like this, but its still soooooo good!!! Mmmmm! I want it now!!)

Jessica Haslam's Honey Lime Enchiladas

1 1/2 pounds chicken, cooked and shredded

Sauce:

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup lime juice

1 1/2 Tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

2 (10 ounce) cans green enchilada sauce

1 pound (or less, you decide) Colby Jack or Mexican blend cheese, grated

18 taco sized corn (or flour) tortillas

Mix together sauce ingredients then add to shredded chicken.

Let the sauce soak into the meat for about 30 minutes.

Lightly spray 9x13 baking dish with PAM. Pour enough green enchilada sauce to cover the bottom of the dish. Lay six corn tortillas over the surface of the dish. (The will be overlapping.) Top with half of the meat mixture, then cover with cheese. Layer another six tortillas and cover with some enchilada sauce and the rest of the meat. Sprinkle cheese on top. Layer last six tortillas on top and cover with the remaining sauce and cheese. Be generous with the cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.
http://forcedtocook.blogspot.com/2010/05/jessica-haslams-honey-lime-enchiladas.html

This could be a problem

We always joke in our family about how we're all night owls because of our dad. Coming to college I realized I am not nearly as much of a night owl as I thought I was. I appreciate, nay require, at least a good seven hours of sleep to function at normal levels, though preferably more. Quantities of smaller proportions produce levels of either severe exhaustion or insanity. Both undesirable, though one provides more enhanced levels of entertainment. If you were beginning to think my jargon sounds as if I've been writing papers, you my friend would be right. And therein lies the cause of this post. I've had ample opportunities today to read my homework and write papers associated with said reading. Did I utilize any of them? No. I waited until after i went running, went to campus, took an hour and a half nap, laid out by the pool, consumed inordinate amounts of cookies dough, attended institute and played (and lost) a good round of hearts with my roommates to concede to my lamenting and break down and do my homework, to find I could finally concentrate enough to produce (arguably) coherent papers. And here lies my night owl parentage problem. I find this burst of energy and inspiration around ten o'clock, that gives me just enough motivation to get what I need to done, when I should be winding down and finishing up my homework. I haven't been inflicted with this condition for a while, and I think I may have discovered its origin.....Summer. yep. My system is used to staying up late this time of year, but it is NOT accustomed to being in school mode. So to compensate, my body somehow finds that I should stay up late to feel like its summer to do homework so it feels like its school. No bueno. I like sleep. So I'm hoping my respite from school in August, despite its brevity will jolt my system back to its focusing capabilities while the sun is out. Until then, to the end I must endure. Come what may and love it eh? Well I'm hoping what is coming is a school free summer next year...THAT i would love. I'm also hoping my future contains more enjoyable English classes. These two are killing me. softly. with his love. oi! bed time!

Have you ever tried scowling and smiling at the same time?? Try it. That's kind of how I'm feeling today....

Mind Wanderings

I don't really have anything to say.

That's a lie.

I just don't really know what I want to say. I feel like I should say something. seeing as I haven't posted anything for like three weeks. Normal family blogs put up cute pictures of their kids when they go somewhere, or do something fun. I however don't have any cute kids, and it just feels odd to me to post cute things i've said or done. It just doesn't have quite the same effect. Maybe I should start doing it for my roommates....I must say I do a fairly decent job in the photograph documenting department, but I kind of struggle in the arena of the written word.

SO...I just thought I'd jot down a few ideas bobbin around in this head of mine.

In one of my English classes we're reading Jane Austen. I have a love of Jane Austen engrained into me because of one of my best friends in high school, Lauren Milburn. She LOVED Jane Austen and we watched countless movies, talked about her....and....well that very abbreviated list occupied many hours, so regardless of its pitiful length, my ears perk up whenever I hear Jane Austen. I realized though, that I'd never actually read any Jane AUsten. until now. We were assigned to read Persuasion (in one night mind you...welcome, self to the joys of being an english major)And I loved it! It was kind of hard to get started and Jane (we're tight like that...) can insert characters like there's no tomorrow. BUt I LOVE her subtle humor and societal commentary! It was a very entertaining read! And of course I'm blogging about it instead of writing my paper about how the title plays an important role in conveying the theme....but I'll get to that later. I'm preserving records for my posterity. Priorities. So reading it also made me realize I am SOO glad I live in the 21st century. All the societal rules; you must do this, don't do that, who's invited to what party. blech. but at the same time, I came to the conclusion that things really haven't changed all that much. I was surprised how often I was going through and I totally related to what Jane was talking about. Who knew. DId you know Jane Austen was never married?? I think I knew that at one point, but it totally made sense because the story was chock full of girl's love life fantasies. Aside to men happening to read this- Read Jane Austen. Get a clue.

That's enough of my little book review.

I am loving life in Provo. It is SO fun being out here for summer! Everyone told me it would be, but I never realize the truth of statements like that until I actually do it. I should. but I don't. Ok. My time here has come to an end. I must return to my duties. "dead guy duty. cooking duty. Maybe I need some better duties!" Nacho Libre

Just some tidbits from life in happy valley:

My birthday motorcycle ride.

My adorable roommates with the poster Brittany made for my B-day

Hiking some random trail. Well, there was a rather lack of a trail really. We just scaled this mountain :)

Don't Worry, Be Happy

I had a really weird dream last night. That's not necessarily abnormal. I have weird dreams all the time. About the most random things. And the most random people. Dream analysts would probably go bizzerko if they had a go at my brain. Which is why they never will. ANYWHO...last night I dreamed that I was just depressed and upset with everyone and bitter and I was pretending to sleep and I could overhear everyone talking about it, and it made me even more mad, but kind of trapped because I didn't know how to change myself! It was kind of stressful! And emotionally draining, I woke up tired, which is the worst! But this is one of my few dreams where I feel like I can actually learn something from it, unlike the other dreams I've had this week (one involved a formed roommate being pregnant and another involved a fireball tornado tearing through Provo.....) but I've decided being happy is a blessing you can give yourself! And in the words of Cusco in the Emperor's new groove:

"it's a birthday present to me! I'm so happy!"

of course his context was selfish. but hey, I'm taking artistic quoting license.

Moral of this post: I'm making up my mind to be happy.

not that I wasn't before.

but now I am for sure.

k.

peace n blessins.

this picture makes me happy because

1. chelsea's face makes me laugh

2. we struggle sometimes, but it's really entertaining

3. it reminds me of many good times in front of our mirror

4. I just love pictures of any form!