Instead of working on my very last paper.

I have one paper to go in my MSW career, but I feel a post is necessary at this time, so oh well!
Thursday was a great day! I finished my last day at the internship and most importantly, we were able to see our little one-our little girl!
I have to admit, David and I were a little sad that little Jonah doesn't exist yet. I've been imagining a little boy with David's dimples and my darker skin for quite some time now.  However, the more we saw of that little girl, the more excited we became to meet her.  We are in love with her already and I am so excited to get started on preparing the nursery for our newest addition to the family!

Chair from my grandmother's that I painted for the nursery

Our little girl's feet! (Hopefully there's only 10 toes and not 12)

Spring Break Vacation

Yes... it has been several weeks since and I am just now updating the blog about spring break. Hopefully that just shows how completely swamped I have been these days.  Pity me! ... Or at least my unborn child.

For spring break "vacation" David and I went to Utah to stay at his parents' vacation home near Salt Lake.  This would be a good time to visit family, get away (at least somewhat) from the stresses of school, and reconnect ourselves with our BYU roots.   Oh, BYU! I used to shake my fist at that school and curse it's name for making me realize my insignificance.  My first year I felt so out of my element. I was just an average student at a very small high school who never had really studied in her life! I cried and cried my because I thought there was no way I could make it.  I felt like everyone around me could speak at least 3 languages, knew how to play musical instruments, had 4.0s, and sewed their own clothing. Yes, this was a definite exaggeration. Not everyone had 4.0s.....
But looking back now, I really loved my time there. I learned so much about my purpose and what Heavenly Father wants for me. I learned that I can do hard things. I learned that it is important to learn as much as you can in this world. A common quote at BYU is " The World is Our Campus".  This is also a time when I learned to love myself for who I am and most importantly, I met and fell in love with my eternal companion.

I was able to take note of some of the highlights of the trip:

---It wasn't snowing! However, it was cold enough to still give us the feeling that we were at BYU. If it had been any warmer, the feeling would've been lost.

---J Dawgs! An absolutely heavenly hot dog place near the south end of campus. They were just as amazing as I remembered.. except maybe even more amazing! It brought back such wonderful memories of sitting outside with David having a lunch date between classes because we wanted to see each other, but were still new and dating.  Ugh, I'm now craving those delectable dogs (hot dogs, that is!).

---David being on campus and not abiding by the honor code. *Gasp! There's no way you could take a test at the testing center with that hairy face! They would've sent him to the bookstore to buy a cheap, disposable razor.

---Always being forced to listen to somebody's music, no matter where you are. This doesn't mean iPods or radios, but actual people playing music on their instruments. This used to really bother me, but this time it just made me happy because it was familiar.

---Hearing one of the students say "shiz". How sad is it that it caught us off guard!?

---BYU baby onesies! We got 3 to represent! Hello indoctrination!

Scary snowy weather that we had to drive through to get to UT. Luckily, that was really the only snow we had to deal with.

J DAWGS!! I highly recommend :)

David's scruffy face ON CAMPUS!

Scott opening his mission call!

Can you spot the Y?

I must be a baker because there's a bun in the oven!

 It seems like forever since I last posted a real blog post.  I have been writing things, just never got around to posting them... If you haven't heard the news, David and I are going to have a baby in September. The baby is due for either the 19th or the 20th. I've been receiving mixed messages from people, but I figure it doesn't matter because the baby is going to come when it wants.  David and I are super excited to hold this baby in our arms.  Life has been pretty hectic, but I really want to document the progress :)

Week: 7
How big is baby Lake: The size of a kidney bean
Thoughts/Feelings This Week: I'm so nervous about my doctor appointment. I am scheduled to meet with the doctor for my 8th week ultrasound. I sure hope baby is in there, otherwise I will be a sad Jenny.  It seems like this appointment will never come! So far no real morning sickness; however, I am expecting for it to come because I have a natural talent for feeling nauseous for just about every occasion. What can I say? It's a gift.
Dear baby, I hope you are doing okay :)

Week: 13
How big is baby Lake: About the size of a peach or a lemon
Thoughts/Feelings This Week: Grow, baby! Grow! I can't wait to find out the sex of the baby, but I know that I will love and squeeze this baby regardless if it's a boy or a girl! Just a few more weeks until we found out! We are almost through with the first trimester. I am actually really surprised at how fast things have been moving. I have been super busy with school and my internship, so at least I have that as a distraction for now.  It looks like my morning sickness won't be so bad! I have only had bad reactions to the smell and consumption of Mexican food, but that doesn't seem to keep me from it....I've also had the worst indigestion ever, the tiniest bladder, the foggiest brain, and the most unbearable fatigue, but things seem to be getting a lot better! I will happily welcome the second trimester. Woot!

Also, a couple of weeks ago we decided to make our first big baby buy and bought the crib! We are really impressed with the quality and the price. This crib is adjustable, which will be nice when the babes gets bigger.  I am so excited to start decorating!
        **Just a note: When I say "babes" I mean just one babe, but I have this weird thing where I like to pluralize words sometimes.  When I first told my parents, my mom thought I was having twins. Heavens to Betsy, no!

Tremendous Blessings

You know, being a social worker is really hard. There have really been times when I have wondered if I am cut out for it. We have to deal with all of the bad stuff in the world. As my professor said in my intro to sexual abuse class, it is often hard to be positive and not constantly worry about friends, families, our children, and ourselves. Sitting in class, I realized how blessed I am. I have come to this realization many times in my life- I am not that blind- but I think sometimes I get caught up in life and I often forget this. There is so much pain, hatred, and envy in this world, but there is also so much love, happiness, beauty, and peace in this world as well. There are so many good people out there and I'm grateful to have so many of those good people in my life. Being a social worker gives me the opportunity to work with so many special people. Yes, I may hear a lot of bad things throughout the day, but I also get to hear a lot of the good stories, too, and I think that's what's most important.

Jenny's Jolly.....Meals

Alliterations are hard to make with Js.

I was in the mood for Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana soup, salad, and breadsticks this weekend, but instead David and I went to Long Wong's to eat wings instead. Although I enjoyed the wings, my belly still ached for some of that soup! I decided I would make some today for dinner and I have to admit, it was pretty amazing. Plus, we saved a few bucks! Who can complain about that? I also made it with some rolls from a recipe that I got from my friend Rachelle (Good job, Rachelle!). I thought I'd share the wealth :) I made a few adjustments here and there based on the ingredients in my kitchen. Enjoy :)


Soup Ingredients:

• 1 lb Italian sausage
• 2 large russet baking potatoes , sliced in half, and then in 1/4 inch slices
• 1 large onion, chopped(I didn't use any. Just onion powder because David doesn't like the texture of onions. Weird, I know!)
• ¼ cup bacon bits (optional-I didn't use any)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (I just used 1 clove)
• 2 cups kale or 2 cups swiss chard, chopped(I used spinach because I didn't have kale)
• 2 (8 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 1 quart water
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream (I used cream cheese instead because I didn't have cream. It's basically the same, right?)
• I also used some crushed red pepper flakes for a little spiciness.   

Directions for soup:

1. Chop or slice uncooked sausage into small pieces.
2. Brown sausage in your soup pot.
3. Add chicken broth and water to pot and stir.
4. Place onions, potatoes, and garlic in pot.
5. Cook on medium heat until potatoes are done.
6. Add sausage (and bacon).
7. Salt and pepper to taste.
8. Simmer for another 10 minutes.
9. Turn to low heat.
10. Add kale (or spinach) and cream.
11. Heat through and serve
    Directions for swirly garlic bread rolls:
    Garlic bread seasoning 1/2 cup powdered Parmesan cheese
    2 teaspoons of kosher salt (I used regular salt. Still awesome)
    2 tablespoons of garlic powder
    2 teaspoons oregano
    2 teaspoons basil
    2 teaspoons marjoram
    2 teaspoons parsley
    (I used about a tablespoon of olive oil in place of some of the butter. A half cup seems like a lot of butter!)
    Cheesy Garlic Bread Swirls
    1 Tablespoon of active dry or bread machine yeast
    1 1/2 cups warm water
    1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
    1 teaspoon salt
    3 tablespoons Vegetable oil
    1 egg, separated
    4-5 1/2 cups flour (I used a cup of bread flour in place of some of the regular flour. Whole wheat may be good too!)
    1/2 cup real butter
    1 1/2 tablespoons of Garlic Bread Seasoning (recipe above)
    1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
    
    
    
    1. Combine the yeast, water and sugar in a large mixing bowl and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
    
    2. Add salt, vegetable oil, and egg yolk and combine. Add 3 cups of flour and mix well till combined. Continue to add flour till it barely sticks to your fingers. Knead bread for another 2-3 minutes. Cover and allow to rise for 1 hour.
    
    3. While dough rises, combine butter and garlic bread seasoning and then set aside.
    
    4. When the dough has risen roll the dough out into a 18 by 6 inch rectangle. Smear garlic butter over the surface. Then sprinkle with cheese.
    
    5. Roll up the dough jelly roll style and then use floss to cut it into 12 equal slices for really big rolls, I cut them into about 22-24 equal slices. Place into a muffing tin sprayed with nonstick cooking spray and cover with a clean cloth. Preaheat oven to 350 degrees F. Allow rolls to rise while oven heats.
    
    6. Bake for 18-22 minutes, watch for cheese to brown.
    
    This Recipe came from "Our Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen" cookbook pages 32, 33, and 53

Some snappy title about being in Texas for Christmas

Ah, where to begin....
It's been so long since I've written. I'm such a slacker! To be honest, while I was in AZ, I really didn't want to do anything during the break that required using my brain. I read a ton of crappy books on my phone, ate when I felt like it (even if I wasn't hungry), and did as little as possible. It was really quite lovely.  I'll try and keep this short, but will probably fail. 

David and I also kept up the Christmas tradition of seeing the Christmas lights at the Mesa temple, baking Christmas sugar cookies with the Lakes, and making "gingerbread" houses with our dear friends, the Clarksons. Our gingerbread house actually stayed together this time! The secret: hot glue! Yeah... sure.. there's tradition (Tradition!) and whatnot, but as we learned from Fiddler on the Roof, traditions are meant to broken. Or something like that.

David and I take turns celebrating holidays in Texas and AZ. This year David and I celebrated Christmas in Texas for 2 whole weeks. My family tends to stay pretty busy with work and lives so I had to ensure that we had enough projects to keep us busy. My sister asked if I would sew her table cloth, place mats, and table runner as her Christmas gift. I've never sewn anything for anyone else so I was a little worried that they wouldn't turn out well. My approach usually tends to be that I sew sew sew and then fix fix fix. That approach seems to still stand true. Needless to say, I will not be sewing for a while. I think a small part of me died during those few days. 

My (as in David and I) other project was to refinished some furniture. My dad gave us a cabinet and a chair that used to be my granny's. My granny is still alive, but she lives in a nursing home now because she has Alzheimer's & Dementia.  We visited her during the break and I made the textbook mistake of asking her if she remembered me. Not once, but twice! Yes, I totally knew better, but somehow I still found the words coming out. Big mistake Jenny.

So back to the furniture!

Both were looking pretty sad. On the cabinet, the wood coloring was black and some of the wood was starting to split at the ends.  Dad says he thinks the cabinet may be over a 100 years old! Granny has always loved antiques so I wouldn't be surprised. I forgot to take a good before picture of the chair and cabinet. Whoops! With 2 days full of sanding and tons and tons of cans of stripper, we got them done! Dad, being the expert in this sort of thing, and me being busy with the other project on my load, nicely stained the cabinet for us. I have other plans for the chair, though. I'm hoping to paint it a nice muted teal to match our living room. I'm pretty excited about that.  It was quite a bit of work, but I already expected that. I don't know how I would have been able to finish it without the help of David and dad.  The help was definitely appreciated!


Christmas was pretty small this year. Usually we celebrate Christmas with a big dinner and as much family as possible, but for one reason or another it was instead a pretty intimate dinner. I know this may sound weird to a lot of people, but I actually think I enjoyed it a lot more.
David was so excited when he opened his gift and found a shiny new shotgun. He's been wanting one for the longest time. I figured since I came from a home where guns are plenty, I shouldn't deny David his fun or his right to protect us.

After a little work

Before we stripped it down

Time with the parentals also consisted of shopping, family, and food. We were able to see a lot of my dad's family, because yet again we had to attend a funeral.  It seems to be tradition that David and I attend a funeral when we come to visit at Christmas or Thanksgiving.  Part of me really hates funerals. I don't think many people would disagree with me, except maybe morticians. However, it is fun to visit a lot of people that I wouldn't get a chance to otherwise.  My dad kept saying "wedding" instead of "funeral". It's funny how people always get the two confused. Unfortunately I again forgot to take pictures. In my defense, it did seem a little inappropriate to take pictures after the funeral.

 New Year's Eve was celebrated with the Shell family (my sister's in-laws). My parents were party animals! Mom and dad kept us there until after 2 in the morning. On the positive side, I was able to drive my mom's brand new camaro. Mama's got a new pair of shoes!

 

This would have been a good one but David decided to not take it seriously. Poor Ev.

 New Year's Day:
This is the day my abuelita reserved for her birthday.  She's from Colombia and doesn't really know what day she was born. She believes this could possibly be her birth day, but she's not really sure. We treat it like it is, though and always have a big dinner and cake. Mom knows how much I love empanadas, so all the tias (aunts) got together and cooked a ton of empanadas. I love them so much! Colombian empanadas are seriously the best!

Awesome tres leches cake!

The Lakes, Moseses (Mosai?), and Shells got together and had a night in the town! We rode the lightrail around Dallas to see the Christmas lights. It was quite an adventure! 

China we got from my granny:
This china was given to my dad who in turn gave it to us.  We never registered for china, but thought it would be nice to have some. It felt really special to get china that was hand-painted by my granny. They even say Jenny Moses on them! My granny's name is Virginia, but for a long time she went by Jenny, then later went by Ginni. Luckily, she painted almost all of these when she was still going by Jenny. Pretty cool, I'd say!

This is only a few of the pieces. It's a really big set! I don't even know what most of the things are!

Some even have the year she painted them!

 All in all, it was a pretty good trip! I actually got used to being around my family again, which made leaving hard. I love being here in AZ, but I definitely miss my crazy family.

Our traditional stop for good Mexican food in El Paso, Texas. Spicy, but yummy!

David eating an empanada on the way back to AZ

In a State Called Indifference

It's amazing how apathetic I've become now that classes are over. I STILL HAVE 2 MORE ASSIGNMENTS TO DO!!! AAAAH! I'd much rather hang out at home, stuff my face, and hang out in my robe/underwear and house shoes all day. Attractive, I know. David just loves what I've doing with my hair these days. I've been sporting what I like to call a messy-knotty-all over the place-bun.
I had high hopes for today. Oh, yes! I was going to finish my book on my phone- (Can I just say that I have read 6 books since Thanksgiving? None of which have been educational in any way. YAY!). 

What I was going to do today:

Clean the house.

Go to the grocery store because I have managed to dodge that place for weeks! Our fridge looking pretty sad. I know our Brita and condiments are feeling pretty lonely.

Drop off my books I rented for school.

Go to the bank- I have been meaning to go for over a month!

Work on my last two assignments that are due this next week.


Here is what I actually did today:
I uh... put some toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet bowl. That's progress, right?

I unloaded and loaded the dishwasher. It only took me 3 hours because I kept leaving it to do something else... or absolutely nothing. Either one.

I finished my book. I totally cried by the way. I'm so lame! I refuse to disclose much more because the book was so cheesy, but I loved every minute of it, I tell you!

I showered.

I got dressed. (Huge progress!)

I did my hair....sort of.  Eh, good enough.

I complained for a good 5 minutes that I didn't want to go to the grocery store and that I couldn't make dinner because I was took weak from starvation.


My excuses for my lack of productivity:
I'm letting the dishes soak.

I'm letting the toilet...soak?
 
My laptop battery is dead and David has the plug. David is at school taking a final so I guess I'll just to wait until he gets back. I guess that means I can't do homework. Darn... Also, since my battery is dead, that means I can't drop off my books because I need to print out the shipping info, which I would retrieve and print using my laptop. Darn... there goes that idea. And I couldn't possible go to the grocery store without dropping off my books! Fedex is so close to Fry's! I couldn't possibly waste my time and gas by making 2 trips!

I'm tired.

I'm weak from starvation.


David is now here. My computer is charged. Dinner is complete and eaten. 3 hours later and I still haven't even worked on my homework ( I did open a Microsoft Word document). And I still haven't gone to the grocery store.

Looks like I need a good kick in the pants. Being this lazy is making me feel gross, but I feel like I'm too far gone.  It's too late for me. Save yourself!