First of all, I just want to thank all of you for all the nice comments you always make on my projects and musings. It means a lot to me, and I love hearing from all of you. I am excited to finish my chairs soon- hopefully this week!

This weekend was a really big turn around point for me, in a couple aspects of my life. I know that I am not “fat” or anything like that, but I haven’t been feeling well with my headaches, and I haven’t been feeling happy about myself. I am the heaviest I have been in several years, but I didn’t want to do anything about it. So I am starting a new diet regime. Not as much to lose weight as it is to help me try and eat healthier. I did the South Beach diet 2 years ago and I felt really great, physically and mentally. I had more energy. I slowly let myself slip more and more (like, there’s nothing wrong with ice cream, but it’s not good if you have a big bowlful every night). I also had a strong impression that this was a good thing for me to do last night when I was able to see Elder Bednar talk (more on that in a minute!). So I start today!

I also really feel more in tune with the gospel. I’ve been struggling with a few things lately. However, two situations have really helped me focus on the big picture. The first one was working on my talk. I went through a lot of church materials and read my scriptures a lot to prepare for the talk, more deeply than I have done in a long time. Doing this brought back a lot of memories I had forgotten. I also prayed so I would be receptive to what might need to be said for those in my audience. In the end, I felt so confident and prepared when I went up to give my talk (it was long… 15-18 minutes… hehe) and I have never felt like that before. I know that because I spent more than a couple of hours on my talk, I was blessed. Even if the general message wasn’t directly what I needed, getting back into deep scripture study and the discipline of writing was what I needed.

I think this first part with the talks also really helped me with the second part of my weekend. Elder David Bednar came to the Austin stake last night and did a fairly informal Q&A for two hours. I won’t go into the details of everything I heard last night, because I know that not everything I got from it was directly something Elder Bednar said, and a lot of it is very personal to me. However, I want to say that last night, I KNEW that Elder Bednar was truly an apostle of the Lord. He radiates of so much goodness and calmness… a calmness and surety that you don’t often get to see in the world today with all the bustle and confusion. I know he is truly a great man and loves God and has devoted his life to serve the world so they can also come to know and love the Lord. I also knew, without any doubt, that the church is undeniably true, and has more truth to it than any other source on earth. It was a truly amazing experience that I will not forget for a long time.

When my mom came down, she helped me get started on recovering the dining room chairs we have. They started off looking like this:

You can’t really tell from the picture, but the seats are getting kind of threadbare and a few stains. We definitely aren’t complaining as we were gifted them, but we wanted to update them a little…

Here’s the new look!

Woo hoo!

It’s a fun project, but I only have half the chairs done because I had a cold and/or allergy issue the past couple of days, but it’s a great start! I feel so… crafty! useful! handy?!

It’s all… so not me! I cook, I clean, I craft… Is this the start of a new Elisabeth?

So… I haven’t written for a tiny bit. Not that anybody missed it!

I’ve been kind of busy and distracted. First of all, my headaches are coming back full force again. I’ve tried several different things, and nothing seems to work. I think I am just going to be cursed for the rest of my existence with the dang things. oh well. I have had my eyes checked, gone to two different doctors, had a MRI, and tried alternative herbal things and even this cranio-sacral therapy, and nothing works. Basically, I am completely healthy and fine…. other than the fact that I have these completely debilitating headaches that leave me with very little energy.

My mother also came and stayed with Jared and I last week. I hadn’t realized what a routine we had gotten into until it had to be changed! I mean, lots of small things, like placing the flatware pointing up or down in the dishwasher, or just how and when we take care of Stevie. We also ate out a lot, which is unusual for me and Jared. However, it was fun for me to show off my cooking and apartment to somebody other than Jared… you know, to inflate my ego. 🙂

We also are trying to get more actively involved with our ward here, but it comes with consequences, like being assigned a talk in sacrament meeting next week on how forgiveness brings us closer to Christ. I have to be honest– I don’t like talks. They aren’t interactive. It’s kind of sad that parts of me are constantly comparing to teaching strategies… and talks are always so….boring. Lecturing often is one of the worst teaching strategies… always reminds me of my 9th grade biology teacher, Mr. Haskell. We’d just sit and take notes on his lectures and our eyes would glaze over…and then at the end of each unit we had to turn in 8 pages of notes. (He never read more than the first page. Proof came during the Evolution chapter when one girl started to unflatteringly compare Mr. Haskell to the dinosaurs and he gave her an A.) Relating back to the talk, I feel if I am going to invest all this time into the talk, I want to make it enjoyable, meaningful, and useful to my audience that has to hear it, and sacrament talks just don’t seem to be structured that way!

Anyways… more and more, I want to teach again. I have two main things stopping me. First, the main concern are the headaches, which I have already ranted about in detail. Second of all, I need to get my license and stuff taken care of for Texas! (Officially more important, but it’s not really what’s making me hesitate.) Even though a lot of people look at me and ask if the high school kids really respected/listened to me (Yes, I am short, and kind of young, and I look kind of young…), I was able to work with the students effectively. I really enjoyed teaching and learning to and from the students I worked with. I wouldn’t even mind too much getting a teaching calling in church, probably… as long as it isn’t Primary or nursery!

So… I don’t have a job.

Well, I kind of do. I’m Jared’s full-time maid and cooking service, along with doggie care-taker. But the problem is, I would like to help build up the money reserves so we can get a home sooner than later and am not sure what to do about that.

I do have my English Teaching degree, but there’s a few problems with that. First off, there’s the whole getting my license transfered over to Texas, as Texas doesn’t accept the praxis. Secondly, there is my health issue. We still haven’t gotten my headaches figured out, and teaching is stressful, which generally makes the headaches worse. It’s also hard to take a sickday when you are needed like that. Third, even if I could get a job by fall, the first year is the worst with lesson planning on top of grading and all that stuff. So.. for now, teaching is out.

which leaves an open void in my life… what to do with myself? What can you do with an English major. I used to have some ideas, but they all disappeared….

On a more positive note, I found a picture of the cake I made for Jared last year for the wedding!

Much prettier than the one I made for his birthday. 🙂 of course, this one I had been planning to do for a month- the other one was a last minute idea.

I’m already thinking of different things I could do for next year! 😀

So… I’m being adventurous today.

First up (started this yesterday actually) is Raspberry Cream Cheese Braid (I altered the recipe from http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/blueberrycreamcheesebraid):

No idea how it tastes yet. I’ll update you as soon as Jared gets home so we can try it.

***Update: It tastes great!***

🙂

The second recipe I tried today is Chocolate Bar Pie (from Better Homes and Gardens cookbook). Not good if you have a thing against nuts, as the crust is Walnut crust!

Whipped cream and toffee sprinkled on top! This one is pretty good- I made a less pretty version of it for Jared last week and it’s gone now.

🙂

Maybe I should get into baking… 🙂 It’s kind of fun!

Oh, and to melt your heart, here are some Stevie pictures.

He loves to sleep…. as long as he is near his humans!