Wordless Wednesday - Happy Thanksgiving!

Mundane Monday - Dinner Groups

So my life has been pretty slow of late and lacking in adventures. Meh. But that is fine because . . . I am kindling my fire to become a bonfire and get ready for the ski season if it will ever come! All of the resorts were suppose to open this past weekend and now all of their websites say "TBA". Bummer. I take it back - there is one resort that opened: Solitude - with 2 runs and 17 inches of man-made snow barely covering the dirt. Yuck. What a shame! My roommate and I were planning on using our free lift ticket to the Canyons the day after Thanksgiving and now we can't because they aren't even open and won't be any time soon! Bummer. Well enough of my tangent. :o)

Mundane Monday is going to be my new thing. It will probably be written more frequently when I don't have any adventures going on (like right now) and it will be more of a "what in the world does Jessika do in between adventures and in her normal daily routine?" Yeah, it will address those kinds of things. (I've also had enough people tell me that my blog is like a journal so these kind of entries are for posterity's sake - I always liked to hear what my grandma had to do for normal life - hike two miles to school everyday, uphill, in the snow, both ways, all year long.) Ha! :o) Anyway - and now for the post:

My favorite routine thing in my life is my dinner group! Three of my friends and I get together for dinner 4 nights a week and cook for each other. We each have a day of the week that is generally our night to cook for the others. We eat Monday through Thursday. Sunday is reserved for make-up day in case your assigned day blew up on you and you weren't able to cook after all. And then Fridays and Saturdays are left open . . . . for . . . . hopefully dates - if we have them. We are also pretty flexible - if we know we can't cook our normal night then we try to reschedule and swap nights with one of the other girls. (I did that last week!) And then, like this week, when there is just too much going on, then we bag it for the week. It is so laid back! We don't have a set dinner time and we don't require a certain percentage of attendance and best of all: if someone (or none of the rest of the group) is able to make it for dinner that night, we save them a plate! So then they have leftovers to come home to or to take to lunch the next day. Don't you love the idea of that? We do.

It makes cooking dinner so much more rewarding and motivating when you have someone to cook for. And we find that we eat much more healthily too. (Is that a word?) We really do strive to cook something healthy each time too. And we love to try new recipes on each other. Pretty much all of us have subscriptions to Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. For a while I was going way over my food budget each month - so I've had to cut back on my experimental cooking to 2 meals a month and then 2 meals of normal food a month.

And then the fringe benefits of our dinner group: I love the friends I cook with! They are Camille, Lindsey and Jen. Through our dinner group we have formed such an awesome friendship - we can get through thick and thin - believe you me! We are the core group for sure. I love it especially now that I don't live next door to Camille and Lindsey - because this way I can keep up on what is happening in their lives and not lose their friendship. (I have a nasty habit of getting caught up in my new lifestyle, friends, roommates, location, whatever and lose track of my friends. It's almost like I can only have so many friends. I don't like that. :o( I have learned that I have to make a concerted effort to see my friends and do stuff with them in order to retain and maintain the friendships I adore!)

So yeah. That's my dinner group.

Happy Veterans/Remembrance Day

I have to admit, the first time Veterans Day really resonated with me was when I was in London on my study abroad. For like a week in advance of the 11th of November, the British started passing out little paper poppies to pin to your coat in order to commemorate what they call Remembrance Day. (I still have my paper poppy to this very day!) And then they have a moment of silence at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month - Remembrance Day! The entire island stops everything at 11:00 am and has a moment of silence to remember those that were lost in the first World War and all others that have been lost since in later wars. Then the Queen places a wreath of poppies at the base of the Cenotaph in the middle of Whitehall in the heart of London.

I think the reason Veterans Day first resonated with me there is because the British made such a big deal of it. Life stops for them every November 11th at 11:00 am. Being over in there in Europe, they have been caught in the middle of both World Wars and had their country attacked numerous times. While on my study abroad, we visited Coventry and saw the bombed out cathedral there - the British have actually preserved the walls in order to retain the knowledge that they survived the bombings of England, and the Battle of Britain and all the other attacks that were made on England.

We, in the United States, have been truly blessed that we have not had to defend our homeland to the extent they (or the rest of European countries, for that matter) have had to. Don't get me wrong, we have had some terrible tragedies take place on our homeland - with Pearl Harbor and 9/11 standing out the most to me. We would all do well to count our blessings and thank the Lord for the chance we have to live in the land of the free!

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Halloween!

Taste of my Church History Tour

Well, I've been back for a week from my trip and I am finally getting around to adding an entry about it! My mom and I left on Tuesday, October 9th and got back late Wednesday, October 17th.

The church history tour took us everywhere! Palmyra, New York area, Niagara Falls, Kirtland, Ohio area, Independence, Missouri and surroundings, Nauvoo, Illinois and then finally Carthage Jail in Carthage, Illinois.

My favorite part would have to be Nauvoo - we had a chance to attend a temple session at the beautiful Nauvoo Temple and then walk all over historic Nauvoo. And there was so much to see and do! Mom and I got the famous and cute Old Nauvoo bricks and then we also got some prairie diamonds at the blacksmith shop (which are really just horse-shoe nails rounded to fit like a ring). But the close second favorite place was the Joseph Smith, Sr. farm. I loved it. I loved the Sacred Grove. It's crazy to think that I am related to them - through Hyrum Smith!

I think the best part about the whole trip is this: That it strengthened my testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The entire tour was a witness to his life, work and calling. He truly was a prophet of God! He endured so much, struggled, and sacrificed so much for the benefit of the church. I know he translated the Book of Mormon only by the gift and power of God. Doctrine & Covenants 135 sums it best:

Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!

Hence my current favorite purchase of the Joseph Smith statuette - to remind me of my testimony of his calling as a Prophet of God. To learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints click here.

Here are some pics of the trip - just to wet your appetite.

At the Hill Cumorah, New York

The Sacred Grove, near Palmyra, New York

The Sacred Grove, near Palmyra, New York

Joseph Smith, Sr. Log Home, near Palmyra, New York

Peter Whitmer Farm, near Fayette, New York. Where the church was organized on April 6, 1830.

Niagara Falls

Newell K. Whitney Store, Kirtland, Ohio

John Johnson Farm, Hiram, Ohio

Kirtland Ohio Temple

Liberty Jail, Liberty, Missouri

Far West Missouri Temple Lot

Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Missouri

Nauvoo Illinois Temple

Outside the Brigham Young home, Nauvoo, Illinois

Carthage Jail, Carthage, Illinois. Where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred June 27, 1844.

First Snow in the Valley!

It snowed huge, awesome snowflakes tonight!!!! Hooray!!!

2nd Annual Fall Colors & Dutch Oven Dessert

This year was much colder than last year! We had a very cold weekend and it snowed!! Yay! We went up to the same place as we did last year - in Rock Canyon. There was maybe 2 inches of snow on the ground (and the roads - made for some fun driving) but no worries, it was melting and there was a path cleared for us to walk on.

This year, we were smarter: we brought camping chairs and two Dutch ovens.

New friends joined us - Camille, Lindsey and me - this year: Nate and Jon, Rob, Jen, and Cary. This year we made a super yummy Caramel Pudding Cake and an Upside Down Pineapple Cake. I think the Caramel Pudding Cake was the best! Enjoy the beautiful pics!