supper :)

This whole semester I've had pretty bad eating habits. Tonight I got home and, as usual, didn't want to cook. No energy, no time (still fairly sick on top of normal everything). As I walked in the door I thought, a hot fajita sounds so good (I think maybe I spelled DeeDee's food - but maybe it was just my imagination thinking of good food). Then, as I set my belongings down, I thought, the sad thing is I have chicken but it's frozen and I don't care enough to thaw it. About 1 1/2 minutes later I remembered - ta da! - I have canned chicken in the fridge. It's from the church cannery (I inherited when moving into an apartment that had a cupboard full of food) and it's quite good chicken. So I cooked up an onion on low heat so it was perfect, then threw in the chicken and warmed it through. In the mean time I grated some Creamery cheese (my hoard from Kathryn) and warmed a couple of corn tortillas. Put them all together into little taco things and - perhaps the best part - squeezed on some fresh lime. It was all scrumptious!! And fast, but actually healthy, real food. Amazing! It was just a highlight of my day. And now that I've written about it and thought about it - maybe a highlight (not the, just a) of my week. I love supper!

More exciting news for our family

Whitney (my brother) and Laura Anderson are finally engaged. They're getting married December 28. I'm very glad for them. And for me - I like Laura. :)
I'll have to update more later. Thanksgiving was great. I've had tonsillitis for the last couple of days. School is crazy busy.

Update: They are getting married in the Salt Lake Temple

Visiting Teaching and the Lord's Love

I just got home from church and want to share my excitement. I met my second visiting teaching sister (I'm not sure what to call us, we're each part of a "group"). On Monday night I met my 1st sister (we're 3 all together). Anyway, both times I had a great visit with each one and I'm excited to meet with all of them. Let me tell you just a little about each of them and you'll understand why I'm especially excited. I learn from everyone I visit teach/am taught by - in fact, enjoy the variety - but sometimes in life, especially in this ward, it's nice to have things in common.
Courtney, who actually lives near me (unlike most of my ward) graduated from law school just a couple of years ago. Practiced law for about a year and now teaches art history classes at UVSC (a college nearby). Although it wasn't the only reason, she did go to law school in part to get a doctorate, so she could teach college. She has several classes and has interesting stories about her students. Nathalie has a degree in history and French (for teaching, both) and really enjoys European history (many similar interests from my Spanish studies minor). She is currently working at Timpview (the local high school) in the ESL program. She's not ESL certified, so is a paralegal, which she enjoys because it means no lesson plans, minimal grading. She wants to learn Spanish and is full of ideas for the ESL program, which is slowly growing in this school. She served a mission in Switzerland (and is ethnically half-French, half-Vietnamese).
"Brief" meetings with each of them went long because we have so much in common. It's exciting and I'm so grateful for the combination. I feel the Lord's love and trust the reasons for being together are more than just commonality, but will bless all our lives.

California Dreaming

The song, California Dreaming, has been stuck in my head all morning. I'm not sure why - it's a gorgeous fall day here in my beautiful home (in fact, I was just jumping on the trampoline and enjoying the weather). Anyway, there's a line in the song that says, "I wish I was in L.A." - and I think, I am so, so thankful that I'm not in LA. At this exact moment last Saturday I was in L.A., stuck in traffic, sure I, or our (rental) car, was going to die. Fortunately, we didn't. And in fact we (Rachel and I) had a wonderful little trip to California (with a night in Las Vegas). There were many beautiful things we saw, but the highlight was being at Jenn Prince's wedding open house. Jenn was one of my mission companions and has since moved back to Santa Barbara, where she met Ryan. They seem to match very well and she' super happy. Which makes me happy. Besides her I saw Vanessa Alpentista and Jill Skinner (companion and other sister I served with). I also got to meet all their husbands and Jill's baby (who Vanessa is holding in the picture). It was really a lot of fun!! (p.s. to this part, all the last names are their maiden names, so you can add Hermana and know how I called them once upon a time)From Santa Barbara we went to Bakersfield. Church in the East Bakes ward was great - so fun to see many people I love! We stayed with the Mercados (a family I taught); it was so good to see them. The gospel has blessed their lives immensley and it's wonderful to be back in their home. The little girl in the front, Stephanie, was 2 weeks old the first night I met them. :) [Hermano Mercado had left by the time we took the picture.]Lots of driving, but it was wonderful to see many great people and places I love.

update on life

Okay, there are often times when I really want to write a blog entry, but since I haven't "built a proper foundation" (Evidence term there) it wouldn't make sense. So, I'm giving up on the good entries I had composed in my mind, and I'm giving a general outline of what I've done for the last 3 months and moving forward from there.
I left Kalamazoo on August 13 and took a train from there to Chicago, then to SLC. Beautiful country, nothing to have to worry about on the train - should have taken more fun things to read. Going through the Rockies was gorgeous. Fun experience.
Got to Utah. Had no home for the next 6 weeks. Fortunately my car was still running at that point, since I lived out of it. Thanks to my friends Sara and Sherilyn I had comfortable places to sleep and shower. And thanks to them and several others I never went hungry either.
Looked and looked for housing but nothing felt right. I had felt strongly about a couple of factors and could not find something that fit what I felt. Finally toward the end of Sept. I found a great apartment that I'm enjoying. It's a large, nice apartment above the 3 car garage of a big mansion house. Yard, neighborhood, etc... is all very beautiful. The views from my windows include Mt. Timp, Squaw Peak, etc... Lovely. It's more expensive than I wanted, but when I left from going to see it, I felt so good. And many other searches had left me feeling hollow - so, I'm trusting that all will be well. So far it's been wonderful. I enjoy having my own place, a lot. My landlady and her frequent guests (sister, etc...) are friendly and fun. And most of the time I'm at school anyway.
School. The first week of law school I was not in class because I was in a week-long training for English. I did a lot of catch up, but have managed to still do fine all semester. And English. I am teaching a freshman English class - Rhetoric and Composition. I'm one of many graduate instructors - what I didn't realize until orientation is that all but Sherilyn and I are English students. We're the spice of variety. :) So, I have a class of 20 students that I teach twice a week (75 min. classes). It's lot of fun. It does take way too much time - but I'm hoping this semester is investment and it will be easier/less time consuming as time goes on. Already it's better than at the beginning of the semester. And mostly I just LOVE teaching. I always have, I imagine I always will.
This semester at law school I'm taking the following classes: Evidence, Family Law, 14th Amendment, editing for Journal of Public Law (the bane of my existence), and English Pedagogy (a graduate class I have to take to teach). They're all quite interesting (well, the journal has mostly just been a chore). I feel like I've learned so much - since last year, but also just this semester. And since I can now understand what I'm learning, it's much, much more enjoyable. I also enjoy the camaraderie with my classmates and the other English teachers.
Lots more little stories, but that should suffice for now and I'll give more updates in the days to come.

Phone!

I finally went and got a phone today. There's still a chance I'll cancel it, but probably not. So, if you want my new number - email me! I don't want to put my number on the blog, but would love to give it to you personally.

Time change

I found this poem in a notebook from years ago. In recognition of this weekend's time change I thought I'd share.

Daylight Saving Time, by Phyllis McGinley
In Spring when maple buds are red,
We turn the Clock an hour ahead;
Which means, each April that arrives
We lose an hour
Out of our lives.

Who cares? When Autumn birds in flocks
Fly southward, back we turn the Clocks,
And so regain a lovely thing-
That missing hour
We lost last Spring.

Yea for the missing hour. I enjoyed it.
And I miss the Autumn flocks flying into my country. For those of you who get to see them - enjoy!
It has been a gorgeous fall here. Warm and mild lately. Wish I could show you pictures...

Yea for Groceries!

I came back to Utah on August 15. This Saturday (Nov. 3) I went grocery shopping for the first time. Very exciting!! I have bought things here and there (like for my party) but not real grocery shopping. It's amazing how much better life feels. :) Monday and today I brought lunch to school. It's great to be healthy. I had peanut butter and jelly on Monday. And a ham sandwich, pickles and carrots today. Mmmmm. And in the mornings I have breakfast. And at night I make supper. Amazing!
So you don't worry, I've been unhealthy but not starving for the past 3 months. First, remember i didn't have a home for the first 6 weeks - so I mooched off the people I lived with, bought lunch, etc... I've eaten birthday cake/chilli. And, thankful for Duchesne and the Farnsworths, I've had lots of great food from the farm - tons of tomatoes, peppers, etc... It's exciting to have supplementary food now, though. :)