Salsa

After finding this recipe on a blog I don't think I will ever buy salsa again. This salsa is soooo yummy!!!

Ingredients

• 1 can (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes With Juice
• 2 cans (10 Ounce) Rotel (diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies)
• 1/4 cup Chopped Onion
• 1 clove Garlic, Minced
• 1 whole Jalapeno
• 1/4 teaspoon Sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Cumin
• 1/2 cup Cilantro (more To Taste!)
• 1/2 whole Lime Juice

This makes a lot of salsa. It filled our blender completely full! I personally like fresh Cilantro better than dried, but dried still works. 

Enjoy the Journey.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

6 Tb honey
4.5 Tb lime juice
1 Tb chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 lb cooked chicken, shredded
flour tortillas
colby or monterey jack cheese, shredded
10 oz. can green enchilada sauce

Mix first 4 ingredients together and toss with shredded chicken. Let it “marinate” for at least a half hour. Pour some green enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 10×10 casserole dish or 9×13 pan. Fill flour tortillas with chicken and shredded cheese. Pour the rest of the can of green enchilada sauce over enchiladas then sprinkle with more cheese. (When using a 9×13 I like to use 1 1/2 10 oz. cans) Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. (Put it under the broiler at the end to make the cheese brown and crispy on the top.)

After making these for my mom today she said she will never make white enchiladas again. They are my new favorite!

Enjoy the Journey.

24 hours

In 24 hours at Jordan High there was a fire set in one of the bathroom. Luckily when it happened it was after school, but the were holding attendance school, so it still had to be evacuated. 

Then the next day after I had been at school for about 10 minutes there was a lock down. Kind of scary. We didn't know why, but we found out later there was someone who was walking around carrying a shotgun and knives by the school. The rule is within a 2 mile radius they do a lockdown. It lasted about 45 minutes! Luckily the students had a late start because of the PLAN test. But that changed the schedule even more so the students only had 27 minute classes. NOTE: Students do not function with 27 minute classes! They shut their brains off and don't want to learn AT ALL!

Then during lunch (before the students even had class), there were 2 fights. One included knives being pulled out! 

Well, it is all within a matter of 24 hours, but it has been better since then!!! I only have 24 more days of actual teaching/going to Jordan High School, but I have a total of 40 days including weekends.

I have enjoyed my experience, but I am so ready to be done with school. I have been going to school straight since Fall '09. That is a long time with only 1-2 week breaks. As for my plans after student teaching?? Sleep-these late nights and early mornings are killing me. After that... I don't know! I know I will take some time off, but other than that I have no idea!

Enjoy the Journey.

Thankful

In the midst of all that is going on right now I need to take a moment and express my gratitude. I am truly blessed with so much and it is important that I realize this and write it down. Some things I am thankful for today:

• My Husband who loves and cares for me no matter how stressed out I am. Who honors his priesthood and does all he can to help me.
• A mom who lets me call and cry to her on my way home when I am at breaking point and want to quit.  
• A dad who loves me and supports me, and the fact that I know this even when I am just calling to cry to my mom.
• The wonderful "landlords" we currently have. Being able to live with Julie and Jill and the kids is SUCH A BLESSING. They love us so much, and we love them so much too.
• A family that loves me and supports me, even if they live miles away.
• An Education, and teachers who have always cared about me.
• Nephews and a Niece who call me and want to talk to me even when I am so busy I can't talk or even call them back. Just knowing that they tried simply makes my day.
• A healthy body.
• A comfy warm bed to sleep in every night.
• Food for my belly.
• Clothes to wear.
• That I don't have to drive in the traffic EVERY morning.
• The gospel.
• The new Relief Society book. (we just got them on Sunday and I am already loving it.)
• General Conference and the chance we have to hear from church leaders who love us so much and want to help us back to our Heavenly Father.
• My Savior, Jesus Christ. And the fact that He knows everything. He knows that I am doing my best and that I can make it through.
• That I only have 24 days of actual teaching left, 39 days until Student Teaching is done and I have finished my college education.

Enjoy the Journey.

Home Made Chicken Nuggets

Tonight for dinner I wanted to try something new and they turned out pretty yummy! I looked up a few different recipes for dinner and then decided that home made chicken nuggets sounded good. I have only made them once before and it was in my Introduction to Foods class my 2nd semester of college. I found a recipe, but made changes as to what I knew we would like. They turned out so yummy and this will definitely be a recipe that I use again, as well as make some different variations to! Here is the recipe that I used:

3-4 slices of bread

1/3 c. Parmesan Cheese

Season Salt to taste-I probably used 1 T

Place those ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Then spread in a flat dish or plate. In a bowl mix:

2 egg whites

1 T. Oil

1 T. Water

Cut 2-3 Chicken Breasts in bite size (1-1.5") chunks. Dip in egg mixture and then in breading. 

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes (or until they are done).

Serve with your favorite sides!

Enjoy the Journey.

Fruit

It was so nice to have TONS of fresh fruit this past month! We are thankful for the garden that was shared with us! It was so yummy!!

Enjoy the Journey.

Six Months

I can hardly believe that it has been six whole months since I have married my best friend. The past six months have been the best. No goodbyes-only goodnights. No skype dates with each other, but dates in person. And when we go to Idaho we both come back to Utah. I am so lucky to be married to a man who holds and honors the Priesthood. He is so wonderful and good to me! I am the luckiest. 

Six months down-eternity to go.

Enjoy the Journey.

Mice.

Dear Mice,

I really don't like you. I don't like you when we come back from a weekend in Idaho and I find 2 of you stuck to a sticky trap in the middle of our bedroom floor and I am the only one who is downstairs when I find you. AND one of you is moving. Oh and lets add the fact that the sticky trap was under our dresser and you moved it out 2 feet. ewwww. 

And to the THIRD mice, I don't like you either. Especially when it is Sunday morning at about 4 a.m. and my sweet husband wakes me up and tells me to close my eyes and be quiet. Then I hear the tapping and the faint squeak. ew. So my dear husband gets out of bed and we discuss where you could be, and he gets gloves and a flashlight and finds you under our dresser stuck to the new sticky trap we put under there. Don't mind the fact that we were sleeping, and my parents were sleeping in the living room and were awake from Jared taking you out to the trash. 

BUT I am not sad that you are gone. I am happy that you are all somewhere in a landfill and no longer in our bedroom and we haven't found any more from your family. Next time-vacation elsewhere because you are not welcome. ever. (eeewwwwwwwwww)

Thanks,

Kara

Enjoy the Journey.

SkyPe.

I love skype. And I love talking to Jake and Felicia on skype with my cute husband.I would much rather skype with them being in the pines apartment 20 and me being in Utah with Jared.... :) 

The End.

Enjoy the Journey.

Student Teaching

I am already well into my student teaching! I am already in week 5!!! I am now to the point where I am teaching all of my classes independently! It is kind of scary at times but not at the same time. I am finally into a routine now though. I am the one doing all of the lesson planning and grading so I feel like I am right on top of everything! I have some amazing resources that I am using and it makes my lesson planning so much easier. My department is absolutely amazing, and my students are all characters too. I am enjoying it, even when I kick students out of class! I can't believe how fast it is going, especially when I sit down and look at it I am amazed by how soon I will be done! 

Enjoy the Journey.

Random.

I was looking through my pictures for someone and found pictures I had never blogged about.

 We went to BYU-I Spring "Best-Of" show. We loved a few of them, others... not so impressed. But it was a good date night!

 Fresh cut potatoes... remember this post?

This was my final for my Reading in the Content class. It turned into a pillow in class when I wrote all of my "new learning and insight" on it. It was the first pillow he has ever had for the final!

Enjoy the Journey.

Vacation Part III - FINALLY

We went across the bay from our hotel in Oakland to San Fran. 

 This was a picture look back at the bay.

 Their was a 2 story carousel on pier 39 and Kara was dying to ride it so we did.

 This was the sideshow performer; gross but not all that hard we learned from 

Mike Cahoon later when he did it with a Q-tip.

 The seals by Pier 49.  There weren't many when we went.

 We purchased discount tickets to the wax museum and Kara had to have 

her picture with Mary Kate and Ashley; her (childhood ;) ) heroes.

 Chuck Norris

 We had an artist draw our animated pictures; it was very interesting. 

 A cupcake shop called "Kara's Cupcakes"!

Ghiradelli Square was fun, and they are famous for their sundaes so we had to try them.  

They were amazing!

Well, still a few more posts to come to finish our vacation!

Bedtime Stories.

This was a poem that we randomly put together while in bed going to sleep.

Kara - "To bed; to bed I said"
Jared - "My shorts today were red!"
Kara - "My hand is on your head"
(Pause)
Kara - "I have a cousin named Jed"
Jared - "Your muscles are like lead"
Kara - "Yah, well my grandpa's dead."
Jared - "Your grandpa Fred?"

While it might not be that funny to you right now, it was to us when it happened!

(If you don't quite understand why it is so funny-I have a grandpa named Fred! -Kara)

Ismael and Kaylee

Jared and I were able to go to Idaho last weekend and go to my dear friend's wedding. Kaylee did our flowers for our wedding and her new husband Ismael is so wonderful! We love them both! We were able to help out a ton and were able to repay the favor from our wedding! Jared did videography for them! He loved it and it turned out so well! Jared is extremely talented! He has decided to try to start doing weddings and other special events videography as a side job. He has another wedding on the 10th. Here is one of the ones from Ismael and Kaylee's wedding! Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/28329777

Enjoy the Journey.

Tuesday Date Night?

(This is Jared again, I know it's been a while)

Since we'll be in Idaho for the weekend, we rescheduled date night for Tuesday.  It worked out perfectly because the Thanksgiving Point Gardens has $2 Tuesdays for the month of August.  It is a very large and beautiful place and was a great break.

My favorite part was the fact that they invite you to walk on the grass.  I accepted the invitation and walked most of the way without shoes!

My wife is kind of odd sometimes; she thinks that this tree looks like an alien frog...

These fish were crazy!  They were all just waiting for somebody to feed them and then chaos erupted!

On a side note, we were later told that this is President Monson's favorite places to visit!

We also found out that this is the largest man-made waterfall in North America (According to the lady at the front desk).

 Kara and I decided we were going to live our lives through other people because there were a few details with our wedding we wished we had changed (as probably most wedding couples figure out after the fact).  There was a lady doing her bridals so we (Kara) decided to do wedding ring pictures.  I thought they turned out well!

As noted and pictured above, my wife can be a little odd sometimes.  She has an unquenchable thirst for simply lemonade raspberry.  I told her she could drink straight from the bottle!  Later, when walking back to the car, she walked right past our car and on a few feet before she realized I wasn't following her; I was standing be her door and laughing.  We got Panda Express for dinner and as we were waiting at the stop light to go home, there was a truck in front of us with two husky dogs in the back.  One dog was looking longingly at the food Kara was dangling in the window.  I told her that was mean but she kept going.  The dog promptly started ignoring her before turning around and putting it's behind in the window!  I laughed again.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening.  While my wife is odd, I love her dearly and I'm a little weird at times so I guess I should stop talking!

The Banks came to visit!!!!

Lisa and the kids came last week and spent the evening and the night with us. It was so fun to see them again! Parker requested BBQ chicken for dinner and that is what he got! He protested the baked fries but he ended up eating 3 servings!!!!! We were all so excited!

 This little boy is a momma's boy!!! he was so fun! 

 Mr. No pictures!!

 Yeah..... we're odd....

 Trying to get in the hole under the tramp to play!

 This isn't super high quality but I think it is so precious!!

Playing with Kennedy in the sand. Then it was time for baths, snack, face time, scriptures, Little Rascals and bed!!! 

Thanks for coming! We have missed you!!! We hope to see Chad soon!

Enjoy the Journey.

Back to School

I started student teaching this past Monday. And tomorrow my students come. It was a crazy week but a good one. Meetings, bulletin boards, staples, desks, chairs, breakfasts, going to lunch, mouse poop, dirty windows, ceiling tiles that are gross, recycling, projectors, filing cabinets, laminators, ipads in meetings, parking pass, Jordan High badge, room keys, posters, classes getting changed, laughter, memories, early mornings, little sleep.... the many things that happened this week. 

These pictures are from my first day.

I have even survived a full week of driving in Utah. Construction, I-15, traffic. I am to the point where I am almost on auto pilot.  We get up anywhere between 5:30-5:50. I leave the house at 6:30 and get to school at 6:52. Contract hours are 7-3 but I am sure I will be there longer some days! My classes I will be teaching got changed again this week but I am totally okay with that because I dropped a "prep" I was supposed to teach 3 different classes (in 6 periods. so I would have had 3, 2, and 1 of each) but now I am teaching 2 different ones!!! I have 4 sections of Adult Roles and Financial Literacy, and 2 Sections of Food and Nutrition I. 

I work with 2 different teachers. I am teaching 5 classes with Natalie Hancock, she was CTE teacher of the year last year. It is her 4th year teaching and we get along AMAZING!!!!

I am also teaching with Shauna Young. She is the department chair and teaches at least one section of all of the foods classes. She has been so kind and caring making sure I am ready.

My final date: November 22.... it will be a BEAUTIFUL day.

Julie and Jill have about a bajillioon snails. They did spray and now they are no longer. But Jared did manage to get some good pictures my first morning up early.

Enjoy the Journey.