A hearty Christmas salad

Consisting of:

Spring Mix

Roma Tomatoes

Avacados

Smoked turkey strips

Tuna

Hand roasted almonds

Cucumbers

Green and red peppers

Freshly grated parmesean cheese

Olive oil

Lime juice

Balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

As Rachel would say, "Yum-o!"

*Muchas gracias to mi FHE brother who inspired the making of this salad, to roomies who didn't complain about some of the burnt almonds, and to whoever left the beautiful red plate in our apartment.

Gratitude

If you could know the gratitude I feel right now for my Heavenly Father, my Savior, my mom and dad, my family, my testimony of this gospel, the gift of the Holy Ghost, my patriarchal blessing, the experiences and trials I have faced, the people I have met on my path in this life, the blessings of the priesthood, and the love I feel to be here, right now...

Sunset

Do you remember that AMAZING sunset during our family turkey bowl the day of Thanksgiving? I sure do.

Hershey's Kisses: Ingenuity

I think I might have found my favorite kind of candy-A Hershey's Kiss. Yum, yum, yummy! Thanks to Wikipedia I found a list of all the varieties of the Hershey's kiss. The ones in green are some of my favorites.

Milk Chocolate
Chocolate Mint
Double Fudge
Dulce de Leche
Caramel Filled
Peanut butter Filled
Dark Chocolate Cherry Cordial Creme Filled
Cherry Cordial Creme Filled
Hugs (a mixture of white chocolate and milk chocolate)
Milk Chocolate with Almonds
Rich Dark Chocolate
Strawberry Crème (white chocolate strawberry flavored-no filling)
Orange Crème (white chocolate orange flavored-no filling)
Double chocolate (dark and milk chocolate)
Milk Chocolate and vanilla
Coconut Crème (milk choloclate with coconut creme filling)
Dark Chocolate with Almonds
Toffee & almond
Kissables (mini candy-coated Kisses similar to M&M's)
Kisses mini cookies (varieties include regular, double chocolate, and confetti sprinkles)
Truffle (dark chocolate with milk chocolate cream filling)
Candy Cane Mint flavored (available for a limited time)
Special Dark Macadamia Nut [Mauna Loa]
Milk Chocolate Macadamia Nut
Special Dark Espresso (limited 100-year anniversary)
Special Dark Coffee
Caramel Creme (white chocolate caramel flavored)
Crunchy Caramel Creme (white chocolate caramel flavored with crunchy candy bits)
Dark Chocolate Raspberry
Dark Chocolate Strawberry
Dark Chocolate Orange
Extra Creamy
Neapolitan
Confetti (white chocolate with small candy sprinkles)
Chocolate Malt Crunch (malt flavored milk chocolate with crunchy candy bits)
Vanilla Creme (milk chocolate with a white vanilla flavored creme filling)
Candy Corn (white chocolate)
New York Cheesecake (Extra creamy milk chocolate with cheesecake flavored creme filling)
Toffee flavored Crunch (extra creamy milk chocolate with small toffee bits)
Hot Cocoa Creme (Milk chocolate with hot cocoa creme filling)
Mint Truffle (dark chocolate filled with a green "peppermint pattie" flavored mint creme)

Tis the Season to...

Go Ice Skating

Watch It's a Wonderful Life, make spiced cider.

Exchange gifts

Make Christmas Cookies for friends.

Find Mistletoe, hang it in our house and kiss under it.

Address and Mail Christmas Cards

Go to Borders and Pick out one new Christmas CD.

Go to The NutcrackerHandel's Messiah Sing Along

Leave out wooden shoes on December 5

Go see Nativity scenes

Make Thick Hot Chocolate and Homemade Marshmallows

Host a Christmas Sweater Party

Put up a ribbon sash for Christmas cards

Donate canned goods

Give neighbors a present

Put up a wreath

Make a Gingerbread house

Make a popcorn garland

Make hot chocolate and read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Sing (or listen) to favorite Christmas songs

Drive around to see neighborhood lights

Go out and see public light displays

Read Christmas story from the Bible and the Book of Mormon

Open a gift (new stocking or pajamas or pillowcase)

Make a family traditional dessert

Eat out at a festive restaurant

Go to a seasonal movie

Tell stories of childhood Christmas around the fire

Make decorative sugar cookies

Host a Christmas dessert party

Write out a Christ-centered goal to start early for the New Year

Have a movie party (classic Christmas clips)

Go to a Christmas Concert

Have a full traditional breakfast while listening to Christmas music

The first FAILURES game is TONIGHT!!! I hope they will lose. Just to keep the tradition. It's a good chance because they are playing SHO TIME, the Timpview team.

GO FAILURES!!!

Simple Moment

"It's a valuable exercise to close your eyes every once in a while and think, 'What is the most wonderful moment I have lived through during the past year?'

It might be part of a grand event or a very simple moment, perhaps a brief interaction with another person. The grand or the simple, it doesn't matter. Just the remembering will lift your spirits, and warm feelings will fill your soul."

-Marjorie Pay Hinckley

And the winner is....

The First Place Prize officially goes to Tristan Drew Camp in our "Only in Utah..." Design Contest. As winner, she receives a "Certificate of Winner-ness" and Utah's newest casserole recipe named after her:


Congratulations Tristan!!!

YES, more than one blog in a month

Well, Sha and others

Here's the news: I got Dance Sterling Scholar! The end....

has no end. by THE STROKES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vKoIw_THvQ&feature=related
okay, so it's not the end has no end but it is the strokes

Another Day

I can't wait to go home for Thanksgiving break!

I AM GOING THROUGH WITHDRAWLS!!!
and I have to choreograph a dance for sterling scholar, in two days.
I did not procrastinate. They didn't tell us until today. ARGH.

A Birthday Present for Buddha

(Buddha is my sister, Tristan, who just turned 20!)

We rented Ratatouille from Redbox today ($free.99 with promo code: DVDONME) and watched it with our neighbors. I think I can speak for all when I say that it was an "A" for Disney/Pixar. Maybe it is because I watch The Food Network too much, but they were so detail-oriented with how a kitchen is operated and how food is cooked and prepared. Wow! I also knew that it was a good movie because it kept the attention of both my sweetheart who always falls asleep during movies and my little sweetie who doesn't have a very long attention span yet.

When we returned back to our own apartment, the best thing happened... Siena talked, and kept talking even when the camera was busted out. You see, this never happens; I'm always too late and the fun has ended before I can push the "record button". Anyway, we caught it on-camera, and that's all that matters.

p.s. we know we blog a lot about Siena, but hey, somebody's gotta do it.

Updates

It is November 8th and I am a slacker. So here are some recent photos with captions. It's a good thing I'm not a professional blogger.

This was my lil' pumpkin that I carved at F.H.E.

We did a spook alley in our apartment entrance. I love this pumpkin ghost we put in the inside window that gave the hallway a orange glow!

This was the scrumptious dessert pizza Brock and I made when I spent a weekend at home a few weeks ago. Fruit pizzas are comfort food to me!

And yes, I recently turned 20 years of age. My roommates made me this lovely birthday cake that was also delicious! I'll post more on my being two decades old (AH!) later, because boy do I have a sermon on that one!

Only funny to an English Major...

Rules for writing:

1. Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat)
6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. One should NEVER generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
16. Don't use no double negatives.
17. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be ignored.
21. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
22. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
23. Kill all exclamation points!!!
24. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
25. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth shaking ideas.
26. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
27. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
28. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
29. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
30. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
31. Even IF a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
32. Who needs rhetorical questions?
33. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
And finally...
34. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Calling All to Submit!

I am going to hold a contest. Whoever can come up with the best design for this phrase, "Only in Utah...," will get a secret prize. I already know what the prize will be, I PROMISE, but it will remain a secret until the announcement of the winner of the contest. This design can be done on the computer or can be done with raw materials and scanned in. The only rules are that it has to be an original idea, must be at least 4" by 4", and has to be submitted on time. The deadline is November 17 at midnight. Good Luck!

E-mail entries to: jnschavez@gmail.com

Such is a Sweater

'Tis the Season of Sweaters! Here are a few that catch my eye. I love the colors, flower details, femininity and textures!

Tribute to a 14-year-old!

SPENCER CHAD CAMP

Some things I love about this kid:

From gingerbread houses to the "ladies," his skills are undeniable.

He is just so rico suave. Look at his style and poise!

Chad has a creative sense of humor.

Chad is the best little brother, friend, neighbor, newly teacher, middle schooler, cousin, and basically, 14-year-old I know!

He is following the great examples of his brother and father.

He can wear tight white spandex capris and still catch a football or tackle a football player. He loves football!

Chad is intelligent, friendly, responsible, considerate, and just plain fun to be around. Chad is the MAN! Happy Birthday!

Halloween begins...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic

This movie is not for children.

Have you registered to vote?

I need to register as an absentee voter. Where do I start?

Some culture decor

One man's junk is another man's (or woman's in my case) treasure.

I was the recipient of these three very playful authentic paper lanterns from Tawain today from one of the designers at work. I promptly hung them up when I got home to liven up a corner of our study.

October 9, 2007

How am I feeling today? Look it up.

Persuasion by Jane Austen, Chapter 8, 3rd paragraph

(They quote this in "The Lake House" and it's taken out of context, so sorry if you don't get my drift.)

When in Rome... tape it.

So I found this website that pays you to do one-minute or so product reviews. My friends have made hundreds of dollars by making one-minute videos and uploading them to this site. It's a great chance to make money while at home and I can't wait to start. It's called ExpoTV and it's pretty user-friendly if anyone wants to try it out. You can even send in videos of travel destinations with your review and get paid for it.

More Autum Celebration!

What makes carmel apples so good?

What makes the smell of Fall at night so delightful?

What makes kicking crunchy yellow leaves so satisfying?

What makes Fall sweaters so welcome?

CTR 5 Kids

One of the best experiences of my life was to teach a CTR 5 primary class this summer in my home ward. Here are three of the six kids, Haley, Tatyana, and Chase. I love those kids and miss them so much! I will never forget the day we named the fish, our field trips, drawing pictures of sharks, their most sincere prayers, and their child-like insight into the gospel.

The Perfect Lunch

I really have nothing to say about my hum-drum life at the moment so I'm going to blog with a picture of the perfect lunch. A juicy tomato straight from the garden, some meat, specialty cheese, fancy foreign bread, and peach slices. Add a nice tall glass of ice water with lemon slice to complete the meal. Inspiring no? I feel like doing yoga and listening to mellow music just looking at this picture and thinking of eating this for lunch.

Holy Cow!

So story of my week...
Tonight we were going out on the town (Levi Heperi, Jerica Willcocks, Chad Anderson, Brady Ray, and Myself) when we decided to get ice cream. Our first choice would have been Macey's but their ice cream shop closes at ten. Anyway, we successfully obtained refreshment and were driving to by Westridge Elementary when Spencer Covert texts Levi saying that Ashley Tisdale (Duh, High School Musical) was eating at Brick Oven, where Spencer works. Levi and Chad get super excited and demand that we go see her there. I, of course, start saying," Guys, we have no time, I have to be home by 11." They, in turn, ignore me and we go anyway. On the way we start hype-ing it up but once we get there Spencer comes out to say that we have to wait in the lobby area til she comes out. I quickly get so nervous about being late I almost have an accident. I then demand that at 10:45, no matter what, we are leaving to take me home. At exactly 10:44 p.m. she walks out. I came. I saw. And who cares about conquering? She was glaring the whole time, with her hoodie up the whole time. Oh, well... I came, I saw. We even followed her out of Brick Oven cuz I forced everyone to leave so I would keep curfew.
What a funny night!

This section of the post is to thank those that made tonight possible: Jerica-for calling to hang out Mom- for letting me hang out Brady and Chad- encouraging me we would get home on time Levi- For providing transportation and comedy Ashley-I came, I saw and most of all Spencer- for giving us the tip-off.

Homecoming is Over! yeah!

WELL, for H.C. we went to nickelcade and sonic. Later, we played scattegories and made pizza pockets. Eventually we got to the dance and then we went home. All in all a pretty average, but entertaining, date.

Weekend rain in P-town

A backyard view through the rain.













Dad and Chad did a service project up at Mia Shalom and collected some Fall colors and I cut and put them in vases to bring a little taste of the season in our home.
















Homecoming hair-do, an Audrey Hepburn "Breakfast at Tiffany's" knock-off.

(In Progress.)












Hot and Talented!
















The famous dress does it again. It will be worth "hundreds of thousands one day!"

Life in the fab lane for my sisters.

Okay, so to celebrate the fact that Sierra 1.) posted something, 2.) talked to Greg, 3.) got nominated for H.C. royalty, and that Tristan 1.) Got out of Rexburg so soon after getting there, 2.) is going back to Provo as often as she can, 3.) is taking AMAZING pictures (see the "Yellowstone" post,) and Mom is such a dedicated mom in reading these blogs every day..... I decided to throw a party for us. It was at my house this morning and it was a blast. Attendees included me, Siena, and at one point the FedEx man. We had a nice breakfast of a muffin and formula. Hope y'all feel the love!

Needing this at the moment

Go T-Wolves!

A day in Yellowstone

On a whim my roommates and I decided to celebrate our first Saturday back in Rexburg by going to Yellowstone. It was a beautiful day and a fun trip to get to know most of the girls in my apartment.

Looks like a scene from Land Before Time, eh?



Bambi's decendents.

Old Faithful was a little bit tardy and didn't even make this buffalo flinch.

I've decided I really do not like crows too much, especially this one that kept on giving me evil looks.

Roomies! (Tiffany, Me, Mikyla, Liz, Nicole- she's not a rommie but just a good friend- MIA: Kortney and Amanda)

Boardwalk in Idaho?

The first sign of wildlife for us. Sadly we didn't see any bears.

Me looking at the beautiful Firehole Cascades.

The Tetons reflecting in Lewis lake.

Bacteria Mats. I think it's a little bit slimy and nasty, but definitely interesting.