Things I love at the end of a long week

1. Sweet cinnamon pumpkin anything from Bath and Body Works: I bought the foaming soap tonight and I use the plug-ins all year round. It's one of my most favorite scents.
2. Extra money in my savings account: My boss surprised me with a cash award this week. Total shock-a-roo and so incredibly wonderful. I really do work for the greatest guy ever.
3. A great sale: Hershey's baking chips (semi, milk, cinnamon & Reese's) are on sale at Albertson's, 10 for $10 and then you get another $3 off so they were $.70 a bag each. I love a bargain almost as much as Jill does! :) The cinnamon chips are GREAT in snickerdoodles! Trust me.
4. Two new Taylor Swift Songs: I am just loving "Love Story" (video will be at the bottom) and "White Horse" that played during Grey's Anatomy last night (not yet available.) She is so good!
5. Starting the day out right: I exchanged several fun emails with Mr. Crushworthy this morning. Seriously delicious.
6. A budding romance: Someone special to me is very happy and I love it! I smile huge whenever I get her updates.
7. A wonderful friend: Kim and I finally got together after hardly talking all week and it was so fun! Panera, shopping (I found shoes, she found clothes), See's, a stop at Albertson's (see item #3!) and just catching up on all of our news of the week was pure heaven. A great way to end the week!
8. New TV shows on the TiVo: I loved "The Office" and "Grey's Anatomy." Re: the Office...I'm not sure which line was my favorite: Creed's "That wasn't a tapeworm" or Ryan's "I still haven't processed 9/11." I also enjoyed Michael carrying Pam on Jim's macbook around the office, Michael falling down the stairs trying to get outside to say goodbye to Pam and Phyllis taking over as head of the Party Planning Committee. (And seeing Angela as a trampy girl? Wow.) It is the best show on TV. And why I loved Grey's? This picture says it all.

Now go watch this darling video and have yourself a nice weekend.

8 Items of Interest (including a Mr. Crushworthy update!)

1. Today, I had the opportunity to go on a little field trip during work and hang out with Mr. Crushworthy. Or as my boss announced, "let's go visit your boyfriend." There was a picture of him with a blonde on his desk. It must have been his cousin. The faux-hawk has been reined in considerably since I saw him last. (I'm sure you were wondering.) He has to wear a suit at work and today he was sporting cuff links. He is seriously dreamy. I just wish I'd worn a cuter outfit. Live and learn.
2. I loved Warren Sapp and Lance Bass on Dancing with the Stars last night. I really liked Lacey Schwimmer, even though she's going to make Len blow a gasket all season long. I'm guessing the comedian will be gone tonight or possibly Kim Kardashian, depending on how strongly people dislike her. Just thought you'd like my prediction.
3. I fixed my internet by removing a little thingy that was in between the cable and the splitter. Not sure what it was there for but without it, my internet works all the time (novel concept, I know.)
4. I was up all night coughing. Seriously. All. Night. Long. I'm taking nyquil caplet things in about 1/2 an hour. It will not happen again.
5. Clay's officially gay. Not a big shockaroo.
6. I'm listening to Oprah in the background and a couple has $90K in credit card debt. How on earth do they sleep at night?
7. My mom picked up this cabinet for me from Ikea -- mine is a single and will be like a little pantry off of my kitchen. Yay! My cabinets in my own kitchen aren't even deep enough for cereal boxes but this is.
8. Kristin Chenoweth, one of my faves, is coming out with a holiday album next month. I seriously cannot wait. Her last CD, As I Am is what I've been listening to a lot lately. I think Mr. Crushworthy is my Taylor, the Latte Boy. If you don't know the song, watch the video. If you do know the song, please feel free to sing along with Kristin.
   

A good day in Primary (or the I had a "I would be an okay mom" realization)

Okay so I have to toot my own horn about Primary yesterday. This is basically a journal entry but a good story...read on, please...

An 8 year old girl named "Mary" was in the hallway crying to her mother and Primary teacher yesterday when she was supposed to be in Sharing Time. I stopped to check on her and her mom said she didn't want to be at church today. She has a father who doesn't attend church regularly and they are kind of hit and miss attendance-wise. The teacher said she was going to take her to the bathroom for tissue and I stayed and talked to the mom.

The mom (who has 5 kids total) then said her two younger kids can manipulate her into leaving church early and she didn't understand why her older kids weren't able to do that (no meant no with the older ones.) I told her "go to class - she can't manipulate you if you're not here." The mom said "are you sure?" I said "yes, we'll take care of it."

She left, the teacher came back with Mary. The teacher (a mother of six children who, frankly, should have known better) then said "I really think Mary isn't feeling well because she's not usually weepy like this." I told them Mary's mom had gone to class so Mary needed to go too. She started to cry again and I offered to take her on a walk around the church so she could get some fresh air and feel better and teacher could go back to sharing time.

Mary put her hand in mine and we walked around the church building. We talked about being in the third grade and how her teacher likes frogs and how I broke my wrist rollerskating when I was in the third grade. We passed Kim's husband who asked Mary if Sister Shaw was being bad in Primary and that's why she had to walk me around the building. (very funny!)

We got back to the Primary Room and it was time for class. She didn't last long and soon was sitting on her mom's lap, crying in the mother's lounge. I asked her if she would come and help me with the secretary stuff because I was doing double-duty yesterday. I told Mary her mom needed to go to Relief Society and the only way she could do that is if Mary came and helped me. So she did.

We figured out who was at Primary and who wasn't. We assigned the talks and scripture and prayers for next week (she got a prayer assignment.) I got in the message that it's hard to find kids to give the talks because lots of them don't come every week. We sat in the back and sang the songs and she stopped looking sad and started smiling.

I won't let her skip class again next week but I feel like I handled this situation the way it should be handled. She ended up leaving Primary smiling and happy and hopefully, those good feelings will carry over to next Sunday.

My favorite thing? The fact that she wanted to hold my hand the whole entire time we walked around the church. It was nice to be needed.

Another Fabulous Pumpkin Recipe

I've had a cold all week - annoying! It's raining today - also annoying! So after sleeping in until 11 AM and then spending the afternoon running errands in the rain with mom, I've got the rest of my Saturday all planned out. I'm back in my PJs, I'm going to set up my brand new free-to-me living room TiVo and then I'm going to make some of the best pumpkin cream cheese bread for my mom and sister. It is fantastic and looks SO pretty when it's cut and on a plate (this is a great treat for your visiting teaching people!) And it's totally like a dessert too - really moist and just yummy.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

Filling:
1 package (8 ounce) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Bread:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup pumpkin puree, canned or homemade
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 325°. Lightly grease two 8x4x3-inch loaf pans. In a medium mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 egg, and the vanilla; beat until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Into another bowl, sift 1 2/3 cup flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg; set aside. Put pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, 2 eggs and 1 1/2 cup sugar in a large mixing bowl; beat well. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture just until combined. Fold in the pecans or walnuts, if using.

Pour half of the pumpkin bread batter evenly into the two prepared loaf pans. Spoon cream cheese mixture on top of pumpkin batter layer and then pour on the remaining pumpkin batter.
Bake in preheated 325° oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes; remove to a rack to cool completely. Pumpkin bread recipe makes 2 loaves.

Notes:

• The original recipe called for 1 tab grated orange peel in the filling but I just switched it to vanilla because it sounded gross to me with orange flavored filling.
• Don't try to make just one big loaf instead of two smaller loaves. Trust me.
• Don't stress out about dividing the batter between the two pans. Just eyeball it.
• When you put the pumpkin on top of the cream cheese layer, it's totally okay if you still see the cream cheese stuff. It bakes up just fine.
• You're gonna love this!

Around and around or side to side?

We have this fabulous family produce/garden shop not too far from my home. They have great flowers in the spring, awesome produce in the summer, a mountain of stinky beauty bark all year round and then rows and rows of Christmas trees in December.

In September, they have the most amazing corn on the cob. It's called "Candy Corn" in fact. It looks a lot like the corn pictured below, too! My dear sweet mother brought me some yesterday and I had it for dinner last night and tonight. So, so yummy.

So now I'm wondering -- do you eat corn on the cob like a typewriter or do you go around and around? I'm an around and around girl. My oldest brother would do the typewriter thing and he ate every thing off the cob until it was so neat and tidy. I was always very impressed by that.

Anyway, go buy some corn. It's totally worth the extra flossing. Trust me.

P.S. Dear Allens, I'm really sorry to rub it in...please come home soon!

A Fabulous Stake Conference

I was blessed to attend a wonderful stake conference this weekend. I felt the Spirit so strongly during both the adult session last night and our general session this morning. I'm grateful for the reminders of things I already know to be true: I am known and loved by my Heavenly Father and my elder brother, Jesus Christ. I matter to them. I'm important to them. I belong to the only true church on the earth. We are led by a living prophet today and he speaks for God and Christ. The Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible are the word of God.

We had a visiting General Authority, Elder Glenn L. Pace, in attendance at our conference sessions. I'm grateful that I was able to hear the witness of an Apostle of God of the truthfulness of this gospel. I'm thankful for the warmth of the Spirit witnessing to me those same truths. Elder Pace challenged the youth (and then the rest of us) to reread Joseph Smith History so I thought I'd share that challenge with all of you, too.

A sweet woman spoke last night and said something I thought to be very profound, something I've never really thought of before. She was talking about how we compare ourselves to others. She said she was grateful that she's never felt as if Heavenly Father compared her to one of His other children. I just loved that and hope I can remember that thought when I find myself feeling inadequate and unimportant.

Our Stake President talked last night about obedience. Members of my family are struggling right now and I know that if they were able to just be obedient to Heavenly Father and the truths of this gospel, they would be so much happier. Things in their life would be better and they would be able to make it through difficult times. I know it sounds simple and easy but really, it is. The Lord cannot bless us until we are obedient.

I'm so grateful for Stake Conference. I grew up in a home where we'd generally think of this weekend as a day off from church. I'm so glad I attend conference regularly now. I love the feeling of a full-to-the-brim Stake Center, surrounded by my brothers and sisters who are striving for the same things that I'm striving for. It's such a wonderful blessing to belong to this church. I am one lucky girl.

Irritants - there are several.

Maybe this will seem like a negative post -- I hope not. But I've got a little list going and I have to get them out of my system:

• I pay my bills online. I thought I was paying off my credit card on Sept 1, but instead I mistakenly made a 2nd (partial) house payment as well as the normal one. So while not a completely bad thing, it does leave me with a stupid finance charge on the credit card since I didn't realize my stupid mistake until 6 days after my credit card payment was due. DING DONG! I am dumb. I do still love internet bill paying, however.
• My internet at home was working great until this weekend and it's all spotty again. WHY? I've got the solid gold splitter, for heaven's sake!
• Frog season is upon us and I am not happy. When you live in a wet area like Washington and you live in a ground floor condo that for some reason gives off good froggy vibes to the reptile community, you run the risk of frogs (and the occasional lizard-type-creature) trying to break and enter into your home. I came THIS close to having one in for a visit last night until I was able to scare it away from my open front door. I need a nice 8-12 year old boy to come over and check my door when I come home at night to make sure they aren't sitting there, ready to jump on in. Please send any interested applicants my way. I will pay in baked goods and/or candy and I will let them beat me at any game on the Wii.
• Besides frogs, the spiders are making a run for the comfy confines of my home as well. I saw a huge, disgusting one scamper under my bed last night. MY BED! Totally freaked out at the prospect of falling asleep and having it walk all over me, I prayed it would come out and it did! I killed it (sorry, Heavenly Father.) But I itched all night thinking about more spiders walking on me as I slept.
• I desperately need a pedicure and not sure I have time to get one until next week.
• I have to make pasta salad for like 50 people for a baptism on Saturday. Tell me to make cakes, cookies, brownies, etc. for 50 people -- that I can do. But pasta salad???? Stressful.
• I tried again to like yogurt this week but I just can't. More than any food I dislike (i.e. bananas, bell peppers, shellfish) I so want to enjoy yogurt. I like adding granola to it for the crunch but cannot get past the sour taste and have to stop eating after about four bites. Am I just trying the wrong kinds? I also cannot handle chunks of fruit in it. Suggestions gladly accepted so comment away. Please.

Okay, some good things? My second (and freeeeeeeee) TiVo arrived, we are having fabulous & summery weather, and my mom came over yesterday and surprised me with some homemade bread and she also did the dishes in my sink and took out my garbage. How can I be irritated with life when I have such a fabulous mom???

Bleah

• Sick yesterday and today, nothing blogworthy this week so no updates here. Zzzz.
• Didn't shower or brush my teeth and missed church for the 2nd week in a row. Really, really hate that.
• I'm still running a fever. I think I'll go to work in the AM unless I feel worse. I've been healthy all year so I suppose it was just a matter of time.
• Two good things about lying low this weekend? I got caught up on the shows that were filling up the TiVo and I downloaded some new music for the iPod(s). I was getting bored with what I had. I love new music! Want to know what I downloaded? Chasing Pavements by Adele, Magic Touch by Robin Thicke & Mary J. Blige, Spiderwebs by No Doubt and the soundtrack to Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog (I so so love this and it was way too expensive for how long it is but eh, I'm made of money, right?)
• My boss and I are moving to another section of our building in a couple of weeks. Pros: I'll have a window and will be away from the annoying quiet-talker-who-doesn't-know-how-to-end-a-conversation-and-always-horns-in-on-my-business girl. Cons: will be part of an admin. team where I will feel the need to report my comings and goings to the others, boss and I can't be as loud and fun because we'll be next door to the big-wigs now. The nice thing is part of the reason we were invited to move down there is because the other assistants really wanted me there. My boss is having fun telling everyone that any success he has is all because of me.
• Oh and Mr. Crushworthy called on Friday. So dreamy.

Blah, blah blah...that's all I've got.

I'm home!

Leaving is great but coming home is good too. I had a really fun time with Patty and her family. Her youngest was sick the whole time so that limited our out-of-the-house fun but it was just great to catch up. I also got up early and took the pre-first-day-of-school pictures of the two oldest boys while Mom and Dad were still sleeping (they'd been up all night with the sick baby.) I feel like all of you mom bloggers out there now! ;)

That's 12 year old Daelin. Please note the button up shirt he's wearing. We went to Fred Meyer to find shirts for the boys on Monday. This shirt rang up as $.07. Yes, SEVEN cents. But get this. It was then discounted FOUR cents to a whopping THREE cents! That's it! We were dying. Nice shirt though, huh?

And the "I never smile in pictures" almost 7 year old Cameron, wearing his new backpack. He refused to remove the attached iPod holder and cell phone holder.

And Patty & sickly Thys:

What I loved about this weekend:

• The boys call me "Aunt Jeanelle" which I love. Most of my own nieces and nephews don't even call me anything but my first name only.
• I played Rock Band for the first time. I will never be able to drum. Ever. Guitar Hero is just enough for me.
• Shawn gave the boys father's blessings the night before school started. As someone who grew up without a strong Priesthood holder in the home, this was especially meaningful and beautiful to me.
• Speaking of Patty's husband, I love how much he loves Patty, someone who is so important to me, and how he is an involved and hands-on parent.
• I bought "The Office" season four on DVD! I finally get to clear my TiVo of some of that season's episodes that are saved on there. Happy day!
• I stopped at the outlets in Centralia on the way home, hoping to find clearance summer stuff for my Hawaii trip in a couple of months but instead found mostly fall stuff (okay by me!)
• Because I took today off, I only have to work three days this week! Woo hoo!