The cookies are gone! The three monstrous batches of cookies have been distributed, consumed, distributed again, and we are sufficiently filled and tired of cookies for quite some time I do believe.
By way of the "Housewifely conquests", Kate and I made Strawberry freezer jam this week with Sister Howe... Queen of all things domestic. It was a great success. I do believe that it will become a regular thing that I will make... as it is SO easy and ridiculously yummy!
It has been fun here in Colorado Springs and really bizarre weather. The other morning I was awoken by thunder and the tapping on the window of pea sized hail. The hail came down quite a bit until it was beginning to look quite a bit like winter again. Thankfully it stopped soon after, but I tell you, this weather here has been CRAZY!
Fairly boring entry... but... Something I suppose! :)
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thoughts on Jobs.
So I have been graduated since December and have not aggressively pursued any jobs. It is a very interesting place to be as a new graduate. You have this idea of the things you would like to do, but it always seems everyone wants you to have more experience and the entry-level jobs just seem nothing like what you want to be doing. Plus, there is that element where you wonder what jobs you can apply for as your skill-set seems like it may be a little less than what they are looking for. But if you constantly seek out the jobs that are right where your skills are or are below your level, how can you push yourself and excel and grow?
It's been hard as I have constantly and consistently had GCSU on my mind for employment. I loved, absolutely loved my internship there last summer and would have loved to have stayed and worked with University Advancement. However, all things must come to an end and afterall it was only a 6-week internship. I learned so much from my mentor and feel like she would be an excellent person to work with and for. So here is where my dilemma comes in. I have not been holding out for a job from there thusfar, but at this point, when I am looking for a job for the Summer/Fall, I feel that I am. Nothing interests me. I just keep praying that something will come open for me I think mainly because when I have somewhere that just will not leave my thoughts, that is where I am supposed to be. That happened with GCSU, my mission, BYU and now... I feel like it is happening with GCSU again with looking for a job.
If anyone has any insight or leads about jobs in the HR/ Nonprofit areas, please let me know. At this point, I am open to receiving advice. Can you believe it? I am looking for some solicited advice! :) Well better get looking around the job websites. Thanks for reading along with my random thoughts!
It's been hard as I have constantly and consistently had GCSU on my mind for employment. I loved, absolutely loved my internship there last summer and would have loved to have stayed and worked with University Advancement. However, all things must come to an end and afterall it was only a 6-week internship. I learned so much from my mentor and feel like she would be an excellent person to work with and for. So here is where my dilemma comes in. I have not been holding out for a job from there thusfar, but at this point, when I am looking for a job for the Summer/Fall, I feel that I am. Nothing interests me. I just keep praying that something will come open for me I think mainly because when I have somewhere that just will not leave my thoughts, that is where I am supposed to be. That happened with GCSU, my mission, BYU and now... I feel like it is happening with GCSU again with looking for a job.
If anyone has any insight or leads about jobs in the HR/ Nonprofit areas, please let me know. At this point, I am open to receiving advice. Can you believe it? I am looking for some solicited advice! :) Well better get looking around the job websites. Thanks for reading along with my random thoughts!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Off to a Rocky Start.
Well hello everyone! Now that I think I can post, lets give this a try. I have had every good intention to set up a blog for our family, friends, and groupies to be able to stay in the loop with our ever-changing lives, but just have not had the chance to do so. I finally get some time and decide to get down to business and make it happen. It never fails with my luck... Blogger has probably the biggest shutdown issues in the history of Blogger. But... I press onward and hope that this rocky start isn't an indication of the rest of my time with this blog.
No pun intended, but this is a "Rocky" start to our blog. It begins with us living in Colorado and enjoying the beautiful Rocky Mountains for sure! We are here for the summer at least with one of Matt's annual summer sales jobs. However, let it be known, he has switched from the dark side of sales to installs. He really is enjoying it, and his customers seem to love his personality and I often will get calls from him during the day talking about how he feels like he's a great people person and has a funny story to go along with it.
I am playing the stay-at-home housewife and mother to our puppy. It has been fun doing the cooking, cleaning, laundry, couponing, baking, bathing the dog and numerous other things that I have not done singularly in a while. During my time in the MPA program and working, Matt would do the laundry, cook, clean (sometimes) :) and would do a lot of the household things while I studied and worked away. Now it's time for us to trade roles. I tell you what- I have extreme respect for women who are full-time homemakers and are good at it. I am still doing my best to become the best and as always try to excel with what I do.
I will say I have had my victories and my epic failures. Victory... being called a "coupon mom" when ravenously attacking the most amazing pasta sale of the year! I am certain by the end of the summer when we're enjoying yummy pasta for really cheap, Matt will appreciate it more then.
Epic fail.... well ... I am really quite good with baking. I pride myself in my homemade chocolate chip cookies. I haven't ever made cookies for Matt, but he really likes how I make the Tollhouse pre-packaged cookies, so I decided it's time to show him what I'm made of. I put everything together perfectly as I normally do and right as I finish stirring in the chocolate chips I see a little note at the bottom... (5200 feet altitude). Sigh... Well here where we are- we are at approximately 6,035 feet. I haven't ever had to take altitude into account, so I didn't think anything of it. All I could think in the back of my head was about the recent advice from the Relief Society president here about baking at higher altitude... increase flour and decrease sugar.
WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT BEFORE!!!
The brilliant idea of doubling and then subtracting the surplus of sugar from the first batch was that of my Mother's. Me and my terrible math skills, I called Kate (My fellow housewife for the summer) and figured out that I would need just 1/3 and 1/4 more and I would be set to go. Kate was bringing me a bowl that would accommodate the larger amount of dough... so she soon got here to oversee the baking efforts. Once again got to the end was ready to add the new batch of dough to the bigger bowl and I looked at the dough- not looking quite right. It was then that it dawned on me.... I had added not just the 1/3 and 1/4 but had added another entire batch's worth of sugar. I wanted to shoot myself. THREE batches of cookies... batches that were supposed to make 5 dozen cookies... lets do the math... that's 180 cookies!!! Assuming that I make them twice as big as they should be, that's still 90 cookies. Kate was rolling on the floor at this point saying that I was "special" and texting my husband complimenting my baking skills.
So I again put together the leftover ingredients sans the sugar.... believe me - there was plenty in there. I had to substitute some canola oil for butter since I was fresh out with making my last two batches. About two hours later and with a TON of mixing (all by hand I might add) by Kate and I... the cookies were ready for baking. All in all, they turned out decently, minus some little pasty flour chips from adding water to the flour for the altitude. Matt ate them and enjoyed them and even requested some for lunch this morning when I was putting together his cooler. Once we eat our way through this massive amount of dough, I'll be sure to report on my next baking adventure hopefully making only one batch of cookies for us to enjoy.
Well I figure I'll try and post a recap of the adventures from our last almost 9 months of being married in the near future, but for now... I will sign off and get going on baking some more of those blasted cookies. :)
No pun intended, but this is a "Rocky" start to our blog. It begins with us living in Colorado and enjoying the beautiful Rocky Mountains for sure! We are here for the summer at least with one of Matt's annual summer sales jobs. However, let it be known, he has switched from the dark side of sales to installs. He really is enjoying it, and his customers seem to love his personality and I often will get calls from him during the day talking about how he feels like he's a great people person and has a funny story to go along with it.
I am playing the stay-at-home housewife and mother to our puppy. It has been fun doing the cooking, cleaning, laundry, couponing, baking, bathing the dog and numerous other things that I have not done singularly in a while. During my time in the MPA program and working, Matt would do the laundry, cook, clean (sometimes) :) and would do a lot of the household things while I studied and worked away. Now it's time for us to trade roles. I tell you what- I have extreme respect for women who are full-time homemakers and are good at it. I am still doing my best to become the best and as always try to excel with what I do.
I will say I have had my victories and my epic failures. Victory... being called a "coupon mom" when ravenously attacking the most amazing pasta sale of the year! I am certain by the end of the summer when we're enjoying yummy pasta for really cheap, Matt will appreciate it more then.
Epic fail.... well ... I am really quite good with baking. I pride myself in my homemade chocolate chip cookies. I haven't ever made cookies for Matt, but he really likes how I make the Tollhouse pre-packaged cookies, so I decided it's time to show him what I'm made of. I put everything together perfectly as I normally do and right as I finish stirring in the chocolate chips I see a little note at the bottom... (5200 feet altitude). Sigh... Well here where we are- we are at approximately 6,035 feet. I haven't ever had to take altitude into account, so I didn't think anything of it. All I could think in the back of my head was about the recent advice from the Relief Society president here about baking at higher altitude... increase flour and decrease sugar.
WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT BEFORE!!!
The brilliant idea of doubling and then subtracting the surplus of sugar from the first batch was that of my Mother's. Me and my terrible math skills, I called Kate (My fellow housewife for the summer) and figured out that I would need just 1/3 and 1/4 more and I would be set to go. Kate was bringing me a bowl that would accommodate the larger amount of dough... so she soon got here to oversee the baking efforts. Once again got to the end was ready to add the new batch of dough to the bigger bowl and I looked at the dough- not looking quite right. It was then that it dawned on me.... I had added not just the 1/3 and 1/4 but had added another entire batch's worth of sugar. I wanted to shoot myself. THREE batches of cookies... batches that were supposed to make 5 dozen cookies... lets do the math... that's 180 cookies!!! Assuming that I make them twice as big as they should be, that's still 90 cookies. Kate was rolling on the floor at this point saying that I was "special" and texting my husband complimenting my baking skills.
So I again put together the leftover ingredients sans the sugar.... believe me - there was plenty in there. I had to substitute some canola oil for butter since I was fresh out with making my last two batches. About two hours later and with a TON of mixing (all by hand I might add) by Kate and I... the cookies were ready for baking. All in all, they turned out decently, minus some little pasty flour chips from adding water to the flour for the altitude. Matt ate them and enjoyed them and even requested some for lunch this morning when I was putting together his cooler. Once we eat our way through this massive amount of dough, I'll be sure to report on my next baking adventure hopefully making only one batch of cookies for us to enjoy.
Well I figure I'll try and post a recap of the adventures from our last almost 9 months of being married in the near future, but for now... I will sign off and get going on baking some more of those blasted cookies. :)
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