My Young Women President...

I walk into Relief Society here in Rio Rancho, and turns out my Young Women President from way back when is now the Relief Society President. She was conducting the meeting today, and after introducing all the visitors she mentioned how two of the girls were 'her young women'. We loved it.

She will forever and always be my Young Women President...I can't imagine a better president than she was for us. I went through Beehive through Laurel with her, and when it came for the Bishop to present my Young Womanhood Recognition Award, she had just been released, so the new Young Women President was up there presenting it to me. I was rather disappointed that 'my' Young Women President wasn't also invited up there. I of course understood that she was released, but she was the one that worked with me and helped almost the entire way through that Personal Progress book. I was the Laurel President for a year, and we just had a wonderful time and were very close...she made each of us promise that she would get an invitation for when we were going through the temple, going on missions, getting married, etc...and she still keeps in touch with all of us.

When I have had the opportunity through my current calling, I have told new Young Women presidents about how important my Young Women leaders were to me and what a huge influence they were and still are on me...it really is an important calling, I think. And a fun one.

I mentioned that I might be living in NM for a bit, and she kinda perked up and said 'well then, it will be just like old times'. Loved it!

Skype...

I am officially a fan of Skype. I signed up just this last week, and have already talked with a bunch of family...

If you don't know what it is, Skype is phone service that is free...except, instead of a phone, you use your computer...AND you have video along with the sound.

AND...it's free...

If you have a Web Camera and a microphone built into your laptop/computer, I would give this baby a whirl.

The only annoying thing is with the sound...if your internet is slow, so is Skype, AND there is a pause between what you say and what they say...AND if there is more than one person talking, sometimes it's hard to understand what is being said. I suppose that last thing is fairly normal though.

Do you Skype?

Santa Tracker...

If you have a sleepless child who wants to know where Santa is right now, check this out:

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html

NORAD stands for North America Aerospace Defense Command. They track Santa every year. There is even video of him...

For instance, right now he is in Calgary Alberta. Pretty dang cool...

Merry Christmas...

A Proper 'Merry Christmas'...

I am at home with the parents. Just me this year. This hasn't happened since my sister was born. This is the 'off' year...I guess that is what people call it, so she is with her in-laws in Washington.

Good points: I get to be spoiled rotten.

Bad points: well, it's just me and my parents. I am sure there will be a point when I will really wish that Emily was here. Like tomorrow morning...or right now...yep, missing baby sister...

Starting about the time Emily grasped the concept of Santa Claus, we would sneak out early Christmas morning to see what we got...like 3AM early...we were told we couldn't come out of our rooms until 6AM, but we figured out that the gifts didn't disappear, and so we were just extremely quiet and then did an amazing job acting like we were surprised for our parents. :) We have since admitted to our transgressions...of which we are admittedly unrepentent...

Tonight we drove down to oldtown Albuquerque to see the luminaria displays and get some hot chocolate, see the big tree all decorated, and get our Christmas tamales (seriously, SO good...they have a stand outside with them...). We used to go driving around to see the Christmas lights, go by the temple, and all that, but we kept it simple this year and come straight home.

In the morning, presents, AND as a special treat, Belgian waffles! I guess my parents just got a real Belgian waffle maker, so we are cookin' some up in the morning. Yay!

I hope each of you are having a wonderful time with your families...Merry Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!

Hope your days are merry and bright!

Hoping for a White Christmas...

Landed in NM without too much hassle...plane was delayed 15 minutes, better than the flight before us that caused us to be delayed...they had been waiting for something like 1 1/2 hours or something like that...

BUT I sat next to a Patrick Dempsey look-a-like...seriously, he looked JUST LIKE HIM...yes, he was very attractive and very good looking...

Anyways, back on topic...Merry Christmas! I am getting me some Christmas Tamales!!! YAY!!! Yummy!!!

Much love!

In the kitchen...

I witnessed the following conversation...it was HILARIOUS...names have been changed because I feel like it...this is a 'documenting so I remember it' post...

Lily: Hey James, come into the kitchen.
James (watching very important football game in living room): Why?
Lily: I miss you.
Me: (giggling as silently as I can)
James (with the most precious look on his face comes into the kitchen): (after a moment of silence) What would you like to talk about?
Lily: Let's talk about your day.
James: I worked.
****after a slight pause, there is a very short discussion about where he works between him and I and an even shorter and slightly awkward conversation about one of his coworkers****

At this point, there is about a minute of silence...in which I am smiling my head off and trying to concentrate on eating my dinner and not laugh hysterically while at the same time trying to avoid eye contact with either one of them...but I don't get a quick look at Lily, and she went between looking at James and then looking at me with a slightly awkward smile on her face.

(after a slightly longer moment of silence after catching Lily's eye) James: That was great. (and he turns around and walks back into living room to continue watching very important football game)
Me: (laughing hysterically)
Lily: (quietly) ah, wait... (resigned and slightly...well, I don't think embarrassed works, but also very precious look on)

And this...is a moment in time with Elizabeth...

Moving

I hate moving. And yet, I do it SO MUCH.

Dagnabit, I need some ROOTS.

The thing is, I have at least 2 more moves in my future. Moving in with the parents, and then moving out again...love my parents SO much, but I am not going to live there...that's a temporary move until I find some good employment.

Right now, I am moving up to Birmingham with some wonderful people who offered to let me stay there for a couple of months while I finish up here. Then off to NM and hopefully soon afterwards AZ.

Avatar...

Wow...I don't think any movie will ever live up to it...I cannot find the right word!!!

Seriously, dig around underneath your couch cushions, beneath the seats in your car for the extra $2.75 it costs for the 3D version.

Mind-blowing...

Just beautiful. The amazing attention to detail, the incredible computer graphics, the story, the character development...I mean, there is a point where the main character is underwater. You feel like you are underwater with him, swirling around. I really felt like I was underwater. I don't know how they did that. The skin looks like skin. Rocks like rocks, plants like plants. VERY realistic...usually that's what bothers me about these kind of movies. I mean, if it doesn't look real, do the Mary Poppins thing where it's obvious that it's animated.

This is no Mary Poppins. It is just wonderfully amazing. Marvelous, stupendous, fantastic, brilliant.

Yes, I liked it.

A movie 14 years in the making, and with $500 million invested in it. Absolutely incredible. This will take every single emmy and any other award there is available. It will take Titanic down. Simply amazing.

Go see it.

Sleepless in Alabama...

Sleepless night...I usually really hate these nights, but I kept myself entertained for the most part...including sending a slightly nasty note to AOL about why they decided to erase my Contacts list...thankfully, the bug was fixed soon after I sent in my complaint. :) I actually love what AOL has done with their email since they yet again have gone solo. Yay for less annoying advertisements and much easier to use email! Not that it was all that difficult before, but it sure took time for page elements to load. Not so much now.

I am reading 'My Life in France' by Julia Child...I loved the movie so much that I bought the other book that that movie is about, and it was full with so much horribleness that I stopped reading it...I don't do that often, but I did for that one...very disappointing...but 'My Life in France' is absolutely delicious to read. And I mean delicious. I can taste every lovely meal that she eats and cooks and smells. Butter and garlic are wafting in the air as I read this book. Even snails sound like something wonderful to eat, and if you know me well you KNOW I would never eat snails.

It really is quite the breath of fresh air, and is just fascinating to read. I am now planning a future trip to France so I can have the 'Julia Child' experience. Well, not entirely, I won't enroll in Le Cordon Bleu, nor will live there (at least, I don't plan to, but you never know), but I definitely want to go now. I am only 60 pages into the book...nice slow read for me. I really love the relationship that she and her husband have...they just reek of love and admiration and support for each other...and I swear, this isn't about their love life at all, this is just about their experiences in France, but you can just tell how wonderful they were with each other. Love it.

Good morning, all...

Evidently...

First of all, congrats to Mark Ingram for bringing Alabama its first Heisman trophy...he totally earned it...

(I can't help it...you try living in Tuscaloosa and not become a college football fan...it sucks you in eventually...)

Now for the real reason for the post:

...evidently flour is an important ingredient in hashbrowns.

I made the recipe exactly to order (or so I thought) with the modification of use pre-shredded potatos, pre-rubbed instead of freshly chopped sage, and microwaved bacon (I have never cooked bacon in the microwave...I might have to do this from now on, cause skillets hate me in the bacon department)...

I start frying them (the hashbrowns)...and they fall completely apart. There were little bits of potato, onions, bacon and garlic floating around in the oil...I got on the phone with my sister halfway through saying I was just baffled at why they weren't sticking together...I put the eggs in for crying out loud...

...I get off the phone and suddenly it dawned on me...the flour never made it into the bowl...

...it was MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH easier going after that. I felt like kicking myself...I didn't, but I sure felt like it...

Nevertheless, very yummy. Will have to make them again. Potatoes, red onions (a MUST), sage, garlic, egg, FLOUR (an absolute must), salt and pepper...

Dagnabit!!!

So...it totally didn't snow...and I am so bummed about it...

But in much happier news, today is my brother-in-law's and one of my BFF's birthday!

AND Alabama won the SEC Championship...AND they are playing in the National Championship...it's about time...

Roll Tide!!!

Home Alone...

I am watching Home Alone...while I am home alone...eating popcorn...

The exciting life of a single, 27 year old maid...

I really need to buy the soundtrack to this movie...it is most excellent...

In more exciting news...it's gonna snow in the deep south tonight...I am making a snowman tomorrow morning...a little more excited about this prospect than I probably should be, but I am a quirky girl...

Still trying to figure out what to give my brother-in-law for Christmas...everyone else is taken care of...

Oh, tried out that frozen yogurt place in Tuscaloosa...called Yogurt Mountain...you grab a cup, put as much frozen yogurt and as many toppings as you would like into it, then they weigh it and you pay for it...

LOVED it...I put as much broken up Kit-Kat pieces as I felt like I could handle...plus mini M&M's and chocolate chips...with chocolate AND cookies and cream frozen yogurt...oh, and oreo pieces...yeah, I went to town...