The First Week

Warning: This is not a well put together post. Just a bunch of nuggets put together. K, ready....go!

I haven't quite been here a full week, which is quite surprising for me. It feels like this week has taken a month to go by. This may partly be because I missed Sunday night somehow due to the red-eye and then I have been in a whirlwind adventure the rest of the time.

So, to recap. LAST week I moved in with my parents. I put all of my stuff into my old bedroom. I am happy to report that I have a dresser, a two level bookshelf, and one very tall stack of boxes worth of stuff. I think I have a few boxes of books in storage somewhere too. But that plus the instruments are taking up a wall in my old bedroom. Keeping the hoarding gene at bay! Hooray!

Sunday night I flew at 11:45PM to JFK and then from JFK to San Juan, PR. Landed at around 11:00AM. Understandably, I was a bit thrown off when I landed. Felt like I was in a dream when I got here. Good thing I wasn't asked to drive that day.

Went to the mission home, mission office, toured what will soon be my apartment, got the key to my car, met a bunch of people and remember only two of them by name...

Then she brought me to the house to stay for a while, and I tried to crash. I needed to crash. I only kinda crashed. I really crashed that night when I fell asleep and woke up the next afternoon. Yeah.

I slept in the next day as well. We didn't do anything truly remarkable Wednesday.

Thursday morning I cleaned the upstairs. I did a deep clean of the bathrooms...those shower heads were gross!!! They'll be way easy to manage now though. Next time I clean upstairs it will go waaaaay faster. Plus I know where all the important things are now, like plugs.

Friday I cleaned the downstairs. I am considering buying the home a Swiffer WetJet. Mops only work so well. Swiffers actually remove the dirt and leave a streak free clean AND make the place smell nice. I'll be going through a LOT of juice if I do get one, since every room besides the bedrooms are tiled. I am weighing my options, but really...I greatly dislike mops. Even nice mops that are electric steamers, which the house has. Swiffers just work SO MUCH BETTER.

I have picked the girls up from school, taken them to school, and babysat them.

Light first week of work. I'll be helping out with mission things as well, but really, I'm here to help with whatever needs to be done. So if babysitting is it, so be it. :) And I am having kiddo withdrawals after living with the Rogers (I will have to update on that part of my life) and having a week with my nephew, so I really kinda love hanging out with these girls.

Went to Institute Thursday night, which was a little adventure. It's held at the stake center, (which is a square of a building with an atrium in the middle, never seen that before) and is in Spanish. There were 10 people there, one was from the States. I believe all of them speak English, some better than others. There will be another one from the States there next week as well.

There is one English speaking ward on the island and I am lucky enough to be in the ward boundaries. Hooray!! There is a YSA group for the island, but there aren't any branches or wards. Which is how I prefer it, to be perfectly honest.

My calling for the mission is the Mission Staff Coordinator...I think. Basically I will help with meals and whatever needs to be done to make zone conferences, trainings, welcomings and sending aways more friendly. We think I will be officially an employee of the Church, but we are having to work all of that out. That would be nice if I was, because then I could get full insurance benefits through the Church and then life will be WAY awesome. Cause the Church's benefits are kinda amazing.

One of the zones is called the 'Islands of the Sea'. It's my favorite zone title. The mission covers Puerto Rico, the British and US Virgin Islands, and a bunch of the other little islands that complete the Eastern?Lower? Antilles, but not all of them. The French speaking islands for example are not a part of our mission.

The mission office is in the oldest Church building on the island. It was built in the 70's I believe, and now serves only as the mission office/employment center/CES administration and I believe Bishops Storehouse...

Not a very interesting post, but I did want to get that all out there.

Good night and Roll Tide!

Well Hello There

And I am making my grand return to the blogging world.

So...where were we? In the middle of my Utah adventures when life got too busy and tiring to make staying up late to write blog posts worth it? I know, all y'all for the most part have multiple children, careers, husbands, are Relief Society presidents and everything else going on in the world and you still find time to write your blog posts everyday. I stand in awe of every.single.one of you. I really have no good or valid excuse for not blogging about my life and adventures in Utah. I hope to write about some of the things I had the opportunity to do while I lived there...

WHAT'S THIS?! Past tense? Yes, as of today I am no longer a resident of Utah. I am temporarily in New Mexico (not to be confused with Old Mexico) for the week...and then I fly out to Puerto Rico...my new home for the next three years...well, at least that's the current plan. I'll be working for the new mission president in San Juan. He offerred, so totally out of the blue, and it was just too good of an offer to pass up! So, I'm off to the Carribbean in almost exactly 7 days.

And there's a nice little bit for you to chew on. Off to bed. Moving is a draining and tiring business.

Yeah, So...

NaBloPoMo did not happen. I am sorry about that. There are good reasons why it didn't, but I won't bother you with them here.

Christmas Break was lovely. The few weeks before that were not. Why? Well, this I will explain in a little detail.

One week into December my landlady announces the rent is going up and I have to pay for the entire apartment. A $400 difference in cost. Yeah, not happening.

a) I am poor
b) The apartment is SOOOO not worth that amount
c) well, I am poor.

So, the journey began looking for a place. Lucky me, there were lots of options. Yay insane number of girls going on missions from Mormon Mecca (aka Provo).

But the apartments/rooms were small, I couldn't handle the cost of downpayments (hello, Christmas!), and other little problems were popping up.

Biggest problem: I would need to move by December 23rd. Why? Because I was flying home for Christmas and flying back on the 1st of January!!

The weekend of the 23rd became the weekend from you know where...it was awful. Too many things. Packing, moving (I found a place), recital, End of the World Party (at moments I wish it really had been), and many other little things.

Tell you what, I was soooo glad to be on the plane finally.

It was so stressful. And it was so nice to have a 9 day break to recoop and to enjoy the loves, hugs and kisses of my adorable nephew.

Destroyed!!

Did you see??! Did you see?!

Alabama was beating Auburn 42 to 0 at HALFTIME!! Which is when I left with my cousin to do some shopping...

I only missed one touchdown. I'm betting the second or third strings came on to have the lovely experience of playing football during the regular season. Or Auburn's defense got a clue. It's a toss up!

Ahem...ROLL TIDE!!!!!!!!!

Here Turkey Turkey Turkey...

This is the post where you get to hear the rest of my cooking a turkey for the first time story, but lucky you, now you get PICTURES!

The first part was already covered, so here are the pictures that go along with the previous post. Above is the mixture pre-boiling over...

And obviously, this is AFTER boiling over. The nice this is that I didn't have to skim anything off the top of the mixture...

These are the ingredients that went into the brine.

This is the turkey post brining...and thoroughly defrosted, slightly covered in butter and almost put into the pan at the left.

Oh, and here is a picture of the bucket with what's left of the brining mixture...

...and another picture of the bucket. Apparently I was attached to it and it was very important to document.

And here is the lovely turkey in the oven bag which is in the pan which is in the oven which is preheated...

Let me tell you, putting a buttered raw turkey into a great big plastic bag is no easy task. And I had to do it TWICE! I forgot to follow the instructions on the Reynolds oven bag box to put a tablespoon of flour into the bag and shake it around to keep it from bursting...did you know flour can keep a bag from bursting? Yeah, neither did I. 350 degrees...

For 3 1/2 hours. I made the clock, oven and even the turkey nervous watching and looking at it...

And here is the finished product!! Now, don't let the somewhat blackened skin turn you...it's the butter that burned...next time I am going to listen to my Daddy and use oil.

I'll tell you what, nothing made me happier than seeing the little red thingy on the bird popped out...it means the turkey was done! Man, it was SOOOOOOOO yummy!

And this is a bowl full of turkey drippings!! And there was at least another 2-3 cups in the oven bag after I pulled this out...I still need to figure out what to do with all of this lovely juice...

And here is the gravy I made, not from the drippings, but from the broth from the giblets. I took pictures of the giblets, but I decided they really are gross, so I am not showing you.

Here is the carved bird...

And the table we sat at to enjoy all our lovely food. The turkey was SOOOOO good and juicy. We (my cousin and I) had to make a Walmart run, so I'm glad I started the turkey when I did...it was still nice and warm by the time we got to my other cousin's in-laws home.

It was so fun to have Thanksgiving with so many of my Madsen cousins! And to steal a thought from a friend on Facebook, I am so glad I didn't kill anyone from food poisoning.

Ghost of Thanksgivings Past...

Been pondering where and who I was with for past Thanksgivings. Most obviously were with my immediate family. But there have been quite a few I have spent away from home.

While in Alabama, I spent 5 Thanksgivings there. One was with the Hutchison's, one of my FAVORITE families out there. Jan whipped up a marvelous feast. One was with my roommate Lindsey. That Thanksgiving was memorable...her sister-in-law gave birth while we were up there. I felt terribly intrusive being there during this momentous occassion! It slightly messed up the main meal, but it was fixed. I also lost my driver's license and credit cards while I was there...the insert to my wallet fell out of my purse/bag and none of us could find it.

Another was with my boyfriend at the time Mark. It was a grand family affair. It was neat to do a Thanksgiving with such a large family. I had a great time! And the food was amazing.

Another I spent with the Willis family...that was probably the BEST Thanksgiving I spent away from home. Stephanie was the second counselor in the YW presidency, and I was the secretary. Her birthday was the day before, I believe, so not only did we have a feast but there was birthday goodies as well! And we all went Black Friday shopping together, we watched movies, I fell down the stairs...good times!

I believe, if I remember correctly, I spent Thanksgiving once in Atlanta with Reva and her family! One of my favorite people, we had a blasty blast of a time!

I also think I spent one Thanksgiving with my extended family in Arizona one year instead of making the drive home.

This is my second Thanksgiving in Utah. I did head home one Thanksgiving since moving here, but I decided it would be far better to stay here this weekend and not have to stress about driving and weather and such.

One Thanksgiving was spent with my cousin John, his family and his Uncle's family. We had a lovely time that year.

The best Thanksgivings though are the ones when I get to be home with my parents and sister, and now with her family. My Dad usually smokes the turkey, which makes it super flavorful. It's quite yummy...

And now I am making my own turkey. We are having a Madsen cousin Thanksgiving (plus a few from John's in-laws family...)! I feel so grown up!! Praying that the gravy and turkey and everything turn out!!

Adventures in Brining...

So, I think I am soooooo smart, and so besides actually purchasing the needed ingredients for preparing the turkey did I give one slight thought that I should start making the brine BEFORE lunch today? Oh, NO! (HEAVY SARCASM FONT) I will have PLENTY of time to make it and get the turkey into it over my lunch break.

HA! (very loud...)

I get home after leaving work late, going to the bank to deposit a check, AND going to Wendy's to grab a burger and a frosty. Still, PLENTY of time.

HA HA HA! (think My Fair Lady)

Apple juice, brown sugar, salt. Bring to boil. Then let it get cold. It boiled over (thankfully I beat the fire alarm) and do you know how long it takes something that boiled to get cold? Think jello people...

Yeah.

Cut, slice, measure and smash the rest of the ingredients.

Then I pull out the turkey.

It's pretty much ROCK SOLID. Ugh! So I put it in the 5 gallon bucket with too much cold water in it (have to wash my kitchen floor...double UGH!) to help it defrost enough so I can retrieve the neck and giblets.

40 minutes later, I force the legs to separate enough to get said items.

And the boiled mixture is still warm. Even after I put it in the fridge. Next time, it's going in the FREEZER!!

In the mean time, I have a lesson to teach at 3:45. It's now 3:15. I add the cold water and other cut up ingredients, and that makes it cool enough to add the turkey. Thank HEAVEN.

I was able to, during my luxurious off minutes, figure out how to remove the shelves in the fridge (that is a handy thing to know) and put the bucket with the brining mixture and turkey onto the second shelf.

I leave the house at 3:24ish. Make it to the studio at 3:41. Grateful for no more construction zones on the freeway and the lovely fact that I was able to elude all state highway patrolmen/women.

As I'm on my way, I have a lovely vision of the second shelf in my fridge not being able to hold a load of a 5 gallon bucket with a turkey and brining mixture in it. The shelf gave way, the door of the fridge (being incredible old and weak) opens, out bursts the bucket, the lid of course pops off, and there is brining mixture and a lovely 20 pound only halfway frozen turkey in the middle of my kitchen floor. It smells divine.

Gratefully, it was only a vision. A quick pleading prayer, a few lessons (1 cancelled and 1 no showed) and a car ride later and I discovered my second shelf is still in tact.

Oh happy day. I am somewhat documenting this experience with the hopes of putting pictures up so you can enjoy the experience along with meself. Oh, I hope it turns out well!!!!........