It's Been A While...

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted. So here's a little recap of the past couple of months:

Anthony and I had our 4th year anniversary in June. We went to Catalina Island and had a blast! We went hiking (sort of), got massages which were heavenly, ate some fabulous seafood, went kayaking and snorkeling (where we slammed into a rock...well I slammed into a rock because of a boat causing a wave), and got a lovely sunburn! Funny story: Anthony and I went back to our room and found a bottle of chilled champagne and two glasses sitting on our table. We both thought that whoever delivered it, put it in the wrong room. So we went down to talk to someone at the front desk. They told us that it was part of the package deal we got. We had no idea. It never said anything about a bottle of champagne! haha! We asked if they could change it for a bottle of Martinelli's and they did. We still laugh about that one!  All in all it was a lot of fun and we want to go back sometime soon.  Maybe for Anthony's birthday. Here are a few pictures from our trip to Catalina:

 The Catalina Flyer

 On our way to Catalina! It was chilly so we were bundled up. We saw some dolphins (well porpoises) on the way to Catalina!

 A view from a walk we went on. Plus my handsome!

 A picture of us on our walk.

After Catalina, I headed to girl's camp with my stake. Girl's camp is a camp for young women ages 12-18 where they learn about first aid, bond, learn about themselves, and God as well as form awesome friendships. I was asked to go up as a cook for camp. I totally loved being a cook! There were a total of 4 women and 4 men in the kitchen. The most awesome thing was that the women prepared and cooked the food while the men cleaned up all of our mess! Talk about nice! One of my least favorite chores is to scrub/wash dishes. I can't wait until we get a dishwasher. I know, I know...suck it up, but honestly I can't! : ) I enjoyed learning new techniques and recipes.

Anthony and I went camping with his family in Mammoth over the week of the Fourth of July. It was so nice to get away from the craziness of life and slow down a little. We went on a hike to Arrowhead Lake and had a picnic lunch. We also went to a hot creek and enjoyed a little spa time. (haha...it was kinda gross with a squishy floor, but relaxing none the less). We also got to see some fireworks which was fun. What's sad is that I didn't take any pictures. I'm horrible at remembering to take pictures. It was such a relaxing few days, I was sad to get back to the hustle and bustle of our normal schedules.

My parents flew out to California while I was camping to fix up their house here in Cali. They needed to repair a few things, clean it up, replace some appliances and repaint the house. I got to help them clean up a little bit before we headed back to Upland. The next day we went to the Corona del Mar beach with some of our friends. It was an awesome day that ended with some awesome steak at an awesome restaurant. Sadly, my parents had to leave the next day, so we didn't get to spend much time together, but I was so happy for what time I did have to spend with them. I love my parents so much and it's so hard having them be so far away in Ohio. My parents put their house on the market and less than a week later had an offer on the house. I'm going to miss that house because it's the one I grew up in, the one that holds lots of memories of my brother James, the one that is where I fell in love with Anthony, the one that has so much meaning that I will have to hold dear to my heart as I already do. Now it'll be someone's new home to make memories in and I'm happy for that.

My brother Nate, will be visiting me in a few days and I'm super pumped! He's going to be looking into different optometry schools out here to attend once he's finished with his degree at BYU-I. I really hope he ends up moving out here, because he'll be so close by we could get together more often.

I'm super excited because not only will my brother be here, but my sister & brother -in-law will be here to visit this weekend as well. We'll be driving up together to Anthony's family reunion in Vernal, Utah (a super duper long drive), but we'll have good company which always makes it more fun. We love Brittany and Matt! : )

So that's a recap of the main exciting events that have past and what's to come. Hopefully I'll be better at writing my blog posts!

Summer So Far

     We've been enjoying our summer so far. Anthony is a huge baseball fan and I'm becoming one! I've been driving Anthony crazy with questions so I know everything there is to know about baseball. I thought I knew all about baseball before, but I didn't realize there was so much that I never paid attention to before. Since Anthony is a huge fan, we've been to many baseball games. We've also played a couple softball games that Anthony has put on through his work. Here are some pictures from the games we've been to.

I'm catching on to all the little things about baseball and I'm starting to love it too!

     I also had my first piano recital of the year. I have 11 students and 8 of them performed at the recital. It went so well and I'm so proud of all of my students. They are amazing kids and I have some very talented students. 

  

     One of my students wrote this last year at school about her most inspirational teacher. It brought tears to my eyes.

http://www.studentjourneys.com/student-journeys-us-national-parks-trips/catalina-island-wonders/

     Next week is Anthony and my 4 year anniversary! I can't believe that it's been 4 years already! We are looking forward to actually getting away this year. We are going to Catalina Island! I'm so excited! I've never been there before and can't wait for all the adventures Anthony has planned. He's kept some parts a secret and I can't wait to find out about it all when we get there! The picture above looks heavenly! Can't wait!

I hope you all have a great weekend! : )

My Favorite Bread Recipe

                Another way Anthony and I have been trying to save money is to make our own bread. I make bread at the beginning of the week so that Anthony can have his favorite sandwiches for lunch during the week. (Those being turkey and avocado & peanut butter and jelly!)

                One thing that I’ve found is that homemade bread dries out so quickly. I read up about ways to avoid our bread from drying out. I found out that you can just replace ¼ c of the flour you use for ¼ c. of potato flour.

                The potato flour makes the bread softer and last longer. The bread never dries out during the week! It’s a miracle! Here is the recipe I use:

Homemade Bread

½ C.  Butter

½ Tb  Salt

½ C. Sugar (or you can use a substitute like honey)

1 C. Milk (I sometimes substitute with almond milk. Shh…don’t tell Anthony!)

2 C. Cold Water

1 ½ Tb. Active Dry Yeast

½ C. Warm Water

10 ½ C. of flour (whole wheat, white, whatever you want works)

¼ - ½ C. Potato Flour

2 Eggs

 Directions:

In a saucepan combine butter, salt, sugar and milk. Stir until butter melts and the mixture boils a little. Stir in 2 cups of cold water. Combine yeast with warm water (add a tsp. of sugar on top to make sure the yeast is still active). Beat 2 eggs in a bowl. Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl along with 3-4 cups of flour (This is when I add the potato flour). Add the yeast and eggs. Add in the rest of the flour a little at a time. Knead in extra flour. Put into a bowl that is greased (with spray, butter, coconut oil or whatever else you use). Place the dough in greased bowl and spray the top of the dough (this help is to not dry out). Let the dough rise. Once is doubles in size, punch the dough and let rise again. Then separate the dough into three sections. It makes 3 loaves of bread. Bake at 375 degrees F.

I cut this recipe in half. When I do it creates one loaf and 12 rolls or cinnamon rolls. Delicious! Enjoy!

A Money Saving Tip!

I’m so overwhelmed with all the love and support I’ve received since my last post. I have amazing friends and family and I wanted to thank you for being there for me throughout my struggles. It’s my hope that through sharing my life’s ups and downs, I can inspire and encourage others to push through their own struggles and succeed. Thank you all so much!

One thing that my husband and I have been trying to do is save money. We’ve been very good about budgeting since we got married. We have looked at our budget and have come up with a few places we could trim some of our spending so we can save up faster for our future house.

We found that we could definitely save on the amount we spend each month on groceries. One thing I started at the beginning of the year was meal planning. In January and February we saved $100 on average. That’s a lot of money when you are saving up for a house! (That would be a savings of $1,200 a year!) One month I didn’t create a meal plan and ended up spending almost $200 over budget because I didn’t know what to cook, so we ate out more. That is not good, health and budget wise! So I thought I’d share with you the way that I plan out meals.

First, I make a list at the end of the month of what we have left over in our fridge, freezer and pantry. Then I go through the weekly ads for our local stores. One of my favorite places to shop is the local farmers markets. I always get great deals, delicious produce and I get to support our local farmers!

After going through the ads and what we have left in our kitchen, I look at recipes in cookbooks and on Pinterest. I look for recipes that will help me to use up the food that we have left in our kitchen as well as the food that is on sale in the ads.  This past month I decided to make it a “Pinterest recipe” month. Every night except for a select few (like Taco Tuesdays) I’m going to make a new recipe from Pinterest.

Next, I make a list of what each recipe requires. I look at what we have in the kitchen and write down the things we don’t have and need to complete each recipe. Most of the time I cut the recipes in half because there are only two of us, that was I avoid dealing with tons of leftovers (which we usually don’t eat) and have just enough for the two of us. That also saves a lot of money. You can also make the full recipe and freeze the leftovers for another dinner in the future.

After I write down the items we need I make a list for each store I will shop out. Sometimes I shop at three or four different stores in order to get the best deals. I used to use coupons, but it is really hard to coupon well with all the restrictions here in Southern California! I find that I save a good chunk of money if I shop at different stores for specific foods. I know that this could be inconvenient for many people, but I’m lucky to live within 5 miles of each store I shop at.

 I buy everything we need at the beginning of the month, except for produce. I buy produce bi-weekly. By buying the produce bi-weekly we use it all up before it goes bad and then we’ll have fresh produce for the next weeks.

After I go shopping, I cut up the produce, meat, and other products up and put them into bags with the amount that I will need for each recipe. I also write which recipe they go with on the bag. This allows me to avoid wasting food. It also helps to cut the amount of time that I spend in the kitchen cooking. Sometimes I get home late and it helps to have everything all cut up and measured out so I can just throw it all together and have a meal prepared in no time. The left over veggies or fruit I have from prepping, I either put them on our salads or I’ll freeze them and use them in smoothies.

I’ve found many recipes that I have tested from Pinterest in past months that are delicious. I plan on listing the recipes that I’ve enjoyed here on my blog for others to try. Once I have everything ready I create a calendar with what we are having each night for dinner. This has helped us out so much by saving money as well as time. If you have any questions or need help with meal planning I would love to help you out!

Hardest Post to Write

     This is a post that is very hard for me to write, but I need to talk about this to more than just a few people. It is amazing how many people deal with infertility. I know that I'm not alone. 7.3 million people deal with infertility. This figure represents 12% of women childbearing age or 1 in 8 couples (2002 National Survey of Family Growth). Approximately one-third of infertility is attributed to the female partner, one-third attributed to the male partner and one-third is caused by a combination of problems in both partners or, is unexplained. 

     Anthony and I have been trying to expand our family for 3 1/2 years now. It has felt like an eternity. It's been the hardest thing that I've ever had to go through and deal with. It has been so painful I can't even go into to many details. The pain is still so raw, but I've found a way to deal with it all. One of the things that has helped me through this is that I have an amazing husband who knows what to say at the right time and sees the "big picture" of it all. I know that we are promised a family, it just hasn't happened yet. I've had to learn the Lord's timing and patience. I always thought that by this time we would have two kids already. I mean, we've been married for almost 4 years now. I think what makes it hardest is that being a mother is so ingrained in my spirit. I know that I'm supposed to be a mother, but I have to wait. Prayer, faith, hope, love, and understanding of the Lord's timing and promises has helped me to deal with everything. I'm so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father. He is amazing.

     Our infertility is unexplained. It is a crazy thing to even imagine. If it was a problem that they could pinpoint we could take care of it and know our options. Having our infertility be unexplained, I've had ever test imaginable and they have found nothing wrong, but I know that it is something going on with my body. Knowing that my body is the thing that is keeping us from becoming parents is the hardest thing that I've had to deal with. 

     I've taken so many different types of pills/drugs to help, but the side effects were horrible. I would do anything to make it possible to have children. It was worth the side effects even if they were weight gain, depression, horrible migraines, pains in my abdomen and the havoc they wreaked on my women parts. But after 2 years of pills/drugs I gave up. The only options we have left are to either have a procedure done (which the cheapest one is $5,000 and because my infertility is unexplained I would only have a 10% chance of it actually working the next process is more invasive and $15,000) or adoption which we are open to, but just haven't started the whole process. 

    I felt inspired to start running which I've written about in other posts. I've started to eat more healthy. I've lost 40 pounds since I started. I feel so much better about myself. I stopped taking those fertility drugs and the weight has just been flying off. It's such a relief!  I've started to go to a nutritionist and my body is feeling better than ever. I'm proud of myself. I've had muscles I've never had before! I plan on continuing to run, exercise and eat healthier for the rest of my life. 

     It's hard to see friends, family, and many others having children. It's harder to see those that seem to be unfit parents get pregnant over and over again, but I don't know what's going on in their lives. I don't know really who they are, just what I see on the outside and who am I to judge. It's hard to see so many others get pregnant. I want what they have. I know Heavenly Father has things planned out for me. I know Anthony and I will have children one day. I just need to be patient.

    So many people have advice for those that are "trying" to get pregnant. Those things they say, while I know they are trying to be helpful and nice, it just hurts. You'd think after 3 1/2 years of trying I would have tried all those things already. I have and they haven't helped me personally. 

   While going through this journey of infertility, I've seen all the blessings that have been given to Anthony and I in the process. We have both finished school, Anthony has a wonderful and stable job, I have 13 piano students that I am so thankful for, and Anthony and I have so much more time together. Spending more time with him has been such a blessing. We can enjoy our time together more because we don't have much else to worry about. 

     From this post, I hope that it helped to inform you a little more, and help you to understand me a little  better. There are many more couples out there like Anthony and I. Just be there for them and support them in all that they are going through. That's all that they want and need. Thank you all for supporting me and reading this post.

A Little More About Me...

     I'm not trying to narcissistic, but I did want to write more about me and who I am as a person. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know who I am, a daughter of God, and because of this knowledge I'm so blessed.
     I just graduated from Cal State San Bernardino with my BA in Sociology. I haven't used my degree in any way as of yet, and don't plan on using it any time soon. I currently teach piano lessons to 13 awesome people; mostly kids and they are awesome! I love teaching piano. It is my passion. It doesn't feel like a job to me at all. I look forward to teaching piano every single day. I have played the piano for about 17 years. Crazy I know! I love that I'm able to share my talents and passion with so many others in such a way that it can and has changed their lives.
     Anthony and I are enjoying our time together without many other obligations to worry about. I love being out of school and having him home more often. It's the best.
    Anthony and I just got TV. We've been married just shy of 4 years and haven't ever had cable. Many people thought we were crazy, but with both of us being full time students, and working 2-3 jobs each, we weren't home much. By the time we got home is was late and we had homework to complete. Plus it seems like everything on that late is not worth watching anyway. Now that we are both finished with school and Anthony has settled into his job and I've enjoyed teaching piano (and after getting an awesome deal) we decided to give tv another try. It was set up this past week and Anthony is loving his sports channel and I'm enjoying "The Price is Right", "Jeopardy", "Wheel of Fortune" and "House Hunters". I'm looking forward to watching "The Amazing Race"  and "The Voice" on tv rather than on the internet. What seems to boggle my mind though, is that now that we have tv, I don't even really care to watch it much. I have never been a big TV show watcher anyway, but I realized there is a bunch of junk on tv now! Oh well, we like it for the sports and occasional game show! : )
     As I've shared in previous posts, I really enjoy running. It's weird to think that I would ever say those words, but its true. Running is now a new passion of mine. Well not just running, but working out in general. I feel so much better about myself because I'm exercising and losing weight. I'm happier and have more energy. I sleep better at night and don't crave sugar as much anymore. I never thought that I could do all this without going on a diet, but it's possible! Eating healthy and exercising is the best way to lose weight. It's not a quick fix, like all the fad diets out there, but it is a long-lasting positive change that will stick with me for the rest of my life. Eating healthy and exercising is a  lifestyle.
    I have an amazing family. I have awesome in-laws. I love all of them so much. Anthony is the best thing that ever happened to me. He is the love of my life and my best friend. I'm so thankful to be able to be with him for eternity. That's right, I don't believe in "to death do us part". I know that families are eternal and they continue on after this life. That is such a huge blessing.
     I continue to learn new things about myself everyday. I'm trying to become a better person and push myself to be more understanding, loving, charitable and forgiving. It's not easy, but I know that as I do this I will become the person that my Heavenly Father wants me to be. I know that He will help me through to become the best me possible.
    There is a lot going on in my life right now. Some really hard and personal trials that I've been dealing with for many years. Some of you already know, but some don't. I will post about this later as I know it will help me to talk to others about it. 
     I know that so many of us are going through hard times and it sometimes feels unbearable. Don't give up. Keep your chin up. Things will get better. One thing I've learned to do is to look at the big picture. It's hard to do, but once you can see the big picture of your situation, you learn more about yourself and what you can do to get through those hard times. Also you have the Lord on your side. He knows and understands you and what you are going through. What a blessing! 
    These are just a few things about me. Let me know if there is anything else that you would like to know about me or if there is any way that I can help you! I
  
   

Learning New Things...

     There are a few things that I have been trying to learn over the last few years. They are patience and the Lord's timing. Heavenly Father knows what we need and when we need it. A bonus is that in the process of learning these life lessons, our experiences help to make us better people.
     Speaking with my husband last night, I realized how truly blessed I am. I think that these are the things that I'll be trying to learn throughout the rest of my life. I'm so blessed with a loving husband who is very understanding. I'm so thankful for all the time we get to spend together (especially since we are both completed with school as of last December).
     Life doesn't always happen the way that we've planned for, but our loving Heavenly Father has more in store for us. I know this and I'm thankful for the many things I've learned and been blessed with while waiting for certain things to happen in my life.