In Case You Wanted to Read the Longest Blog Ever

SO it's 3 am, and for some reason I am still awake, I don't feel like watching infomercials, already watched all my movies in my relatively small dvd collection, and should probably be doing my homework that I have been procrastinating doing all weekend, but instead I am opting to blog, so here I am! haaay!

Today is Sunday, and since I don't live near my crafty mom who makes yummy Sunday dinners, I usually have to chose Ramen or microwaved makeshift cheese quesadillas to eat instead. I was craving some Macaroni Grill, but since I chose not to spend money on Sundays, obviously I couldn't go that route. SO I channeled my inner Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray (I don't care what anyone says, I LOVE Rachel Ray and think she's a cooking genius!) and got creative with what I had on my designated shelf in my pantry. Since I am a college student, and it is much too expensive to have normal things from the grocery store around, it proved to be quite interesting to whip something up that was yummy, healthy and awesome.



I know you can't tell what's on my shelf very well, because my camera is a little bit broken... so I will inform you:
-a huge bag of grapefruits
-white rice, an unhealthy staple I always own
-oatmeal
-theraflu- the only thing that got me through when I was deathly ill with a cough that sounded like a dinosaur lived in my -room. seriously. C didn't help, nyquil just made me feel woozy...Theraflu calmed my chest aches, flu symptoms and permitted me to finally sleep through the night
-Kidney beans
-albacore tuna
-cherries (???)
-green peas (??? I dont even LIKE peas)
-diced olives
-a box of 6 boxes of chicken broth (thanks costco for only providing items in massive bulk)
-chicken noodle soup
-diced tomatoes
-multigrain bread (my nod at a "healthy lifestyle)
-snickerdoodles (with one cookie left in the bag, which is most likely stale because that bag has been sitting there since about a month after I moved in my apt)
-artichokes
-Ramen
-Extra virgin olive oil
-spaghetti, thin and regular
and
-cream of mushroom soup


SO this is what I came up with, and it was actually pretty good. I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but I didn't think I would be up at 3 am, bored to death.

Thin spaghetti, cooked

1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbs garlic powder
1 tbs pepper
1 tbs salt
1/2 can of diced tomatoes
1/2 can of artichokes
1/2 small can of diced olives

In a sauce pan, I heated up the olive oil with the garlic, pepper, and salt on low. While the pasta was cooking, I tossed in the tomatoes, olives, and artichokes in the olive oil mix to cook up and let the ingredients get to know each other. I drained the pasta, and married it with the olive oil mix in a bowl and ate it.

I swear to you it was utterly fabulous. I gave myself a pat on the back for making a Macaroni-grill-esque dish because normally when I've tried to get creative before, not only would I NEVER let anyone try it but it most likely gross myself out. Honestly that's pretty hard to do with food because I'm always up for trying new foods (after slight hesitation) and usually I end up liking whatever foreign thing it may be. SO if you ever feel like branching out and trying this, I'm pretty sure it's on the lower end of the spectrum in consideration of calories and fat grams. OH and I know you were worried about what beverage I had. Don't worry, I had a half full vitamin water in the fridge, and that was great too.


SO I found this in my iPhoto, and forgot I had done this. This is probably one of my better charcoal drawings. Back when I was a nanny for one of the directors on High School Musical, I couldn't help but absolutely fall in love with those babes. For Brenden's birthday, I drew him a picture of him and his little brother, Carsen. One of our favorite activities to do together was to draw and be creative. We made up a game he titled "copy me" where we all three separately would draw a picture and then trade each other and try and copy the other person's picture better than they had originally drawn. Seriously this kept these boys occupied for hours. Come to think of it, I suppose this game originated from sacrament meeting when I was younger and me and Celeste would do this. Hm, guess being a restless young teenager came in handy! Anyway, Brenden, Carsen and their dad loved it, so I thought I'd share it with y'all. I really should draw more because the Lord takes away our talents if we don't use them, and I am living proof of this! I'm sure I could be great at drawing if I exercised it more!




SOOOOO one of the REALLY AWESOME things about BYU housing is the cleaning checks they impose on us quarterly (sometimes bimonthly). They are really tedious and specific. We're talking baseboards, the corners, the walls, vents, everything. So when cleaning check days sneak up on us, you can hear in surrounding apartments the sound of vacuums going and the overwhelming smell of bleach. Although I think this practice is really intrusive, it actually is good because it forces us to stay clean and fresh. ANYWAY, it's actually kind of stressful because if you fail cleaning check, it's usually like a $20 re-inspection fee which allows you to try again on the things you "failed", and if you "fail" the re-inspection, they hire someone to come in and clean it for you for around $65, so that's no bueno. Our cleaning check was last week, and the morning of it I had a mini catastrophe. I had gotten up late for school (due to staying up much too late cleaning for my check the next day), and was rushing to get out the door, with out a shower for the day. I turned on the faucet to get the hot water flowing, and walked out for literally 15 seconds to grab something, walked back in and the water was about an inch to the top of the sink...but I hadn't plugged the drain. I looked down and saw the drain was shut, and for the life of me I couldn't get the drain unplugged! I tried getting a tack, a credit card, and sheer strength to try and get it unstuck but NOTHING worked. I was rushing against the clock to make it to my first class on time, and still had half my mascara and eyeliner smeared across my face, so I decided to just go for it and wash my face anyway. I left the sink full with mascara flakes floating around, and a note to the management pleading to let me pass. Seriously who does that kind of thing happen to? ME. haha for real, weird stuff happens like that all the time. I know it doesn't sound very dramatic or stressful, and there are definatly worst things, but at the time it was traumatizing. So i documented it. I don't know if you can see it very well, but thats my flooded sink below. If you look close you can even see the tack that I used....hahahah.... And no, the yellow markings in the sink doesn't imply high class marble, and it also doesn't imply a disgustingly dirty sink. It is simply a little gift the person who lived in my room before me left for me. I'm pretty sure she dyed her hair and when she rinsed her hair, it stained the porcelain. I've tried just about everything to fix the eyesore but nothing works. Oh well.





I am thankful for YOUTUBE!

1. Because there is SO much funny stuff on YouTube. Once for about a week, my sister, brother and I were on a huge funny video YouTube kick. When we'd find a really funny one, we'd post it on each other's facebook walls. I was seriously in stitches that entire week. OH how I love that.








2. My dad got me and my sister stuck on YouTube instructional videos. Heather's used it to cook, i've used it to figure out how to sew things, he's used it to figure out how to fix something on a car and so on. Pretty cool.

3.Music videos are a huge part of the pop culture section of my generation. I love that YouTube has virtually any music video. it truly is fabulous.

(Don't laugh, but I am SUCH a sucker for slow R&B. This song, Charlene, is one of the classics to me that I can listen to over and over)

Anthony Hamilton - Charlene (Official Music Video) - Funny blooper videos are here


This video is by my current favorite artist, Feist, with my favorite songs of hers, I feel it all and Mushaboom.



Feist - I Feel It All
Vezi mai multe video din Politica »



Feist - Mushaboom
Vezi mai multe video din Muzica »

REALLY there's nothing better on any day then listening to any Missy Higgins song at any given time. She's fabulous.



I could keep going with the music vids but I wont.

4.It's a great way for our fam to upload any videos we have of each other, since we are so far apart. I love that!


5. When I get ready in the mornings, I love watching tv shows I don't schedule time for to actually watch when they are on tv, so usually i'll go to NBC.com or ABC.com and watch the full episodes they have on there to offer. On sundays, however, in spirit of trying to keep the Sabbath day holy, I do something else while I'm getting ready. My dad has also gotten me hooked on inspirational videos on YouTube. It always leaves me with such a soft, tender feeling when I head out for church. The first one is a video my dad showed me, the second is one I found and emailed to him.

Team Hoyt