Finally!

I have been the Young Women President since January and this whole time it's just been me and my first counselor.  I've been asking for a second counselor and a secretary for FOUR months!  And last Sunday they finally assigned the callings. :)  I am sooo excited to be working with these ladies!  They have both been married about 5 years and one has no children and the other has two.  It's sooo nice to live in a ward where there are actually other people my age.  I loved the El Monte ward, but we were  like, the young couple in the ward.  Practically everyone else was old and retired.  I have high hopes for this ward and I have a lot of work ahead of me.  My roster says there should be 22 cute young women in our ward but there's only ever about 2 that show up on Sunday and about 7 to the activities.  It's sad how little support these kids get from their parents!  They don't even give their kids rides to the activities :(  If we want them there we have to pick them up ourselves, so Jared and I have been driving separately for the past few months so that we can bring 8 kids.  Ridiculous.
Anyway, I'm hopeful that with these 2 new ladies we will be able to get the youth program to where it should be!  Fingers crossed!  Also - if anyone has any suggestions PLEASE send them my way, we need all the help we can get!!!

I hope there's food in Heaven

There's this little panaderia down the street called Maria's Bakery and I'm telling you, this woman makes the best freaking tamales ever. 

I had never heard of tamales until I moved to California 5 years ago.  There was a lady that would come to my work selling them.  One of the girls bought me one and told me I had to try it.  I was very confused because this thing was wrapped in a corn husk and I didn't think that would taste very good.  Much to my relief she explained that you have to take the corn husk off first.  It was a beef tamale with red sauce.  It just took one to get me hooked.

So this lady down the street has to be a saint because of how delicious these tamales are.  The picture just doesn't do it justice.  So as I was eating this I was comparing it to what it will be like it Heaven when I had the thought... I hope there's food in Heaven.  I mean, I love food.  Food is involved in all aspects of life.  It's like this:

Food is such an everyday part of my life that I think it would be super weird if there were no food in Heaven.  If there was no food, what would we do with all that extra time we had that was normally dedicated for the food preparation and consumption.  Will there be no get togethers for me to bring a strawberry salad to?  Will there be no little mexican lady to get tamales from?  I hope there is.

Sensitive

Sometimes I think I'm a little more sensitive than what's good for me.  I want everybody to like me and to be my friend and if they don't I NEED to know why so I can fix it.  I like baking treats for people and if not everybody likes it I NEED to know why so next time I can bring something everyone will like.  Okay, this is sounding like I am more of a people pleaser... I'm not thinking of good examples... no, I'm just a people pleaser too, haha.  Oh!  Here's one.  A couple of years ago I made beef stroganoff for dinner.  After dinner my father in law came over, saw the food and asked 'Who died?'.  I cried when he left.  When Jared and I were dating, he told me that I don't look good in pink.  Haven't really worn pink since.
I wish I knew why I cared so much about what people say.  I think part of the reason is because when I was a little girl my mom would tell me, "you don't want to be like those girls that act like ducks.  They just let things roll off their back like water off a duck."  That conversation has stayed with me my whole life.  I care about all of my friends and try really hard to not take anyone for granted.  I try to be compassionate to others and the trials in their lives.  Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a people pleaser... but does it really matter as long as I'm happy too?  Sometimes I wish I wasn't so sensitive, but if I weren't would I still care about others the way I do?  Maybe it's okay that I get my feeling hurt easily.  I think it runs in the family.
I'll just hide dinner before my father in law comes over... or maybe I just won't make beef stroganoff anymore.  Actually, come to think of it... I haven't made it since he said that, hahaha I'm ridiculous.

Jared's Family

I'm sitting here just looking through some older pictures, reminiscing about the good times that were had and it just hit me.  I am soooo lucky.  Not only is my family amazing, so is Jared's family.  I already know that all these people are the bomb.com but it just really hit me how lucky I am that I was able to marry into such an awesome family. :)  They all love and care for eachother and support eachother through thick and thin no matter what.  The amount of love that these people have for eachother is insurmountable.  They get together whenever possible and always have a blast.  One of the things that I really admire about them is that they don't seem to judge other people.  They accept everyone for who they are and welcome new comers to participate in whatever they have going on at the moment.... whether it's a bbq or a family reunion or a birthday party or a trip down to Glamis.
I have the pleasure of living right next door to my mother and father in law.  The 'in law' part doesn't really mean anything to me.  These people are my second mom and dad.  I love and adore them.  They are the cutest couple ever together and they are my friends.  I love going next door and just hanging out with my mother in law.  Sometimes I think she's a little crazy but it's who she is and part of the reason I love her. :)  Jared and I go on double dates with them and we always have such a fun time.  Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky.  How did I end up with such an ace AND he has an awesome family?  I never thought I'd be this lucky.  I truly am blessed with my family!

My fish are reproducing?

So last night I had my face all pressed up on the fish tank watching the ghost shrimp and all of the sudden this tiny little orange fish came up out of the rocks.  Like, this fish is about half the size of my pinky nail.  I'm immediately confused because the fish place told us they sold us all male fish but I'm also super excited at the same time because this little guys is so freaking cute!  Anyway, it popped up from the rocks and orange fish was like oh hello and started swimming at him so he went back down in the rocks all quick like.  There's still about 3 fishes in the tank that are big enough to eat this little guy so he'll probably just hide out until he's big enough to fend for himself.  I really wanted to see him again though so I sat in front of that tank for about 15 more minutes before I finally gave up.  I hope he doesn't get eaten!

"Mommy"

At church I am the Young Women President, which means I am charge of the girls youth group.  So every Tuesday I get to go up to church and do different activities with the girls.  Once a month we combine and do an activity with the boys, like, next week we are all going to play water balloon volleyball. :)
Anyway, recently some of the boys have decided to start calling me 'mommy'.  I think it's soo weird!  I don't know why they do it and I don't know why it bothers me so much, but I really don't like it.  It could partly be because they use a little kid voice when they say it or maybe it's because they're 13 or 14.  I don't know.  Maybe they think they're being cute or funny?
I'll never understand boys.

What Slugs?

We get slugs around our house like nobodies business.  It's gross... and they love to destroy my plants.  So now I'm doing this little trick to brutally kill them all.

I'm crushing all of my used egg shells and spreading it around the edge of my plants.

That's right slugs... just try to get my flowers now.

I dare you.

Drag your slimy little bodies over those sharp egg shells

I double doggie dare you.

Also, as an added bonus, the egg shells are biodegradable and will compost into the soil making it nice and healthy. :)

Win Win for me, lose for the snails.

New Knob and Easter Wreath

I went to Michael's today to hit up the after Easter clearance section, and am I glad I did!  I found a few cute things that were a fraction of the price. :)  I bought a couple of things to add to my wreath to make it Easter-y for next year.

It's so cute!!!

AND it only cost like a dollar :) Bonus!

So our front door knob has been 'broken' for about 3 years.  We can't lock it because if we do, we won't be able to get into our house.  So tonight we bought a new one.

Before...

 after!

 I love that it is brushed nickel instead of that brass color :)

Okay, also I have a funny story.

So a couple of weeks ago Jared was being a good husband and vacuuming the house for me when all of the sudden I heard this super weird noise and then the vacuum shuts off.  I ran to the back room to find this.

 He sucked up an entire roll of curling ribbon!  and it was all perfectly around the entire vacuum roller thingy.

 It was pretty brutal

And now he owes me some pink ribbon.