Espana

Last night I was surfing the web and looking at restaurants within the Salt Lake valley.  I stumbled upon Cafe Madrid and was rather intrigued, so I looked at their menu.  Top of the list was tapas- in particular Tortilla Espanola.  I was in utter shock when I saw they were charging 22 dollars an order!!  After drooling over just the thought of being able to eat them, I then began to research a recipe for a Spanish Tortilla.  

Let me back up a bit for those of you who have never eaten a Spanish Tortilla.  It isn't a piece of corn or flour, but more of an omelet.  It's traditionally eggs, potatoes, and onion chopped up and fried to make almost a pie shape.  

So I went to the grocery store and purchased the ingredients (yes just a potato and an onion since I had everything else) and came home and began chopping them up into little pieces.  I placed them into hot oil and began frying them until they were golden brown.  I then strained them and began to whisk a few eggs and then placed them all together in a different (smaller) pan.  

One tricky thing is you have to flip the tortilla while the top is still raw egg so you have to use a plate to cover the top and flip it without spilling the egg everywhere! 

and ah ha!!! HERE's my tortilla espanola!!!!

Making this tortilla today has reminded me of my amazing trip to Spain in the summer of 2007.  Seeing all the wonderful sites and wonderful food.  The people.  The language.  The people I took the trip with.  Overall, amazing. 

The battle still continues.

Since I began college in my mind I knew I wanted to do something in the medical field.  I am over analytic and like to look at every possibly facet before I make any decision (which sometimes makes people think I can't make up my mind).  I entered Brigham Young with a yearning to be a nurse and pre-nursing is exactly where I ended up.  After a semester and a half, and seeing the competition and blood-shedding personalities of other pre-nursing students I decided that it wasn't right for me.  I still wanted to pursue something medical, but the competition had me hidden away in a hole never wanting to come out.  I began my research into physicians assistant graduate school and thought it to be a perfect fit for what I aspired for my life.  I then changed my major to Exercise Science and began my journey from the beginning, through taking Physics 105.  While in high school, I loved physics, but college physics in an entirely separate world.  I HATED PHYSICS, plus I wasn't very good at it leading my decision to sway away from the difficult, almost medical school science classes and back towards nursing.  I changed my major once again to Exercise and Wellness which is more geared toward the body's overall health through proper diet and exercise.  At BYU, I have never had a semester in which I enjoyed what I learned more.  No more 300 person lecture halls.  No more busy science classes which have no direct purpose.  No more learning about things I saw no practicality or interest in.  I was finally done and had finally found my niche.  

 I began to mark my course toward fulfilling the prerequisite courses for an accelerated bachelor's degree in nursing.  I figured it was my only shot to my dream career, but in the process was discouraged by my lack of GPA and the increasing competition.  I within my dreams out of an accelerated bachelor's and into an associates figuring it was more achievable.  The week of my honeymoon I was pleasantly surprised to find out my name had left the waiting list and I was officially accepted as a nursing student.  What joy overwhelmed my soul as I finally felt I had captured my dream after such a long journey.  The floating on cloud nine feeling, however, slowly was washed away when the costs for tuition revealed I would need 36,000 in student loans to fulfill my associates RN.  For a week I battled with the idea of going into debt for dream, or giving it all up in hopes of being accepted into a more cost effective program.  As I knelt in prayer in the temple, I was overwhelmed many feelings, some too personal to share.  My main gut feeling, however, was to forgo the expensive program and seek happiness in another realm.  To keep going and be persistent in what I want, and eventually doors opening up.  

Now it's come to the point that my dreams of being a nurse verse being a physicians assistant are back into my mind competing for my full attention.  Do I stretch myself and challenge myself to fulfill the rigorous courses associated with a masters degree? Do I work my way up from a nursing associates to a masters in the 5 years of schooling it would take?  Do I jump in head first into the possibility of having to move to a different state to achieve my education?  The unanswered questions I have been left with are only consuming my every thought and are sometimes too much to bare.  

Mormon.org

In General lets talk about Conference

This past weekend = General Conference.

Due to my new job, Lance and I were unable to go to Idaho (his Grandparent's farm) for the weekend.  He was pretty bummed, but I think the weekend turned out better than expected.  I worked my long shift for Saturday, but I was able to watch the majority of the morning session with my residents.  I sat next to a man who is a retired plastic surgeon, as well as a previous singer in the Mormon Tabernacle!  His attentiveness (even though he had Alzheimers) proved to me the power of enduring to the end.  We enjoyed the words which were spoken, and I was so grateful to be able to go home and watch the afternoon session we had recorded on our DVR. Saturday Afternoon Session, I loved Elder Cong's talk about looking through the mirrors in the temple and seeing himself as a son, grandson, great-grandson as well as a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. The significance and influence one convert has on their posterity is truly infinite.  I kept thinking of when Lance and I got married and the opportunity we are giving our future family because of our sealing for time and eternity!  How amazing is that!

Overall, I thought a major theme to the conference was #1 listen to the prophet.  Many speakers hit on this specific topic.  Two even quoted the 14 Fundamentals of a Prophet talk, which was the same talk I researched for my own talk I gave the week before conference.  These principles are extremely important, and I have a feeling as if in the sessions to come, the Prophet will ask of us, guide us, and inform us to do things that we might otherwise find different, but we have been instructed repeatedly to listen and follow.   And the other lesson from conference which stuck out in my mind was #2 not turning our virtues into vices.  Not excessively doing something, and not falling into an addiction.  To let our good qualities and characteristics show, but never being excessive or being too much of one thing.  This I found super interesting since there is a book I purchased a year ago entitled Extremes.  I read the first chapter and then got caught up in my studies, only to pick it back up a month ago and begin reading it again.  It gives wonderful examples of how to be champions, while still remaining humble.  Conference always makes me think of the areas in my life which need a little improving.  It motivates me to be a better person, and strive to be as Christ like as possible.  I love the opportunity we are given to hear inspired words. 

What I believe- LDS.org

Busy Busy Busy

Over the last month Lance and I have been two chickens with our heads cut off and I only see it getting busier and busier!  We both started school for the fall semester, my classes being mainly from 5-10pm and his being online and consuming his morning from 5-7am.  Lance also began a new job as a Teacher's Assistant for the school district.  There is this program here for Youth in Custody, where it helps kids in high school catch up so they can eventually graduate.  The main teacher over the program at Kearns High School's name is Sally. A recent development would be APPLE'S plan to take over the world!  They gave Kearns High a grant to supply all its students with Ipod Touches and all the teachers with Ipads.  If only Lance could somehow classify as a teacher to get that Ipad, it would be heaven.   Having opposite schedules with your newlywed husband is less than ideal.  While he is teaching at Kearns all day, I'm at home studying and getting ready for school.  When he comes home, I'm in class and finally make it home in time to have a 20 minute conversation as we are both getting ready for bed.  To top it all off I am officially employed!  I began working at Sunrise Senior Living in Sandy as a Care Manager (CNA).  I absolutely love my job, those I work with, and the residents who live there.  I am within the Alzheimer's division, and the people are so sweet.  However, my schedule has me working crazy hours such as 8 hours Thursday and Friday night and a 13 hour shift on Saturdays!  There goes any aspect of having a social life!  With all the stresses and lacking time, there's always a bright side!  This past Saturday after my 13 hour shift, I received a text from Lance instructing me to not buy any dinner, but that he had a date night planned (oh how I have missed date night).  I came home and showered, and soon he also came home with a delicious pizza and a gigantic chocolate chip cookie we just had to put in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.  We cuddled up on the couch and enjoyed Wall Street from 1987 and both ended up falling asleep a half hour before its ending.  Oh its the little things.

Where in the world is Ellie?

So lately Lance and I have had to put Ellie, our puggle, in her kennel when we leave and when we are sleeping because she likes to pee in places I hate cleaning up.  She is quite the smart dog and likes to hide under our bed until we are sound asleep before jumping into our bed.  Last night I even tried to trick her with peanut butter to get her to come out from under the bed.  This morning however, I knew she was wandering around the house and when I went looking for her I walked right past her twice because I never would have thought she would sit in the bed with her gigantic gorilla.  But there she was.  curled up in a ball on top of the gorilla that I have sitting in her doggie bed.  Too cute. 

Wedding: finally posted

So 19 days ago, Lance and I were sealed for time and eternity!

This day was absolutely beautiful. We arrived at the temple at 7:30am only to be greeted by his dad (Elliott), my cousin (Jung), and my adopted Mormon mom (Roz). Everyone at the Salt Lake Temple was nothing but helpful and so happy that we had chosen to be sealed in that temple. I had heard many times that the SLC temple treats you like a number and rushes you because they have so many brides to tend to, but Roz and I both didn't feel like that, even though there were 17 other brides that morning. Moments before Lance and I entered the sealing room, our sealer came to get to know us. He began by saying, "Hi I'm Brother Combs, I hear you are in the Olympus 2nd Ward is that correct? Well welcome to the ward!" This man has apparently overheard Lance introduce himself at church and decided to pull our names and seal us! What a tender mercy it was to be able to see him 2 weeks after our wedding at church and have him recognize and remember us and the most important day of our lives.

The sealing was beautiful and having everyone there was absolutely amazing. We got ready to walk out and greet everyone for pictures. One of the first things I noticed was my brother was missing!! Apparently he had gone with his friend to buy a tie and in doing so completely missed the hour of pictures at the temple.

Our photographer James, and our videographer Matt, for whatever reason had a personality clash and began to taunt one another as they took Lance and my pictures around temple grounds. One shot Matt was determined to take and asked James to walk over and check out the shot's beauty. James responded with "that's okay (rolling his eyes) I'll take your word for it" and Matt sarcastically responded with "James c'mon! You don't want to miss this! You'll hurt my feelings if you don't come!" Lance and I just laughed at their game of cat and mouse.
We left the temple and headed down to the reception hall to help guide in the set-up. Numerous times Amie had to tell me to stop setting things up and go get ready for the Ring Ceremony.

 

All in all, our wedding was perfect.  I loved seeing my friends and family who traveled up to Utah.   I loved dancing and laughing and enjoying the day with my new family.  Thank you to everyone who made our wedding a dream come true.