Pay it Forward

The first 5 people to respond to this post will receive something made by me to you. My choice. Made especially for you. Of course there are some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It will be done sometime this year.
4. You have no clue what it will be... it may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake something and mail it to you. who knows? not you, that's for sure.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. The catch is that you must re post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog.
The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!! Oh and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!

The Best Husband Ever

My BFF from high school, Kelsie Stonehocker, became Kelsie Christensen (what a cute name!) last Friday and I was lucky enough to be there for the special occasion. It was so much fun! We had a girl's night Thursday before she got married and the reception was basically a big dance party! I love weddings. They make memories of my own wedding flood back, and I can't help but be happy. All the love in the air just makes you love your hunny even more.
And to add to my loving feelings, I got the most wonderful suprise when I got home. Paul had completely cleaned our entire apartment. And I mean COMPLETELY. He mopped, he vacuumed, he scrubbed the tub and the toilet, he did all the laundry, he cleaned the inside of our refrigerator, he dusted, and he did the dishes. Wow! I definitely have the best husband ever.

The Fjeldsteds Party Down

You can rest assured, the Fjeldsteds are keeping it real in L to the A. We've had way too much fun the last couple months- here's a picture update.

I went to a Christmas girl party in December- potluck style. I brought the dessert, cream puffs filled with eggnog cream.





We visited Grammy in Salt Lake and while we were there we bundled up and went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.




We spent Christmas in Boise and while we were there we went on a sleigh ride in McCall. We rode into a meadow and fed wild elk.






We visited the Seavers/Glausers on our way back to California. I've missed them! We went sledding the lazy way at Soldier Hollow.





We spent New Years with Paul's family in Palm Springs. Talk about swishy! We were living the high life in our Marriott hotel and had tons of fun on a dune buggy tour and at the zoo.




My dad gave us season tickets to Disneyland for Christmas and we experienced the magic last Saturday with our friends Ryan and Cathryn. It was a full day event- 9am-7pm!



And now we're settling back into normal life and starting to remember that we have responsibilities. Let me just say that we've been counting down the days to the three day weekend ever since we got back from our vacation.

Exciting News!

I've been wanting to make this post for about two months now, but wanted to wait until is was official. And now it IS official; I am USC's newest full time employee!



I'm working in a biology research lab helping a post doc on his research in genetic sequencing of drosophila. To those who don't understand the importance of this accomplishment, let me explain. The most important is that on top of my salary, Paul now gets HALF OFF his tuition! And since his yearly tuition is more than America's average household income, the tuition break is a big deal. Other great things include health benefits, retirement benefits, I can take classes at USC for free, and Paul and I will get to carpool to school and hopefully eat lunch together. Getting a job at USC is an amazing blessing and we're truly grateful.

Halloween

duuuuhhh... I should have made this post two weeks ago and I just woke up from a four hour nap and I'm not sure if I'll completely regain full mental capacity for the rest of the evening. I had high hopes of a clever blog about our costumes and about you all guessing what we were, but as it stands now, I'll just tell you. I was a bunch of grapes and Paul was Flavor Flav.



We went to our ward Halloween party and I won 2nd place in the chili cookoff. Woohoo!

Here's something else kind of crazy to think about... It was two years ago at our student ward Halloween party where Paul and I fisrt met...
Paul and his roommates Ashton and Sam were lodge folk and me and my roommates were zombie rockers.

My Nanny Kim

After my mom died, my dad hired a nanny to take care of me, my sister, and my brother while he was at work. Actually, she was interviewed while my mom was still alive. My mom was very sick at the time, but the interview took place in my parent's bedroom. Kim was our nanny for about nine months until she got married and moved to Utah. I remember having so much fun with Kim! One of my favorite activites was when we went to the drug store and got ice cream cones. One time Kim promised us that if Erin and I cleaned our room (apparently Erin and weren't very good at keeping our room clean) that she would take us to get to get a double scoop ice cream cone. I remember thinking that life didn't get better than that. Well, Erin and I did get our room clean, but I wasn't able to finish my ice cream cone- it was too big for me, and I was very disappointed that I wasn't able to eat it all.

The first day Kim came to nanny she promised us that the following day we would make a home made pizza. I didn't even know there was such a thing. She was true to her word and the next day Erin and I chose the toppings for our first ever home made pizza.

I remember that we played lots of games with Kim. My very favorite was Hi Ho Cherri-O. I have no idea what the object of the game is, but I remember we played it all the time. We also loved Chutes and Ladders and Go Fish. We had a video called Sign Me a Story. I think it was supposed to be an educational video that taught sign language (Erin used to have a deaf friend). One of the stories that they told/signed was Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Kim would sometimes make Cream of Wheat for breakfast and we would pretend it was the porridge from Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The first time we came out of our room to the kitchen table, we would say, "This porridge is too hot!" Then Erin and I would run back into our bedroom so the next scene could start. The next time we came into the kitchen, the porridge would be "too cold!" And then the third time it would finally be "juuuuusstt rigghhht."

We were always on an adventure with Kim. We got season passes to Sea World- I used to adore Shamoo and the dolphins. Erin and I also loved the water show- I can still remember the song they played during it. I remember peeing my pants once while we were there, and apparently I barfed on Kim once while we were watching the Shamoo show. Oops.

Most of all, when I think about our time with Kim, I feel a very profound love for her. She stepped in when our mom couldn't physically be there. I was very cuddly with Kim and loved to be snuggled.

Kim now lives in Nebraska with her husband and six kids, and I hadn't seen her in years, but a couple weeks ago Paul and I got to have dinner with her while she was visiting her mom here in California. It was so wonderful to see her again. She looks exactly the same as I remembered her, except this time her hair was staight instead of curly. What a blessing she was to our family! Kim told me that often times when she was having issues with us kids, she felt like my mom would be there helping her. Soon after Kim became our nanny, she took me to the doctor's office for some kind of check up or something. They said that they needed to see my immunization records and if she couldn't find them, then they would need to give me the shots again. Shots were the last thing she wanted me to go through, so she said that when we got back to our house, she called my mom by name and said, "Please Jamey, help me find the records." Immediately it came to her mind to look in our medicine cabinet. She was able to find the number of our previous doctor, who then sent my immunization records to the new doctor.

I'm so grateful that Kim was able to be our nanny! She provided so much fun and so much love when it was so badly needed. Thanks, Kim! I love you!

Bleh! Bleh! Bleh!

Today is a very sad day. As many of you may know, I love to cook and I love to try new recipes. Allrecipes.com has become my new friend this past year. It is a simple website where people can post recipes and others rate those recipes. For the most part, I will only make recipes that have a 4 out of 5 star rating or higher, and at least 30 people have reviewed the recipe. So, naturally, I thought a recipe for chicken tikka masala that scored a 4.5 and 451 people had reviewed it would be a sure winner. I should also mention that along with their ratings, people leave comments about what they would change, things that they particularly loved, etc. Before making the recipe, I should have read this review:

Good grief! This recipe as written has WAY too much salt in it! My fiance and I couldn't even finish it, the salt was overpowering. 7 teaspoons in all. I am going to try it again with about 1/2 teaspoon for each sauce (the marinade and the tomato cream sauce.)

7 teaspoons?! you say? Yes, that's correct. But let me explain. Certainly I would have noticed that there was way too much salt going into this recipe, but Paul and I made the recipe together and didn't realize how much salt the other was using- he made the marinade, and I made the tomato cream sauce. After the first bite I knew something weird was happening inside my mouth- I thought maybe the dish was just spicier than what I'm used to, but then my throat started to burn...
After all that time and preparation, we ended up tossing the whole meal and tried to think of what else we might scrounge up for Sunday dinner. I decided that all I wanted was a piece of zucchini bread that I made yesterday. I made two loaves, but gave 1 1/2 away at church. Paul got me a slice, buttered it, and brought it to me. What a sweetie, right? The first bite tasted strange. I thought maybe my pallet was still moded from the horrible chicken dish, so I took a nice long drink of water before I had my next bite of bread. Hmm... still weird. Then, I was able to put my finger on the weird taste- garlic! Paul had just picked up a knife that was on the counter to spread my butter with. It was the same knife that I had used to cut the garlic for the tikka masala. Gross! And so here I sit, venting to the blog world about my cooking woes- still hungry, but not daring to eat anything else.