Tick - Tock...

Where did November go?  Last time I check Halloween was almost here and now its a month later and Thanksgiving is THIS WEEK!  Its perfectly fine though because I love Thanksgiving, not to mention it means my birthday is right around the corner and we get a break from school.  Why not love Thanksgiving?  It is definitely one of my favorite holidays.  Not only do we get to eat tons of good food but it is a time to reflect on life and what / who matters the most.  November also means that Fall is in the air and there is a coolness that I love!  Even in Hawaii we have been having some cloudy, cooler days and I am absolutely Loving it!  

This year is the first year that I have ever been in charge of half of Thanksgiving Dinner.  Last year I just brought a dish, and before that I helped wherever was needed but was not specifically in charge of anything all that important.  But This year I'm going to be trying my hand at making some home-made Stuffing!  I'll also be making a more veggie filled green bean casserole, Veggie kabobs per Matt's request, not to mention I'm trying out a Healthy Pumpkin Pie... My first Pumpkin Pie ever... 

I have really embraced cooking in the last few months and now it has become something that I do when I need a break from school and homework, its almost a stress relief activity.   The wonderful goodness that comes from it isn't half bad either :)  I just wish it didn't all disappear so fast! 

We have so much to be Grateful for, this week is sure to be a great one as we are presented with the opportunity to express that Gratitude openly, while surrounded by friends and family.  

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I know I completely missed out on doing a Halloween post but I figured I'd post some of the pictures from Matt's work at the Haunted Lagoon.  When it comes to dressing up and playing a part he goes all out.  Here are a few of the face paints he had...

Yes, those are red contacts.  Matt had been wanting to get colored contacts for a long time and this seemed like a perfect opportunity.  He originally got the red ones for me... which looked awesome by the way.  I wore them for a few hours on Halloween just with normal clothes, and had several people freaked out. 

This is my favorite paint job that Matt got.  Its very Pretty...?  Unfortunately that was the night we had a Tsunami Warning and so he had only been working for maybe an hour before everyone was sent home.  

Here are the white contacts, I actually thought the white ones looked really cool for everyday.  They almost had a light blue tint to them.  It looked pretty close to what blind people's eye look like, color-wise at least.  

On the last night I went with Matt to help paint some of the kids faces.  I'm not exactly an amazing artist, but it was fun :)   

Matt painted my face too! 

Day In - Day Out

Everyday I wake up to another Crazy day.  A day filled with classes to attend, hours of homework to do, and a wonderful husband to see hopefully for longer than 15 mins at a time.  Oh... the life of a college student...   

In truth its not all that bad.  I'm sure we will look back at this time in our life and miss what we have now.  We are definitely going to have things to laugh about later.  

As I was walking to class recently I thought, "Wow, what a beautiful place this is."  Everything from the green grass, to the palm trees, to the colorful flowers and birds, to the blue skies and puffy white clouds.  This is an area that I walk by at least once everyday.  I thought I might share it with you.  

The Sunsets in Hawaii are gorgeous.  Unfortunately, most of the time you don't see much of them from where we live.  The sun disappears behind the mountains long before the sun ever actually sets.  When we get to see the sky lit up in bright colors it is definitely something worth taking time to watch.  We were in town one evening and as we were driving I saw this awesome building, before I knew it I was pulling over to take a picture of the scene.  Super cool architecture... Super lame camera phone... 

Although I really like how it ended up turning out.

Matt is working at the Polynesian Cultural Center helping out with the Haunted Lagoon for Halloween.  Which basically means he gets to pretend its Halloween every night!  Some nights while he is off scaring people, I walk around outside and can hear screaming and haunting noises coming from PCC's general direction.  When he gets home at night I understand a little better why people were scared...

Every night he comes home looking a little different, so I never know what to expect.  Needless to say... I don't usually go to bed before he gets home, for fear of waking up to a clown, a joker, a creature of the night, or an axe murderer standing in the doorway.  The half awake version of me is not always nice, and sometimes a little irrational - We wouldn't want a permanent claw mark along the entire length of Matt's face... 

Matt has fun with it though.  He is very much a performer, having the opportunity to put on a costume and play a part for hours at a time it right up his alley.  

My goal this week (while trying to get through midterms and keep  my sanity) is to take more pictures!  If anyone has any special requests just let me know and I'll see what I can do! 

Yummo!

This past summer was the start to the rest of my life.  I was blessed to have come in contact with people  who were able to help me change my life for the better.  I have found a new outlook on life and a new dedication.  The best part is... I am feeling better than I have for a long time.  

I have gotten on a food kick.  Of course I love food, who wouldn't?  But I am getting more picky about what I eat and the healthiness of it.  Not to mention, as I said in a previous post, I am off sugar permanently.  Probably Forever.  So because I love food, especially chocolate and yummy treats I have started trying tons of new recipes and making my own healthy treats as well as trying out other new recipes.  Might I just mention... The internet is Amazing :)

Something that I found a while ago but never got around to trying until recently were these pancakes.  They are actually Banana Pancakes and they are absolutely fabulous!  The entire time I was making them I kept singing the Banana Pancakes song by Jack Johnson.  These are also some of the first batches of pancakes I did not utterly ruin.  I always had a problem with the pancakes getting too fluffy and then not wanting to cook all the way through and so they always ended up  burned or raw on the inside... Yuck.  With these I did not have a single problem, they were wonderful to make and even better to eat. 

Banana Pancakes + Pure Maple Syrup = Awesome

For General Conference this weekend it was requested by my wonderful husband that I make some pumpkin pancakes.  I have not been a huge fan of pumpkin in the past but I have to admit... I'm converting.  They ended up working out great and will definitely be something I make again.  However, apparently when the wonderful husband said he wanted pumpkin pancakes for breakfast what he really meant was Pumpkin Pie...  After the first bite he realized the two are subtly different. 

When roaming through the great and only grocery store in Laie, Matt suddenly had a craving for pop-tarts.  "They are a great source of Energy!" he said.  

IE: they are a great source of a sugar high... and then crash...  Instead of picking up a box I talked him into letting me make him some.  I promised they would taste much better and we could make whatever flavor he wanted.  So we did.  These are some mini Apple-Cinnamin home-made Pop-tarts.  They are way good and we have taken to calling them 'mini crisps' rather than pop-tarts.  I usually don't like cooked fruit... but these are an exception to the rule.  

The next food finding we had was somewhat of an accident.  We had taken an afternoon /evening to head into town to replenish our fridge and pantry.  While we were out, dinner time rolled around and we decided that we hadn't gone out for a while and we could make it a dinner date.  In the spring a friend recommended a place called "The Whole Ox" and so we decided to stop by to try it out.  It is technically a deli and has a very unique atmosphere.  As soon as you walk in the wall is covered with a floor to ceiling piece of red and black art.  Then there are modern looking black picture frames adorning the walls.  The menu and intro to 'The Whole Ox' is written on a floor to ceiling chalk board and instead of regular table and chairs they have wooden picnic tables... very unique atmosphere.  We weren't quiet sure about the whole thing except for the fact that it had been recommended by a couple who had been in Hawaii for years and were particular about what they ate.  

It ended up being a great experience.  The main thing they are known for are their hamburgers, eh... more like meat in general.  All of their meat is raised locally in Hawaii and is grass fed, organic, all that kind of stuff.  (Kris - I thought of you a lot that night, you would have Loved it!)  Then they age all the meat for almost a month and I'm sure they have other procedures that go on but I am not really fluent in meat terms and procedures so I don't remember much else.  All I know is it makes for a tasty hamburger and sausage.  The pic is of my Kielbasa, it consists of ravioli type things filled with potatoes covered in an asian inspired sauce and then some awesome fancy sausage.  (There are technical terms for all of this stuff... but once again, I forgot.)  Turns out they had only started serving dinner in the last two months so we got lucky.  Their menu was surprisingly higher class type things that you don't really see everyday, but not any more expensive than many of your local restaurant chains.  It was a very pleasant surprise and we are definitely going back again! 

This last month marked the Anniversary for Matt and I's engagement.  2 years ago he showed up one Friday out of the blue, after convincing all my family to keep secrets and lie to me for weeks, and asked me the question a girl should only have to be asked once in her life.  That same weekend we managed to take about a million Engagement pictures before he had to fly back home to start school on Monday.  The other day, after having cycled through our pictures while reminiscing we had to laugh a little, realizing how far we have come, how much we have changed, how many adventures we have had, and most importantly, looking forward to the growth and change that is yet to come and the adventures that await us just around the corner as we fall in love a little deeper each day.  

Until next time, have a wonderful week and I hope you got a chance to watch or listen to General Conference, there were some amazing talks that deserve a first, second, and third listen.  My heart was truly touched by the wonderful opportunities ever present around me.  

Back to Business

I have been meaning to get this post up for a while now... But here it finally is so I am just thankful for that.  In reality I have been pretty busy and haven't had tons of spare time, we are back in Hawaii and I started school again so if I am not doing homework... I should be.  Time is of the essence for sure. 

Things are going well here, Matt was able to find a job.  Two actually, although one is helping scare people for the Halloween season so its not permanent but I think he will have fun with it :)  He is also working at a Medial Center in town, he has to gets to wake up at 6:00am every morning to go to work. Believe it or not, I'm considering waking up with him so we can be on the same sleep schedule.  Maybe I'll take up morning yoga :) 

I am currently taking three Accounting classes, two are taught by the same professor which has made sure to keep me on my toes.  Thus far I have been having issues keeping them straight.  Luckily, the exam I just took was for the same class that I had studied for.  I'm also taking Calculus because at some point last semester I decided it sounded like fun to minor in Math.  Apparently I didn't realize that the class I am taking now is a review of what I did oh... 5 years ago!  There are lots of things I don't exactly remember but it is going well nonetheless.  I am also in a Modern Dance class, not for any reason other than I love to dance.  The first day of class was super intense and hard, basically two straight hours of hard working out and having to learn quickly.  Come to find out even the dance classes try to weed people out.  The next week several girls were gone, and amazingly class wasn't as hard. 

After I almost died the first day of Dance I decided I was going to have to do more than attend class once a week if i didn't want to be passed out on the floor all the time.  So... I started going to Zumba.  Believe it or not, it actually is as fun as people make it out to be.  I am actually considering becoming an instructor because its something I like to do anyway so why not get paid for it!  Needless to say... I have been sore for pretty much this entire last week.  

I sure you have been reading along, happy as a clam, wondering what in the world these pics have to do with Hawaii or Accounting or Calculus, or Zumba... Well, nothing actually.  These are pictures from when we were still in Alaska.  We had the opportunity to go on the most beautiful train ride that Alaska has to offer.  Amazingly, Matt didn't have to work and was able to come with us!  Kris and Dave have been wanting to go for a while now and it was finally time to make it happen.  It was a gorgeous day and the views did not disappoint.  We made it down to Seward and spent a few hours strolling around town and had an awesome lunch that included crab legs... Yummo!  

The more I travel from place to place the more I come to realize that although Alaska is much different from Hawaii, which is very different from Arizona, which is different from many other parts of the world, they are all beautiful.  They all have unique aspects that cannot be duplicated and have a beauty that is all there own.  When I am not in Arizona I miss the red rock.  When I am not in Alaska I miss the snowcapped mountains.  When I am not in Hawaii I miss all the vibrant colors.  Everywhere has a little bit of heaven, it is up to us to find it and enjoy it the very best we can... After all, Life is to be Enjoyed.  

A Day to Remember

FLASHBACK:

In High School I did all that I could to avoid donating blood.  First I had the legit excuse that I wasn't old enough, which was 100% true... for the first year and a half.  Then I just tried to lay low and fly under the radar and "conveniently forget" or some other ridiculous excuse.  Finally my Senior year I decided I was going to do it.  I was going to be brave and donate blood.  

The theory was good, the execution... not so much.  I ended up freaking out and didn't get past all the ridiculous questions, the finger prick, and being motioned to the chair of death.  Another guy who I graduated with ended up passing out before he could donate too.  The ironic thing about the whole thing is that both him and I have been hunting our whole lives and are not bothered one bit by animals, but can't seem to donate blood ourselves.  

PRESENT DAY:

I am absolutely terrified of needles, shots, TB tests, blood usage, ext. and would not consider donating blood in the near future regardless of how convincing of a sales person I meet.  I even shutter at the thought of having a needle stuck in my skin and have not had a shot since Jr. High.  Which is why Saturday's events were so significant. 

 I, mostly willingly, got up on Saturday morning and drove to a Medical Lab and got my blood drawn.  I didn't completely freak out, I didn't pass out, and I made it through alive and well.  All I had to give up was my Virgin Veins.  It is an event ever to be remembered in the history of Jessica Brown. 

~ Courage ~ Bravery ~ Success ~ Triumph ~

There is Beauty all Around

The summer is coming to a close.  There are, once again, many things that will be changing again here in the next couple weeks.  I truly do love my life and I am extremely happy now but I certainly will be very pleased when we finally settle down somewhere, in the same city if not the same house, for more than a year.  I think about the person I was just two years ago.  I had never been on a plane, I had lived in Arizona my entire life.  Now I am a regular at the airport and don't care to admit how much money has been spent on plane tickets for 2012.  I am now bouncing back and forth living in Alaska and Hawaii, with no idea what or where the future holds and what other adventures we will encounter on the way.  

I have spent this summer in Alaska and have had the opportunity to do many things that would not have happened otherwise.  I have found the cause and the cure to my, what seemed like chronic headaches.  Turns out it was easy as pie... or cake... or ice cream and cookie dough for that matter.  The problem was sugar.  I am pleased to report that I have been off sugar all summer and am feeling great.  It is now a rare occurrence for me to have a headache.  I don't even miss the crap I used to eat on a regular basis  :)

I was able to find a good dance studio in Anchorage that was offering adult classes this summer.  It has been a blessing in my life and a source of light and joy.  I have come to many realizations about myself and my life this summer, one of them being that I absolutely love dancing and it is something I always want to have in my life.  No matter where we live or what is going on I want to be taking classes or in a company somewhere.  Dancing is good for my soul.  

One weekend while Matt was off working, making lots of money for me to spend, I had the opportunity to attend an Air Show.  I had never been to one before, I had heard of them and seen them on tv and in movies but that was it.  Matt's parents and I decided that we would go and check it out this year, apparently the entire population of Alaska had a similar idea...  It took over 2 hours to get there,  what would normally be about a 15-20 minute drive.  

It was a fun day.  We got to explore a lot of planes and helicopters including the inside of a huge cargo plane and one of the biggest helicopters.  They also had everything from some tiny old school planes from who knows when to gigantic FedEx carriers.  In the midst of everything we managed to find ourselves a couple Reindeer dogs for lunch.  Yummo!  

The actual Air Show was sweet.  It was called Arctic Thunder, performed by the Thunderbirds.  The planes did lots of cool tricks and neat formations.  Definitely worth going to see.  It was also my first time being on the Airforce base in Anchorage.   

When the summer if officially over I will have survived 4 full months of not having a full time husband.  So while the start of school will bring business and craziness it will also allow me to have my husband back again!  WooHoo!  I can't complain too much though, I have been well taken care of and he has been preparing the way for our future.  It also enabled me to appreciate him even more when he was home for a few days here and there.  

One day when I happened to have Matt all to myself for a few hours we decided to enjoy Alaska's beautiful outdoors.  We visited a place I have driven by a million times but never actually stopped to enjoy called Potter's Marsh.  It is a place at the base of a mountain where rain water and snow runoff accumulates thus creating a marshy area.  There are a ton of birds that live here and there is a stream that runs through that holds some huge fish.  They have built a boardwalk through part of the marsh in order to make it more accessible to the public.  It made for a very nice walk in the sunshine.  

That day was funny because one half of the sky was beautiful blue skies and sunny and the other half looked like threatening rain clouds.  That and the combination of a shall we say lame camera makes for less than perfect pictures.  

I have a wonderful husband and am so grateful for the sacrifices he makes for our family.  I cannot thank him enough for supporting me and showing me love continually.  He is one awesome guy.  A guy that will be all mine in one week :) 

The Red, White, & Blue

Happy Independence Day!

I always hear stories about barbecues and cook outs taking place on the 4th of July.  I may have even participated in several of these, but I do not really remember very many of them.  This year I tried to do something to better commemorate the occasion.  So... we made a cake :)

(Matt's Note: I was on tour with a rather large group feeling the weight of complaining people when my phone buzzed and i looked down to this picture. "look what i made" was all it said. I had to smile at the sheer cuteness of Jessica and her common lie that she has no artistic ability.)

I have never made a flag cake before but I really wanted to this year.  I was craving some berries and cream.    It just happened to end up with 13 stripes on it.  Shear luck! 

(Matt's Note: They had his whole barbecue thing the day I was getting home from tour...before I got there. :) yep. They couldn't wait another 4 hours until 930pm till I got there. Turns out there was something about it being a bit late for an outdoor barbecue. GOSH! haha the food was wonderful as leftovers too.... I'd also like to say that the tour after this occasion I went out and got a fresh grilled steak in Denali and enjoyed it immensely. Take that! :) )

We had an official 4th of July Barbecue and it was awesome.  Of course we grilled some good old fashion beef patties but we also found these really yummy chicken patties that have spinach and cheese and stuff mixed in.  There was also grilled corn on the cob, zucchini, and mushrooms.  

We also had potato salad, carrot sticks, homemade onion rings, and of course every dipping sauce known to man.  Of course the best part was the bacon I put on my hamburger.  There was so much yummy food I almost didn't have enough room for all of it... almost. ;) 

Oh and for dessert we also had some amazing macaroons and apple crisp.  

We were able to spend time with family and enjoy one another's company.  It was a very good night and I really enjoyed spending time with family, even though my wonderful husband was not able to come to the whole of it.  

I truly am grateful for this great country in which we live, for all the lives that were lost protecting our rights, and for the opportunity I have to be apart of it today.  I recently have been inspired to learn more about our history and the things that have shaped our country.  Learn from the past to help shape our future.  

(Matt's Note: Happy 4th Everyone! I hope you all had a great day of fireworks and barbecues. May God bless our precious liberty and help us to always remember those who gave their names, lives and sacred honor to establishing, preserving, and defending this wonderful nation.)

Highland Games

Every since I met Matt and we started dating I have heard about the amazing Highland Games.  Sounds fun right?  I mean games are fun, so going to higher land to play games must be fun too right?  The year we were dating Matt bought be a ring at the Highland Games.  It is very pretty, it has an emerald in the middle and a Celtic knot on either side.  Last year during the festival both Matt and I were working so we missed it.  This year I figured it was about time I go and see for myself what the Highland Games were all about.    

Turns out, the Highland Games are part of a festival in Anchorage every year where people with Scottish ancestry come and more or less celebrate the fact that they are Scottish.  There are booths set up everywhere with everything from Shortbread cookies to Scottish kilts.  They invite bagpipe bands from Alaska to come and play for everyone.  They were more or less like marching bands, the matching outfits, the marching formations, but with only bagpipes and drums.  I learned that bagpipes and actually very complicated to play, apparently it takes 6 months before you can even play a song on one.  Do you realize how much patience that would take...? 

Here is a really tall man from the band.  As you can see he is decked out with skirt... oh I mean Kilt.  We asked him if we could have a picture with him, he asked if I wanted to hold the bagpipes and before I could even respond they were in my hands.  I think it is safe to say I will not be taking up bagpipe lessons in the future.  Also, if you look closely... Very closely... you can see the ring I was talking about. 

The actual games referred to in Highland Games are the old school muscle competitions.  They had a field where athletes were competing all day.  They had things like the Tug-o-war, the Caber toss, the Hammer throw, and throwing really heavy weights in different directions - for height and for length.  Similar to the types of things they do on the movie Maid of Honor.  All the guys competing were super buff, the girls competing were super buff too.  All in all, it's amazing no one ended up in the hospital.  

The Highland Games were in large part an excuse to dress up and get in touch with your roots.  Everywhere I looked there were men dressed in Kilts or families all decked out in plaid.    I even saw a lady that reminds me of the girl in Brave.  

  

 

Traditionally kilts are plaid and come in bright colors, but now they are making some that are more functional called Utilikilts like what DJ has on... Google it. 

There were two rock/bagpipe bands that got on stage and performed for us that day.  The first was really entertaining, one of their drummers was crazy.  He had so much energy and was rockin' out to the music a lot (while wearing a kilt of course).  They did have a really neat sound though, the coolest part was that they are actually from Scotland and just came here to do a concert for us.  Yes, that means their accents were sweet.  The other band was actually from Australia, but their music had bagpipes in it too... also the didgeridoo.  They were selling didgeridoo's along with their cd's at a side table.  Guess who brought one home with us as a late Birthday present...  Yes,  the music man of the house.  He could not have been happier. 

The Highland Games had the biggest turnout ever this year.  Either people are faking it or more people are discovering that they have Scottish heritage.  I found out that day that I actually have some Scottish in me too.  But alas, the time has come to put all the kilts away until next year when the games begin again.  

Livin' the Life

We went to the PCC recently and got some airbrushed tattoos!  One of our friends works there so he hooked us up.  It was a fun day, we just hung out and chilled with friends and enjoyed the sun and great company :)

I got a Hawaiian flower on my foot.  Also, I really needed my nails redone one day and Matt so graciously did them for me!  They looked way good.  

Matt got this cool design on his arm...  I don't really know what it is but it looked Sweet :)
I do wonder how many people that we saw thought it was real though.

This is our friend Natalie, she came with us and got a flower on her foot too.  He cute little boy also came, but for some reason the picture I took of his tattoo is no where to be found... 

Before Matt left to head back to Alaska for the summer, our friends Brit and Devin came to hang out with us!  We love theses guys, sadly, they will be moving away in June.  We are already planning on heading to California sometime to visit them and introduce Matt to the thrill of roller coasters.   

There is not much that needs to be said about this... I went to the beach and relaxed for a while.  I also would like to make it known that I am officially getting some color back into my skin and I no longer look like a porcelain doll.  

I woke up one morning this week and the first though that entered my mind was how tired I was and how much I wanted to roll over and go back to sleep for another few hours.  I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed to this beautiful Sunrise that was waiting for me.  It looked way better in person, but this will have to do.  

Beauty and the Beach

The Beach is more than just a place where the ocean meets the land, it is a place of relaxation where you can go to escape from the rest of the world.  As Beth says, you just watch your worries float away with the waves.  That is the main reason I love the beach.  I have always thought the rhythmic sound of each wave falling against the shore was relaxing and a little mesmerizing.  Being able to sit and let the waves overtake me is a wonderful blessing.  I think many different aspects of the outdoors have the same effect, that is one thing that I have always been very aware of.  I have the opportunity of experiencing one more aspect of the great creations that are here for us and I am loving every minute of it.  

It is such a peaceful day when Matt and I go to the beach together and enjoy the sun, the waves, and each others company.  Getting a little bit of a tan isn't bad either!  I have made a goal for this semester to make it to the beach hopefully 3 days a week (with my books and homework of course).  I want to be a few shades darker before going back to Alaska for the summer.  

The feeling of warm sunshine on my skin is one of my favorite sensations.  I can feel it sinking into my skin and healing my soul, giving me joy and happiness.  I have been realizing the importance of Mental Wellness and taking the time to ensure I do not go insane.  I think the two correlate very well!

There is something fun about writing your name in the sand.  Especially on our beach because we always have to try to race the waves, so when we are able to do it well we are pretty happy with ourselves.  Matt found a stick that he was using in place of a sword.  He seemed to be enjoying himself very much.  With that sword he scrawled our names in the sand as I splashed in the water behind him.  

We were able to go to the temple again this week.  This time there were a couple who were both going through for the first time and then were going to be married.  It was neat to be able to be there with them even though we had no idea who they were.  The girl sat by me and was crying almost the whole time.  It was cute.  The guy sat by Matt, and Matt said that he kept looking over at her and just smiling and being happy that they were able to be there together.  It was cute!  

This is the view looking our from the temple.  The road extends straight out and then in the distance you can see the blue ocean (maybe not in this picture because my phone doesn't have the best camera in the world). There are palm trees and plants that make a line from the highway that point toward the temple.  The white buildings you can see in the distance are part of the Visitors Center.  There are beautiful water pools and fountains everywhere.  The color contrasts of the vibrant green plants, blue water, and colored flowers against the white temple is gorgeous.