Life, Love, and Faith

It's not a bad life, for sure, just a slow one. I'm waiting on hearing back from the NC boards to know when I can take my tests to get my license so that I can start working in the career I've been training over a year for! I will take a job at supercuts at this point, just something to get me started and to get me established in Charlotte, as most nicer places around here require a clientele...I don't know more than 8 people, much less a clientele!

So, for today, I'm cooking again. This time it's french bread (I make all of these in a breadmaker, less you think I'm really THAT good of a cook) and beef stew, adapted from this recipe. It's starting to smell very good, and it's still got 3 more hours to cook!

Other than that I've been reading, catching up on useless crap online (I have a pop-culture addiction that I'm pretty sure needs to be checked soon) and listening to music. I got a Itunes gift card from my dad for the holidays, and I've used it on Jason Mraz, Imogen Heap, Kris Allen, Owl City, Michelle Featherstone, and Stars. All have been very good choices so far! The last two were songs I got from last season's SYTYCD and as I'm always looking for music that moves me to dance, taking them from a dance show is a little like cheating, but still totally worth it. The Kris Allen cd has surprised me in how much I've been enjoying it, though I suppose with my love for Jason Mraz/John Mayer I shouldn't really be surprised, it's more along the same line as those two, with a little Rufus Wainwright/Jeff Buckley thrown in. The best song by far is "I need to know" which was supposedly recorded while Kris was very tired, at the end of a session, laying on the floor. It's got a power I usually see in more independent artists, not the AI scene.

Speaking of AI, the Husband is totally committed to NOT watching this upcoming season. I wish I could be the same, but that dang show always sucks me in. I guess, as a songwriter and singer, I like to torture myself by watching a lot of horrible singing. The people the audition and are awful HAVE to know it, right? Painful. I've had friends in the past, friends that have voices I'd kill for try for the show and get rejected for a lot of crap reasons, such as "you're too good for this show", "you're TOO talented", and "you can make it on your own, you don't need AI". I'm sorry, but don't you WANT talent on your show? Obviously not, they want people without training that they can mold into pop stardom. Give me strong vocals and meaningful lyrics over 90 pound model/singers and pop candy any day. I like my singers to SING, not just look pretty.

That's not to say that I'm not a sucker for Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, and David Cook, but I consider them exceptions to the machine that is AI. And that's quite enough on the subject.

Alright, I should get some more work done before the Husband gets home. (By work, I of course mean watching more Law and Order:SVU.)

Love!

Jesi

So I've been cooking a lot this week. As I'm waiting on notice of when I can take my boards, it takes my mind off of it and it's fun!

I started Sunday making beer bread in the breadmaker and potato cheese soup, both from my awesome cousins Jeff and Jennifer as a Christmas present! They got them from here. We used Miller Lite in the bread, and it was really good, though I'd like to do it again and use Blue Moon, I think the honey would be a really good addition to the beer.

Monday I made slow cooker chili and cinnamon raisin bread. It was really really good. I also tried my hand at making orange-cranberry bread, but I had some complications (I forgot that the breadmaker wouldn't tell me to add the cranberries and tried to put them in too late) so it didn't turn out.

That morning, for lunch, I made myself apple french toast. It was amazing! I used some bread that Nick and Stephanie gave us and used the recipe I found here. This guy comes up with AMAZING recipes, and this was no exception. Here's what it looked like...

Tuesday I didn't really cook as Ryan had a work party Tuesday night and I was being lazy. I made macaroni and cheese with bacon for the housemate and I, and it was tasty. I did make a philly cheese steak sandwich for lunch, which wasn't new, but I did add chopped garlic to it per a suggestion from the same blog I got the french toast from, and it made a difference! Pic here...

Today I made Italian herb bread in the breadmaker and then made Butternut Squash Ravioli and Caramel Apple Pork Chops. The ravioli wasn't great, I'm going to try a different sauce tomorrow. The Pork chops and bread, however, were fabulous. I love using apples with different kinds of meat, it really brings out the flavor of the meat!

Hopefully I'll have a job soon and not as much time to spend 3-4 hours cooking, but it has been fun while it's lasting!

Love,

Jesi

So after a cross country trek we made it! Moving all of our stuff from Illinois to Charlotte was a very stressful and tiring journey, but completely worth it now that all of our stuff is here!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend. We made it to Deerfield yesterday afternoon, after an eventful trip. The Husband was quite tired this time, which is unusual as he can usually make it through the entire trip. I drove almost half the trip this time, and we stopped at a truck stop in Kentucky and slept in the truck for a hour before going into all the rain of Indiana and Illinois. We spent most of last night in a tired haze, catching up on DVR and eating pizza.

Love,

Jesi

Tonight at midnight we'll be heading back to the Illinois area. It's supposedly freezing rain/snowing there, so we're hopeful to not run into too much of it on our trip. I'm looking forward to the whole thing being over! It's going to be a crazy weekend.

And the secret cherry pie!

I have such a cute family. :)

Love,

Jesi

And adventure it was. It brought me back to being 12, running around behind my friend's house in the ravine, where we'd pretend to be in a war, or chased by monsters, etc. There was a "trail" to follow, made up mostly of leaves and mud (we probably shouldn't have traipsed around right after 4 days of rain) and plenty of trees and sticky branches. The dogs were troopers, Bella actually pulled me up a hill at one point (she's about 50 pounds and a lab/pitt mix so she's strong!) We thought we'd go into the woods at the point by our house and come out over by the Food Lion about a mile away, but sadly, it wasn't the case as we found a barbed wire fence blocking our way. So we went around in a big circle, found a really pretty mini waterfall in a creek, almost fell up some big hills, and made it back home in under a hour, covered in mud and leaves. It was fun, nice to get out of the house for an afternoon!

After that, we decided to try and beat Mario Brothers for the Wii, which is one of the best video games I've ever played. If you haven't made it to the final castle, I won't give away the ending, but it made all of us yell, and we still haven't beaten it! Maybe tonight...

Tomorrow's plans include more cleaning and making a Christmas dinner for Ryan that is a surprise to him, so I can't post it on here! I am going to try and start taking more pictures so that I have something to load on here, as I love blogs with pictures!

Thanks to those who've started following this little blog! You give me a reason to update. :)

Love,

Jesi

PS - I completely forgot one more movie for my worst movies list of the decade - Max Payne. Husband, his best friend, and I went to see it when Husband lived in Charlotte last year. It was laughably horrible. Poor Mark Wahlburg, he went from one of my favorites (The Departed) to that crap.