New and Exciting Things

Many new and exciting things happening here shortly!! First of all, 150 days until I get to see that boy of mine again! I'm getting beyond excited, it's probably really annoying :) Secondly, today I get to start reading the Book of Mormon with that same boy today! By the end of TJ's first month, I was having a hard time missing him and wondering how to keep us growing together so that we would still be on the same page when he came home and one of my lovely roommates, who happened to help me so much during the first 6 months, suggested that we read our scriptures together and talk about what we've learned. This suggestion has helped us grow so much; I ran the idea past TJ and he loved the idea so much and so we ran with it. Our goal was to read all 4 books of the Standard Works during his mission and for the past 17 months we have successfully (and sometimes slowly) trekked our way through the Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. Now, for the last leg of his mission, we get to read the book that is the cornerstone of our religion, the book which he teaches and converts people from. I already have a strong testimony of the truthfulness of this amazing book but I know that there is going to be something special about reading the Book of Mormon with my missionary while he gives his all this special work these last few months. I can't wait to grow even more alongside him and I'm so excited for this little journey!

Yesterday I had fully off of work (a day off on a Friday?! in a restaurant?! whaaa???) and I took full advantage of it! I washed my little car from this HUGE dust storm we had over here, replaced her wipers, and made an amazing dinner for my family and my newly engaged friend and her fiance! I had the hardest time coming up with this dish for a couple of days and finally the day of, I came up with it! Let me just say... I can kinda cook ;)

I made a Moroccan Broiled Salmon with Israeli Pearled Couscous, white corn, butter braised radishes, and seared bok choy. Ummm... yum?! But the family, friend, and fiance all loved it! As my friend and her significant other were eating the dinner, the fiance said that he needed to treat me to ice cream as a form of payment. My argument was I've got 5 months left to try and look ok for my guy when he comes home, I can't be eating ice cream. After about 3 go arounds with us saying the same thing, he finally said "I'll train you for the next 5 months." He's dead serious. So I'm excited, my butt is finally going to get kicked and get in shape! Me= happy!

I need to give a quick shout out to Kendahl, my best MG friend ever! She is getting to reaching her boys year mark in just 5 days and I'm so excited for her! She has been such a positive light to me and I'm so glad to have her! She's always there for support, to listen to, to get excited with, to swap stories and ideas with. She's been such an amazing friend to me for the past 8 months and I'm so lucky to have her in my life! We've become great friends through Facebook, texting, and our weekly Sunday Skype dates! I hope I've told her enough how much I appreciate her love and friendship!

On Thursday, I picked up my last school schedule ever!!!! Well probably not ever, but my last one at this school! It's a bittersweet moment because I'm so excited to get out in the real world and just be totally encompassed by the industry but at the same time... I've had a lot of great memories at school and have met a lot of incredible chefs who have made me who I am today! I get to take my last cooking class at AIPX with the chef who started me off and I'm excited for the butt riding he's going to give me while in class (he knows I'm going to Austria so he's going to be right in my ear the entire 9 weeks of his class). I'm so excited for this last quarter, all that I've been dreaming about for years is starting to wrap up in the next few months and then I get to start my career as a young culinarian. This also means that I get to start the ever amazing eeeearly morning practices for the competition! They start next Wednesday morning at 6 am... all I can say is heaven help me. I'm very very excited for the amazing things coming up in my life these next 3 months, time is going to fly by and I absolutely cannot wait! I may not be posting as much once school and practice starts but at least I'll have cool stories and pictures when I do!