If I Could Only Cook...

Ho hum.  Nothing much going on here... except Anton buying up all the guns and ammo he can find (even though we can't exactly afford that right now).    He's preparing for the zombie apocalypse-- which is code for the takeover by a certain, powerful entity (although, he really does believe in a zombie apocalypse).

Anyway, as soon as I can convince Anton to slow down... which may never actually happen... I've decided my next investment will be a keyboard.  Of course I prefer a real piano, but since those are more expensive and more difficult to fit in a small space, I will settle for a keyboard.  I had an epiphany.  I have noticed that the more I practice the piano, the better I get... but I hate having to go to school to practice.  Partly because it's freaking cold here, and partly because it's only available at certain times that are not so convenient for me.

I've really taken to the nicer chocolates--the ones I put in Anton's Christmas stocking because it's the only candy he'll eat.  I now get them for me, for when I have those cravings.  I'm pretty good about saving and eating eating them only when it's absolutely necessary... the problem is that Anton eats them all.  I think I'll have to start hiding them... and the problem with that is that when I hide something I usually forget about it.  Oh well.  Who needs chocolate anyway.

I've been trying to plan meals and prepare for them.  So I marinated some chicken in a marinade recipe I found online that's similar to what Mom does.  Unfortunately it didn't taste that great.  And I wasted like 7 pieces of good-quality chicken.  I have also managed to ruin an entire crock-pot full of roast, and veggies.
I'm getting kind of tired of cooking food that sucks.  I don't understand, I mean, I follow recipes and stuff... anyway, I bought this frozen thing of Marie Calendar's scalloped potatoes and tried a new way of cooking some chicken on my own--without a recipe since that hasn't been working for me.  I made a salad to go with it and gave it to Anton to take to work.  I asked him how it tasted when he came home--I make him be honest about my food, ever since I only found out he hated the way I was cooking something for him like two years after we'd been married.  So he told me the chicken was gross, but the potatoes were the best he'd ever had.  I was a little happy (because he thought I made the potatoes) and a little sad (because I actually didn't make the potatoes).  It's pretty sad when the best meals we have are the frozen ones I buy after running out of ideas.  :' (

The power went out...? CALL THE NATIONAL GUARD!

The other night, Anton came to bed around 4 A.M., all bummed because the power went out.  Of course I didn't even notice because I was... yes, sleeping.  He talked to me, jumped out of bed when he heard a noise because he thought someone sneaked into the house (like looters), came back, and talked to me some more.  Then he kept getting all these phone calls and texts from the school, telling people to come to campus if they needed shelter, and they kept changing things and then mass texting and calling everyone.  It was like a circus gone mad.  I got pretty frustrated.  Seriously, who is even awake at that hour to notice that the power is out?  No one--that is, until you wake us up and tell us.  Repeatedly.  Ugh.

Anyway, I've had a good start to the semester.  I'm getting better at doing my homework at a reasonable time--the problem with that is, Anton suffers because I cook less... less than I already cook, which is not much in the first place.  I did make dinner tonight, though.  Spent a lot of time and effort on this wonderful dinner... unfortunately it tasted gross and I couldn't even eat it.

BUT, I am enjoying my classes.  Music is easy because it's the very beginning class, but I'm sure it will get much more difficult.  Practical homemaking is fun.  I'm making a pillow right now.  It looks awesome.  My favorite class, though, is an extra one that I have to go to for my Special Education class. Every Monday I go to Institute for some special needs people.  They are the best.  And they like me, so... they're my only friends right now.  But it's great.  I have even been contemplating changing my major specifically to special education... but I don't think the school will let me since I'm supposed to graduate in a few months.  And I don't want to work in public schools anyway.

My neighbors are the most annoying people EVER.  They're the reason I'm still awake right now.  I can not wait until they leave in April.

Belugas are whales... poisonous, mean whales

I think some unseen force is out to get me.  I feel like the girl from Pure Luck... only I'm married to a European who doesn't have the same odd luck as me (which is a good thing.  I couldn't handle twice my luck).  From the very first day of the Fall semester, I get a headache at approximately 4:00 P.M. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I also spill or break anything I carry--or anything I touch.  And right as finals week was starting... I was trying to plug my computer in so I could continue listening to some relaxing music, when I accidentally pushed it into some water.
So I had no computer for finals week, which was a NIGHTMARE.  I lost several assignments that I spent hours working on, printed off, and stuck in my notebook to take to class... only to find that they had mysteriously disappeared when I opened my notebook to turn them in.  Mysteriously disappeared.  I have a system--I'm very organized about where I put my homework.  So I had to take turns with Anton using his computer and ended up not getting everything done that I needed, and had my grades in two classes drop from an A to a B.
Also, I keep hitting Anton in the face.  Completely by accident.  But his poor face can't take much more, I think.
My child development classes have been helping me figure out my issues, though.  I learned that there are not five senses, there are seven.  In addition to the five we all know (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch), there are two other systems involving body position and movement (proprioceptive system) and gravity, head movement, and balance (vestibular system).  That lesson was on understanding children who have over-developed or underdeveloped senses.  I realized I have an underdeveloped vestibular system.
The name of the article we had to read for that is called, Making Sense of Sensory Systems, by Marie Hendrix, in case you want to read it and learn more.
More weirdness: I had a dream that I was being exiled to the moon (right after my dream about being kind of kidnapped and then running from the police with Kylynn).  I think the Lloyds turned me in.  So on the moon, some people and I escaped, we were fighting the people who were trying to exile-slash-kill us... there was something about someone with invisible legs and a narrow stairway on the rocket-ship... then those of us who escaped were floating in a slow-moving, small-ish river (on the moon, still).  And there were some Belugas up ahead, so I swam up to see them, got really close, and reached my hand out to a rock to anchor myself (under the water), when Luke Harper grabbed me just in time to nearly miss being bitten by the Belugas, which were poisonous fish.  Then I realized Belugas are whales... poisonous, mean whales (thoughts going through my head in my dream).
And then Anton's phone rang, and woke me up.  I feel like my life is mostly made up of weird dreams and accidents...

You Should Definitely Judge Books

I'm sick again... : ( I hate getting sick.  Things are bearable during the day because I'm busy with stuff, but when I try to sleep at night, life is a nightmare... and not just because of the book I read right before I went to bed--but that does contribute to my nightmarish non-sleep.
Because of my Young Adult Lit class, I have to read a bunch of young adult books, and I was falling behind so I went to the library and just grabbed four books that had a Y/A label on them.  The very first one I read, just the other night, turned out to be a horror book.  I hate horror anything, I do NOT read horror books.  Of course I didn't get how horrible it was until it was too late, then I went back and looked at the prologue and understood everything.  Crystal clear.  I cried.  And that made my cold worse.
Anton found me while I was trying to stop crying and thought I was crying because of the pain from being sick.  But I told him the real reason to which he gasped, "Why would you read those kinds of books?" and I told him I didn't know it was like that, and then he told me to watch one of my movies to get it out of my head.  So I watched "Living it Up" with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, and I laughed the whole time--great movie.
Today Anton went to the drug store and came back with a bag FULL of drugs. He said, "Honey, I got everything you need!" I think he asked the store clerk what to get to help me and then got every single thing the person mentioned--even though I only needed like two things.  It's sweet of him though.  : )
We tried out some of the deer roast we brought back.  It was delicious (I was getting a little tired of duck).  For some reason I always have to have mustard with my roast to dip it in... I think I picked it up from Dad.
Don't have any pictures because I don't have a camera (the one on my phone makes everything blurry)... but I also don't really have anything to take pictures of.  I go to school, and come home.  Sometimes I get to see Anton and sometimes I get sick.  That is my life.
I know it's kind of pointless to dwell on how I'll be happy when some future event comes, because then I'll always be waiting for the future and never really be happy... but I really will be happier when I no longer have homework hanging over my head.  Homework is so depressing.
I think I'm rambling because I'm tired... and can't sleep because I'm all congested... which makes me even more tired.  SLEEP, come to meeeeeeeeeeeee....

Bear... in My Kitchen

So... the other night, I was debating whether or not I should go to the school to see Casablanca.  I was so tired and I thought I might just hit the sack.  And then I walked into the kitchen and saw a bear on my counter and Anton with a grin that covered his whole face standing next to it.
Okay... it was actually a porcupine.  But it looked like a bear. Seriously--face frozen into a ferocious, yellow-toothed snarl, long, sharp claws, humongous body, black pelt... yeah.  Then he started gutting it and it smelled like DEATH.  So I decided to go to the movie after all.
But when I got there, they had decided to play the movie another night and there was a chess tournament going on.  So I played chess all night.  And then went to Kaylynn's and recorded silly things on her computer because it was 1:00 in the morning and I was still afraid to go home and face the dead porcupine smell in my house.
Anyway, he ate some that night with a Ukrainian buddy and then I told everyone in my Russian class about it and I insisted on sharing it with anyone who was interested in trying some porcupine... heh.  But since it was a monster we still had plenty left.
So at 3:00 A.M. when I was half-sleeping while pretending to do homework, Anton came in and got me up to go to the kitchen with him.  On the counter was the crock pot, a plate of peeled potatoes, porcupine meat, some carrots, a can of cream of chicken, and a row of seasonings.  He insisted that since I am his wife and it is my job to cook, that I combine all the ingredients in the crock pot (under his careful instruction) and turn it on.  I looked at him like it's 3:00 in the freaking morning and you got me up to put all this crap that you already prepared in the crock pot?
Well, I did it and we ate it 18 hours later.  Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good.  I still find it amazing that he saw a porcupine and brought it home for dinner.  I would not have thought that animal to be edible.

Anton vs. the NINJA

Anton and I went fishing and hunting on Saturday a little ways out of St. Anthony.  It was nice to get out and do something together.  We didn't catch any fish (which I am thankful for).  It was a very interesting hunting experience, though.
After trudging through snow up to my knees, we made it to this rather large pond--lo and behold, there was a duck swimming on the pond (something I later wondered if I should have kept to myself--Anton didn't see him).  When we start toward the duck, he goes the opposite direction--we change direction, the duck changes direction.  So we split up, Anton goes around one side and I go around the other.  When we get to where the duck is, he's hiding in the reeds in the pond, so Anton puts on his waders and goes into the pond while I wait by the bank.  He's practically on the other side, when the duck comes paddling, nonchalantly on past me, at which point I call out to Anton and tell him where the duck is.  He gets out of the pond as quickly as possible, runs over to me, aims at the duck and shoots.

At the exact moment he pulled the trigger, the duck dived under the water, dodging the bullets by a fraction of a millisecond--the matrix had nothing on this duck, I tell ya what.  Weird.  So Anton reloads, aims, and pulls the trigger again.  By now we realize this is a ninja duck.  Seriously.  He didn't even try to get away, he just dived under the water like he could see the bullets coming toward him and just happened to be faster.  Than the bullets.
Anyway, Anton's a good hunter, and really good shot, so he finally gets the duck... but there's a little problem.  It's in the middle of the pond.  Anton wades in, but his waders only go up to his thighs, and the water's too deep in the middle of the pond (the duck was not in the middle of the pond, when Anton shot him, by the way).  He's just barely out of Anton's reach.  Dead ninja duck taunts us.
So Anton says he's coming back.  Two seconds later I hear, "WHOO, that's COLD!" as Anton is chest deep in the water, and only about five feet from the duck.  But he turns around and comes back because he's afraid of what will happen to the stuff in his pockets.  As he's coming out of the pond--I wish I could have gotten a picture of this--his waders are full of water, he's carrying like 10 gallons of pond water in each leg.
As he hands me his phone, which is completely water-logged, and the keys, he discovers his wallet is gone.  Panic sets in.  His wallet has his driver's license, his green card, everything that could possibly be of value, is in his wallet... in the pond.  Dead ninja duck strikes again.
Well, he wades back in, back tracks, prays (possibly apologizing to the ninja duck in his prayer...?), and eventually finds his wallet.  So we trudge again through the snow, Anton soaking wet this time, back to the car and head home.  We left the duck.

On the bright side, we had pheasant for dinner.  Roasted in the oven with seasoning, strips of bacon, onions, and carrots.  After 20 minutes, we removed the bacon and slathered cream of mushroom all over it and let it cook for another 35 minutes.  It was amazing.  Served with yummy potatoes and a fresh green salad.  I didn't know I would like pheasant so much; it's the best bird I've ever tasted, though.  : )

Sicky Sick

I told Jeri we needed to see more pictures, to which she claimed I have not been reading her blog because she posts hundreds... so I checked and realized it has been a while.

Anton got sick last week, he was sick for like 5 days, all through General Conference and everything. I feel badly because I didn't think it was that bad for him... our thermometer broke and I didn't know all of his symptoms.
Then I woke up Thursday with a fever.  I had a dentist appointment and I still went.  Also, Anton was gone on a hunting trip so I had to ride my bike all over town for school and appointments. (I'm terribly out of shape!) So, the dentist shot me up several times AND gave me laughing gas.
By the time I got home, all the dental drugs combined with my fever and the hormones indicating the coming of a special time of month made me really weird.  The odd sensation of drool dripping down my right side and having no control over my facial expressions only contributed to how weird I was, and I started posting random things on people's Facebook walls.  Like how I wanted to cry for Shantal's baby duck, and something about Neemeepoo to Kallan...
Anyway, I was exhausted.  Every part of my body ached--even my eyes, it hurt to look at anything.  I felt shaky and weak and I didn't really eat because by the time I got home all I think about was sleep...and I really should have paid more attention to Anton when it happened to him.  Luckily for me, he's nicer and he took care of me when he got home from his hunting trip Friday night.

He didn't get anything on his trip, though.  That place is supposedly an area where trophy-sized bucks roam and it's only open for a week, but there were none.  He saw a lot of does but he only had a buck tag.  He was so disappointed.  : (  Maybe next time.

I've decided I want a sewing machine for Christmas.  Or my birthday.  I'm going to sew.  Since the school is giving me 76 credits for free to do whatever I want with, I am going to take sewing, cooking, piano lessons, and some outdoor recreation classes.  I think I'm more excited for these than I am to actually get my degree.

We got moved from teaching the Sunbeams to the CTR 7 class.  I'm going to miss the little munchkins.  Anton said he will miss them too! : )

It's a good thing Anton and I talk about child-rearing practices (mostly I make him talk about it) because we were definitely not on the same page three years ago.  So I come home and talk with him about what I learn in my classes.  Usually he listens to me.  We still differ on some issues, though.  I'll convert him to my ways soon enough.

My hair faded back to it's natural color.  Good thing, because I don't really feel like dyeing it all the time.
All the vegetables in our garden are gone... : (  We didn't get to harvest the watermelons.  We planted them too late and it's already started freezing.
I miss playing night games.  And camping.
I love vinegar.