Thought this was a great idea....

and it was! They cook a little unevenly but it is a great "quick breakfast" idea!

http://www.hotcouponworld.com/2012/01/freezer-meal-breakfast-burriotos/

Preparation

Tanner and I have been married a whole three months now and we are growing at an exponential rate due to the many changes that marriage brings and through the grace of the Lord. I love Tanner and I love having so much love in our little home and with all of that love brings a greater desire to start a family and bring even more love into our home. I would not go as far as to say I am baby hungry but the thought crosses my mind much more frequently than it ever used to. However, we both feel that it is not quite time yet for many reasons. Rather it is a time for preparation!

Having studied Home and Family Living in college I was very blessed to take classes about child development, strengthening marriage and family, family finance and other great classes that I thoroughly enjoyed. During those classes I remember thinking "how could I have ever been a good mom without knowing all of this?". Needless to say, I learned a lot. However that was a few years ago and I have not been able to use all of the good stuff I learn therefore that all to famous saying "you don't use it you lose it" comes in.

My goal from now until we start our family I am going to put myself through an intensive training program. Heaven knows I will still feel like I have no clue what I am doing when that first baby comes but I want to prepare myself in ways that I know I can.

1. Learn to cook better. I love cooking when I have plenty of time and resources but cooking with not so much time and resources...not nearly as much fun. I want to learn how to! I am going to make my own cook book with a collection of recipes that Tanner and I love that are easy and delicious so I am not digging through the many cookbooks and feeling overwhelmed.

2. Get myself (and Tanner) healthy! I am not in love with junk food, but I would say my weakness is not getting as much fruits and veggies as I should. I also have a BIG weakness of not drinking the recommended amount of water that I should. I want my body to be as healthy as ever so that my body can handle pregnancy well. We have been doing pretty good at getting to the gym a couple times a week but we can always be doing better.

3. Go through my college books and relearn that many and amazing things I learned about child development, strengthening marriage and family, family finance etc.

4. Trust in the Lord. My most recent motto is "Live by faith." I often find myself letting my fears get the best of me; fear of not being able to have children, fear of not having enough money, fear of something happening to Tanner, (I will stop cause it is a terrible habit that I am breaking). I am choosing to live by faith. As I make this choice everyday it is so much easier to see the Lord's miracles in our lives. He watches over us and has His hands in all aspects of our lives. Strengthening my love and trust with the Lord is my biggest preparation to motherhood.

We are having a blast with just the two of us for now. It is such a unique time in life and we are loving every second of it!

Being proactive

Things I am going to learn with my free time at my job:
French
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe InDesign
Read Parley P. Pratt's autobiography
Read Covenant Hearts

My Creative Outlet

I'm not going to lie, lately I have been pretty irritable and feeling unfulfilled in my job. My job has nothing to do with what I studied in college nor is it something I EVER imagined I would be doing; but with this economy it is a job I am grateful for. In college I started studying graphic design because I thought it would be a great job for a stay at home mom and I loved all of the creativity and art of it. However, the graphic design program at BYU is very competitive and fearing that I might not have what it takes I was led to what a major that felt so obviously right for me. Home and Family Living with an emphasis in Clothing Design and Construction. I have being sewing since early Jr. High and drawing/designing clothes since I could hold a pencil. Though it is something I have always loved I never considered making it a career until midway through college. By this time handfuls of companies that designed and produced modest and cute clothes were popping up and doing really well so that was my goal, to either work for them or get the guts to do my own line. I finished my degree as quickly as I could and set off in pursuit of a career I would love! It was August 2009, and the economy was at its worst. I researched every modest design company I knew of but to my dismay none were hiring and especially not for designers because typically the owners did the designing. I interviewed with Modbod, Modbe, applied at Downeast and any other place that was hiring. I was blessed to know someone that knew someone who owned MikaRose, a company that designed and produced modest dresses, and wouldn't you know Mika hired me as her assistant. My favorite part of working with her was the photo shoot! It was so much fun shopping for accessories and putting outfits together and helping the models get ready. My least favorite part was the fact that I don't think she has a clear vision of what she wanted me to do so after about a month she let me go because they could not afford to pay me. I went home devastated and dreaded the world of unemployment again, however, when I got home there was an email there waiting for me. Months earlier I had applied for a retail management internship in Disney World and that day they sent me a letter telling me to call and schedule an interview! If I had not been let go that day I wouldn't even consider interviewing. I called, I scheduled, I interviewed, it went very poorly......amazingly, I got it! A couple months later I packed up my car and was off to manage at Disney's All Star Resort for a year. It was long hours and very stressful learning it all but I learned a TON about managing people and how Disney's business works. I would not trade that experience for anything. The very best part of it was that it put in me in a position to meet my sweetheart who is absolutely perfect for me and I love him so stinkin' much! The one down side of the internship was that with all the stress and time I was putting into it I had no energy left for sewing or creating, I told myself I was putting it on pause and that is where it has been ever since. Two years have passed since I started that internship; I worked at a wedding dress store that went out of business and doing a temporary graphic design job and now I work for the state collecting child support. We barley make enough to pay our bills and while that is alright for now and I should feel secure and happy about that but I don't; I come home crying at least once a week. It is partly because I feel underutilized and underpaid and partly because I am not doing anything that I love or even like. I rarely sew or do art anymore because I am so stressed about making the bills, cooking, cleaning and taking care of other responsibilities. I have no outlet to satisfy my creativity therefore, I am making this blog! It is going to be the place where I can write about what is going on in me and Tanner's lives a place where I can express my creativity and post things I have sewn or made! That's right! I said sew! I am going to start sewing again! I will write about what I am cooking for dinner, cute things I find online, things that we are learning and little tidbits and thoughts about life! This first post has been very long but it is so nice to just write what I am thinking! I am very exciting about blogging!