What you got in your pocket me lady?

Hi Sweetie! I just wanted to say how proud I am of you making your first thing with the sowing machine! I enjoyed seeing how happy you were with the finished product and the sparkle in your eyes! And remember babe that its not the size of the pocket that is important, but what you carry around in it! I recommend carrying my love for you in it! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Today is my babes birthday and I wanted to wish him a really big happy wonderful birthday day! Stephen is the best husband and I'm excited to celebrate his birthday with him. Stephen is such a great helper in the house. He cooks, cleans, does laundry, takes out the trash. He is so wonderful helping in the house. He is so smart and works so hard at school and work. I'm so proud of him and all he has accomplished with work. Stephen has gone above and beyond and has gotten many compliments about his degree of working and that he goes the extra mile. I am so proud of Stephen when he plays his bass guitar. He has been playing for about 12 years and he is such a natural at it. Again, with his abilities to play he will get many compliments on his unique style of playing. He is so much fun to listen to and watch playing. He truly loves it. Stephen is so much fun to be with as we laugh over so many things. He has such a great sense of humor, wonderful personality, and is truly my best friend. I love you Honey! I hope you have the best day ever! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STEPHEN, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! :)

Pizza, pizza

Okay so going along with our trying to save money and cut back where we can we would get a pizza almost every Friday night and have pizza movie night right. Not EVERY Friday, but it was close. So, we decided we needed to not do that, but the thing was, we both like pizza. So, I remembered from my mission this lady making pizza on french bread. Now at the time, however she made it, it really wasn't all that good. But I thought Stephen and I could attempt and maybe we could come up with something that we liked. Well Stephen taught me about using spices. Now when I hear the word spices I think Cinnamon. So why would you put Cinnamon on pizza. Well you wouldn't but there are lots of spices and I'm finding that a lot of times I think spices are what make food taste a little bit better. So, this is what we do:

1. Take a loaf of french bread $1.50- Cut it in half long ways.

2. Take 2 cans of tomato sauce $0.10 (on sale, up to $0.30 a can)- spread one can each on the loaves of french bread.

3. Take Italian Seasoning $1.00 (Depending on the brand and size you can spend more, but this will last you a whole slew of pizza's.)- Dash the Seasoning onto the sauce. (I don't know if this is technically a 'spice' but it goes with all other 'spices' so any way...)

4. Take Shredded Mozzarella Cheese $1.50 (We use what I've gotten on sale, Stephen likes Mozzarella so its usually Mozzarella or Pizza since Pizza is a Mozzarella type cheese. I buy the regular size about 8 oz., not the large size, )- Take the cheese and spread across bread covering the sauce. Leave just a little bit of cheese.

5. Take Pepperoni (Gallo Brand is what we like) $3.50 (We like pepperoni, we've not tried other meats but I'm sure they would be good. This bag is good for about 4 pizza's.)- Take pepperoni slices and spread on top of cheese.

6. Take the remaining cheese and spread across the pepperoni so just a little cheese is on top. Then Dash just a little bit of the Italian Seasoning on top of the cheese.

7. Cook in the oven at 375 degrees. We cook it for about 25 minutes. (I don't know if we have actually cooked it the same time ever, we just watch it and when it looks good to us, the cheese melted and browned just a little then we take it out.) We let it sit for about 5 minutes to cool.

Now I have gone in to great detail about how to make the pizza. But it is really the easiest put it together meals we have. It is one of our favorites as well. Because it comes out so, so, so good. As you can see it comes out to be about $4.50 a pizza I am estimating, due to the pepperoni and the seasoning being used more than once. You should all try this and let me know how it turns out for you. It is now our Friday night Pizza instead of the $14.00 pizza (which was the price with a coupon) and we spend the time together making the pizza. It's really quite fun! Here is the before its cooked and after its cooked products! So you have a better idea of what I'm talking about!

The french bread pizza ready to be cooked!


The yummy french bread pizza all done!

Exciting News

Well, I am very excited to share some news! I wanted to share that I got a job! Now there are a few reasons why this is so exciting. I want to be a sign language interpreter. I love sign language. I have shifted gears and focus of what I had been doing. For the last 3 1/2 years I have been working with parents whose children were taken from them due to abuse, neglect, abandonment. I worked with these parents and taught them parent skills and life management skills. We covered discipline, nutrition, safety, appropriate behavior, development stages, and interaction with the child and actually having interaction. We covered hygiene, home skills, budgeting, job skills, transportation, community resources, how to seek resources, housing and seeking it, getting it, keeping it. I had lived, breathed, dreamed, talked, and done this job for so long that I was beginning to feel like it was my whole life. The people that I worked with, the parents, were people who taught me many, many valuable lessons. I learned so many things from working with them. It has been a very challenging and growing processes the last 3 1/2 years. There are some very good memories and good times and there are other times that were very hard and difficult to deal with and work through. I nearly wanted to just strangle my client(s). I've gained so many skills from that job that I really don't know of any other job that could teach such a variety of skills. Now, I was at a point that I needed to get a job and I was tired of working in the field that I had been working in. That was when I began thinking about how much I loved sign language. So, I decided that I wanted to start working with people in the deaf community. So, I got hooked up with a website that had a bunch of different agencies and I made some calls and sent out some emails and after some responses and correspondence I got myself a job. I know am going to be working at Center for Hearing Impaired Children. They work with the State school which is Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind. I am going to be a Preschool Teacher's Assistant. I am so excited. I have my foot in the door of the deaf community now and so it will be that much easier to maneuver around in different areas that I would really like to get some experience as I will be working towards getting my sign language interpreting. The people that I met that I will be working with are the sweetest people and just so kind and generous. I am just so excited. I am going to learn so much from this position and I just can't wait to begin!!! :)

A lesson learned

Stephen and I were driving home and we were approaching a stop light. We had not quite reached the stop light yet. The intersection was somewhat of a busy intersection. Its right off the freeway and its a main street. So as we were approaching the intersection our light was red so we were coming to a stop. We see cars that were turning left and were then passing by us. Suddenly we see this little boy who is not near the crosswalk, the side of the road that we are on that has 3 lanes is full, and we see this little boy just start crossing the street and running through the cars not looking around for cars. Suddenly we see a green car that had turned left and this little boy is headed right for the other side of the street that is going to put this little boy in front of this car and he is going to get hit. We both are looking and say that big, "Huhuhuhuh" sound as we see this little boy and think we are going to see him die right there in front of us. Well luckily the green car saw the little boy and screeched to a stop. The little boy didn't realize he nearly got hit and just ran across the street and made it to the other side. My first reaction was, "Phewwwww." Then suddenly Stephen is pulling into the gas station where this little boy ended. Stephen rolls his window down. Now my reaction is, "What is Stephen going to do." Stephen, then as nice as can be, asks the little boy where he was going. He said he was going to the gas station. Stephen asks him where his parents are and the little boy says that they are at home. Stephen asked him where home was and the little boy pointed over the car and said, "Over there."

Okay, at this point there are a couple of different thoughts. 1. That the little boy could possibly think what is this man asking me all these questions. 2. That has the little boy not been taught about talking to strangers and especially when its a man in a car. (This appears as if we are going to kidnap this little boy. Not good for us. 3. That I was thinking that this little boy is so willing to just give these answers to a complete stranger. 4. That he is giving the answers, BUT that he is all alone! He looked like he was only about 7 years old. 5. So then, what kind of parents does he have??????

So to continue, Stephen talks to the little boy about how the street is really busy and that he needs to use the crosswalk so he doesn't get hit. I'm in the passenger side and making comments, "Ask how old he is?", "Ask if he knows what a crosswalk is?", "Ask what...?". Stephen asks what I'm saying and I have him explain what a crosswalk is.

(Who knows? This little boy is somewhat young. At this age, you can't expect the child to just 'know.' Especially if he is darting across the road, he may have never been taught about crossing the road and to look both ways. Did his parents not know that when this child came into the world he didn't know about the world and they were going to have to teach him about the world. That is there job as the parent. The child is not going to know what a crosswalk is or what a street or what a corner or what a road or a light or 'dangerous' means until they, the parents TEACH him. This is my soap box for parenting, since I taught parenting classes to drug users for so long, I get really fired up when parents who aren't drug users don't teach their kids and expect them to know to 'STOP THAT', 'DON'T DO THAT', 'NO', 'STOP IT'. I say, "Stop WHAT, Don't do WHAT, No WHAT, Stop WHAT???????" EXPLAIN IT TO THE CHILD!!!!! Okay, I'm done with my soap box.)



So Stephen asks the little boy if he knew where the crosswalk was. The little boy pointed to it. Stephen then explained to him that when he crosses the road he needs to use the crosswalk and to wait for the light that shows the person walking and when he say the hand to not walk across the street. Stephen explained that there was a car that almost hit him and that the reason to use the crosswalk was so he would not get hit. I poked my head out there so the little boy could hear me and I told him that it would have been sad if he had gotten hit by the car and gotten hurt really bad. I told him that his parents would have missed him a lot. We asked him to be safe and to use the crosswalk from then on. We start to drive off and we see that the little boy is turned around to head back across the street. He started to walk toward the sidewalk and walked toward the crosswalk. But before he got to the crosswalk, again we see he is about to just bolt out into the street. This time though we see that he hesitated because he saw a car coming towards him. He saw some people standing on the corner and he walked toward the crosswalk. It was the people's turn to walk across. He saw the people start to walk and he started to walk. This time he was looking around more and he was not just running full speed to the other side of the road. He hesitated some even in the crosswalk but he made it across the street, much more safely that time. We were glad to see and hoped that maybe by having talked to him and explained about using the crosswalk that he learned something and hopefully it will stick and will help him in the future.

After that little experience we talked about it and we were was shaken up by it quite a bit. I mentioned maybe having called the police and then Stephen was thinking that we should have called the police to have them come take this little boy back home. I had a thought and told Stephen about it and we decided that maybe it was just better that we explained and taught him what we could and hopefully that will stick with him more than what could have possibly happened in my thought. This was my thought: if the police were to come and take this little boy home they would talk to the parents about making sure the little boy is not out running around in the streets alone. Possibly. After the police leave, the parents though would not take in anything that the police had said and instead end up getting upset and angry at the little boy for going and getting in trouble that brought the police to there house which made them look bad. Then possibly hurt the child, punish the child, and basically the bottom point of the child being the one to get in trouble. Now I only thought that this is what would possibly happen since the little boy is out running around alone in the first place, and the parents are not taking any responsibility in that regard so why would they take the responsibility if it was said to them straight face that THEY need to take care of there son and make sure that he is always safe.

The lesson here is not the child having done anything wrong. Its just so sad to Stephen and I who work (or worked) with so many of these kinds of parents. They take no responsibility for their actions. They as the parents are responsible for this little boy. To teach him how to cross the road, to teach him its not safe to go wander around on a busy street by himself, to now that if the police were to bring their little 7 year old boy home because he was not safe was an irresponsible action on their part and not paying attention to knowing where their child is and making sure he was safe.

We don't know what would have happened if we would have called the police and we don't know the circumstances of this little boys life. What we do know is that there are a lot of people that we have worked with that are in that situation I just mentioned. We as individuals all need to take responsibility for our own actions. We need to not make excuses for EVERYTHING, we need to not blame EVERYONE else, and we need to BUCK UP and deal with the consequences we are handed for the choices that we make.

Stephen and I experienced this situation of this little boy nearly getting hit by a car and could have gotten hurt badly to the extreme of dying and that would have been because of parents who didn't take responsibility of making sure their son was safe that day. Stephen and I were so shook up by this for a few days and how glad we were that the little boy didn't get hit. This is a situation that LUCKILY he didn't get hit, but is he going to be as lucky next time?

We talked about this and thought about this and it was a very interesting lesson to learn in a very unique kind of way, about being responsible. We all need to be responsible and I am going to work on being more responsible in my own life!

I know its a day early!

Okay, I know I'm posting this a day early, but I want to make sure that I post it and I'm worried that I will forget because that happens way too often in my life!!! Ask Stephen!!! So, to make sure that I don't forget I'm going to just go ahead and post it a day early! So now some of you are wondering what are you posting a day early! Well its my older sister JENNIFER JEANE HOOPES MIX Birthday tomorrow. August 28, 1978 she was born in Idaho Falls, Id. She was the best big sister I could ask for. I wanted to be so much like her. I wanted to have the same things she had. I wanted to be go out with her friends. I wanted to be in the same school as her. In yet, I just was not able to be cool enough, why, because I was the annoying little sister!!! In spite of being the younger little sister right below Jen, she was still very good to me. She has always been so good about put an extra effort in things she does for you. She has always been there. She is always up to party and play. She is always a gamer which makes her so great to be around. I have learned so many things from Jen and I am grateful for all the things that she taught me! So I hope you have the best birthday ever Jen. You definitely deserve it. Go out and do something crazy and fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JINJIN, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!! :)

Do you have yours memorized?

I read this little article in a magazine about the things that people spend their money on and what lasting things come from the things that were spent on. They pointed out that when buying material things the gratification lasts for only a short time. They said the money that is spent on vacations has a much longer gratification since there is the memories and the pictures the laughs and so many things that can come from vacations. Stephen and I decided that we were going to stop spending money on material things and we wanted to focus on saving to have amazing vacations that we would have the lasting memories and joys and pleasures. So, we had to look at some of the things we spent our money on and how we could eliminate the spending. One big area was he bought books and I bought DVD's. We both enjoy reading and watching movies so we decided okay, we are going to go to the library. Now the library at first was overwhelming for me since its this building with books that's organized in ways that I could not figure out. It has movies that are a lot of times just far out there. The people that work there seem to be older and I worried about their patience with me. Well, I decided okay this is going to be good. We went at first to check out a movie or two. Just see what they had. In the meantime I had heard about this book called Twlight and so I asked the librarian if she had happened to hear of it. She chuckled and said it would be kind of a long waiting list but that they had about 25 books and so the list should go pretty fast. Okay, I thought so she put on the holding list. We checked out a couple of movies and went on our way. As time progressed I thought of looking up a movie one time while we were at home. Sure enough I was quite surprised that they actually had a selection of movies that was up to date just always checked out. I wanted to hold the item and I could do that from home but I needed the library card. So I got that out and decided to put it on hold. Well, I checked a couple other things and put them on hold just because it was kind of fun to feel like I was holding things from home. I ended up putting the whole Twlight series on hold. I put a few movies and a CD or two. Then I was talking to Stephen on the phone and he mentioned the library had called and said that one of the holds had come in. I was so excited that the library had called and had our things. Then I gradually started looking things up from home more often. I looked up more movies, Cd's, Books. I have lists of movies and books from companions from my mission that I asked them about their favorite books and movies and wrote them all down. Now I can look them up. So then I figured out that rather than putting everything on hold and it all coming at once, since you can only have 25 items out at once. They have that you can place things on a "My List". Essentially its like a que, like Netflix or Blockbuster has, where you can just store all the movies you want to watch eventually. So, I have things on hold, things in my list, things that I'm reading, and things waiting to be put on my list. Its really been quite fun. The whole overwhelming aspect of the library: Completely Gone! It's great. I love the library. Stephen was joking and said the library calls every day and says they have something since you have put the whole library on hold. Ha, ha, ha! It's just so fun though! I'm definitely getting much more from the library than every expected! So, I'm looking things up on the computer from home nearly every day that I now have my library card memorized. You could call me on any given day, off the cuff and I could tell it to you. So, do you have yours memorized? :)

The Game Is On!!!!

Describe ME in one word.... just one single word. Think of the word and then comment. Don’t peek and see what others wrote for their word. No cheating!!!
You can then copy and paste this on your Blog and see how many strange & interesting things your family and friends say about you.

This is really fun(ny). Here's how to Play:

1. Think up your word. Don’t peek at the comments! Once you have the word, hit the comment key and type your one word YOU thought of and then send. Even if anonymous, just add your name on with the word so I know it was from you!

2. Then paste this message on your Blog, and see what people say about you when limited to one word!!!

Thanks!

I wanted to give a big thanks to my Aunt Julie. She threw me a bridal shower the morning of the Luau. She did such a great job. I don't know truly who all she got help from, so those who helped Aunt Julie thanks so much as well. We all had so much fun. The games she planned were fun, the food was great. The prizes were fun and I even won! Yeah! I got great gifts and thanks to everyone for those. Thanks to all who came out and were able to make it. We had a good time. Thanks again Aunt Julie for throwing me a shower, it meant a lot! :)

This picture shows my Aunt Julie there in the background! She's such a cutie isn't she!!!

Bountiful Baskets the Food Co-Op

So, my sister Jen has told me about these food co-op for awhile called Bountiful Baskets. I looked and the closest one to me was about 20 miles away. So I hesitated and hesitated. Then, we got in this situation where I don't have a job and am limited on my job options so I decided to give it a look again and found a site that was only about 3 to 4 miles away from our house. So I decided okay well, we can try it this first time and see how it goes. Lets just say, WOW! If you have a food co-op close to your house do it. Basically I got online and signed up. I then just added things to my shopping cart which was a basket of fruits and vegetables. We decided to get some bread as well. As a first time person the fruits and vegetables were $17 and the bread was $2. The bread was artisan bread, it was a rye bread that we picked. So, we ordered and then on Saturday morning of the 16Th we took our own basket and headed off to get our produce basket. We needed to pick up the food around 8:15am. We went to a park and I saw these rows of baskets with food. I saw a line of people with empty baskets. I saw others by the rows of food baskets filling their baskets and walking away with these full baskets that was looking like a lot of food. So I was starting to kind of get excited. Now the catch, is just that you don't really know what kinds of fruits and vegetables they will have from week to week. So we got in line and heard the chitter chatter of woman who have done this food co-op more than once. So it came our turn and we were sent to one of the rows and the guy asked how many baskets we had and we told him that we got one basket. He then said that the 2 round laundry baskets of food were ours. So we filled our bucket up. we got 2 lettuce leaf packs, 5 peaches, 7 tomatoes, 8 sweet potato's, 2 lbs of green beans, 10-13 carrot sticks, a cantaloupe, 6 bananas, a carton of strawberries, and our artisan bread. We have already had about 3 or 4 meals using the fruits or vegetables and the food isn't even half gone yet. It was a great, great buy. I just ordered our next bunch and its only $15 this time. You pick up the baskets every other Saturday, so we will skip this Saturday to pick up and wait till the following Saturday. This time though we are going to be getting Alpine Bread, white sandwich bread and honey wheat bread, along with our produce basket. Yummy! I can't wait. (This picture is not of our food. I had put our food away and then thought of taking a picture and I have not had the energy to pull all the food out to lay it out to take a picture. So I found this one online from someone who took this picture after getting there food from bountiful baskets. So it would be something similar, but just different veggies and fruits. But the idea of how much there is for the great price.)

For Arizonians you can go to: www.bountifulbaskets.org its on the west and the east side. Enjoy! :)