Feeling kind of frustrated

I'm not quite sure how to convey the way I'm feeling right now without it sounding bad. We have been in our current ward for 2 years next month and I love our new ward. The people are great and I've made a lot of friends. But the friendships I have formed are different from others that I have formed in the past. In previous wards we had friends who loved to hike, camp, play sports, play games and who we connected with almost too perfectly. Where we are now we have friends who like to play games but that's about it. We haven't found any couples who like to do active things that we've really connected with. There are plenty of couples where one spouse loves the outdoors.

I don't know, I'm just feeling homesick for our friends in other wards. We live closer to friends we made in our college ward who we have gone camping with once but not in our ward. It's just really been bugging me lately. I also have had girl friends who we've gone shopping together. And it's not that our ward has all these horrible people in it. There aren't any horrible people in our ward. They are all amazing people, but they just don't share our interests. We've always had at least one couple that we really connected with. Argh! I really don't know how to word this! Right now I'm debating whether or not to even post it because I don't want people to feel bad.

Do we smell or something?? I shower and wear deodorant everyday. Do I need to change scents?

My friend's blog

I have the honor and pleasure of being able to associate with my friend Lisa. Her, her husband and their 3 beautiful girls are in our ward over here and I love them! Her blog address is http://donaldandlisasorensonfamily.blogspot.com . I would highly recommend checking it out. Don and Lisa's youngest girls Elisabeth was born with a list of challenges and I just love the way they have handled it. There are very few people that I know in this world who are like Don and Lisa and I feel so blessed just to be able to know them and associate with them. So check out Lisa's blog! I feel uplifted every time I read it (which is every day).

And check out this post to get caught up. I bawled like a baby.

Week 3 day 2

Today I jogged my Week 3 day 2 jog. I am really excited. I love that I only have to jog 3 times a week. Six more weeks to go and I'll be running a 5k! Then I'll start training to run a 10k. My eventual goal is to run a sprint distance Triathlon. I read somewhere that only 1.7% of the population ever complete a Triathlon. I want to be in that percentage!

I was talking to my mom the other day and she told me that you need to get to a point in your life where you say to yourself this is who I am and this is what I do and then go and do it. Well I am Jen and I am a runner and future Triathlete. When I get discouraged I repeat those words to myself and then put my head down and run. For too long I have let myself slip into this lazy state. I let myself go and now I'm paying for it. I have been surprised at how easy it is to take 20-30 minutes out of my day 3 times a week and jog.

Before I started I didn't think I had any free time left in the day. But once you figure out your priorities you'd be amazed at how much time you waste during the day. If at the end of the day my house isn't clean and dinner isn't made it's because I wasted too much time doing useless stuff. Now there are those off days where Emma and Linnea are being impossible and some things don't get done but they don't happen all the time. I've realized more and more that I don't have an equal balance of leisure and work. I lean heavier on leisure. Now that I've changed to a more equal balance I am so much happier. I still workout, play with my kids, read my scriptures, spend time with Jacob, have the house cleaned,make dinner, and have a little time to read other books and/or watch tv/play on the internet.

"Letting circumstances or others determine your worth gives them inappropriate control and power."

A couple of my friends had this as their status. I feel like this has been my life for the past couple years. I've let others put me down and have kind of had this poor me thing going on. So this year I decided that I was going to run a 5k. I have been training for almost 2 weeks and I feel fantastic! I love the way I feel after my 20 minutes of jogging. I feel so much better about myself now that I am jogging 3 days a week, running on my elliptical twice a week and then going to the gym and lifting weights once a week. I'm going to try and start running on my elliptical 3 times a week as well and going to the gym at night after the girls go to bed and lifting weights on those days that I run on the elliptical.

This couch to 5k program is just awesome! I've said before that I'm not a runner and I'll say it again. I'm not a runner. But this program that I'm doing is turning me into one. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has wanted to get into shape. It's really gradual and really easy to do. 20 minutes three days per week. I have found that I am happiest and feel the most self worth when I am doing something active.

And since I haven't posted a recipe in who knows how long I will add one below. It's a new recipe that we tried last week and loved. And I got it from my Taste of Home Magazine.

Chicken Tortilla Chowder

• 2 cans (10-3/4 ounces each) condensed cream of potato soup, undiluted
• 2 cans (10-3/4 ounces each) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 2 cups 2% milk
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 can (11 ounces) Mexicorn, drained
• 1 package (10 ounces) ready-to-serve roasted chicken breast strips, chopped
• 1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
• 3 flour tortillas (8 inches), cut into 2-inch x 1/2-inch strips
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• Additional shredded cheddar cheese, optional

Directions

• In a large saucepan, combine the soups, milk and broth. Heat through, stirring frequently. Add the corn, chicken and chilies; bring to a boil. Stir in tortilla strips. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Stir in cheese until melted. Sprinkle each serving with additional cheese if desired. Yield: 10 servings (2-1/2 quarts).

Nutrition Facts: 1 cup (calculated without additional cheese) equals 280 calories, 11 g fat (5 g saturated fat), 42 mg cholesterol, 1,569 mg sodium, 30 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 15 g protein.

I didn't have any green chillies but it still tasted great to me. Emma and Jacob loved it! This will be another one of my fall back recipes if I'm ever in a pinch. And if you want a copy of my favorite recipes send me your email address and I will email a copy of it to you.

My newest website find!

I have been wanting to get into crafting lately. And I found this awesome website that I will be doing pretty much all of the projects on (okay maybe not ALL). She has a bandanna dress, an earring tutorial, a picture hanging idea, and a canvas wall art tutorial. I am so excited!

I am also following another website called fistfullofcoupons.com. I think it's pretty self explanatory but if you have questions you can email them or me. They post really awesome deals. I went to one of their free classes at my friend's house a couple weeks ago and learned a lot.

"What button do you push to do that!?"

This is an old picture of Emma but I can't find my camera... I should probably get on that.

So first things first. This morning was day one of week two of my 9 week couch to 5k program. I was all excited to get out and start the second week. I got just over halfway with my jog and Emma and Linnea both started screaming... like really loud. And my shorts were falling down (guess that's kind of a good thing right), and I couldn't see through my glasses because it was misting out (I will be getting contacts again soon since we now have vision insurance! YAY!). So I cut the jog short. But oh well, I felt really bad about that but then realized that two weeks ago today I wasn't even doing as much as I had done today.

After I got home I calmed the girls down and called my mom. Emma came over and asked who I was talking to. I replied that I Was talking to the phone. Her eyes got all big and she said "And the phone is talking back to you"? To which I replied yes. Then her eyes got even bigger and she gets all excited and says "Mommy! What button do you push to do that!?". I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. My mom was busting up laughing on the other end too. It was awesome.

So then we went to Albertsons for their Quaker sale and I bought 25 boxes of oatmeal/cereal, spent $25 and saved $82.67! I was so excited. I love good deals. That deal is going on through tomorrow.