#15 Nonfiction books: Debt Free on Any Income by Tracy and Lyle Shamo

This book has special meaning to me because my Aunt and Uncle wrote it. Tracy is my mom's sister.

The book has been out for a while, and I've been wanting to read it since I knew they were writing it, but I just finally got around to doing so.

And I was not disappointed.

There is a lot of wonderful and practical advice for creating a budget and paying off debt. We have been very fortunate to not have a whole lot of debt. We had a little bit on a couple credit cards, but I was able to pay those off right away. The best thing is though, after performing a few of the calculations in the book (using their software), we realized that we could pay off our cars and the house in about 10 years! Isn't that amazing?! And we were planning on staying in this house at least that long anyway. To think, when we get to selling our house, 100% of the money could be cash towards a new house! That idea is just so energizing!

Anyway, this book is a pretty quick read - I finished it in only two days since there are a lot of charts and numberical data and the meat of the book is very concise with little to no fluff. It is great advice for everyone! I'm thrilled about the changes that we can make to our lives to save additional money and pay off all our debts. And it won't even change our standard of living hardly at all. It will just make it more organized!

I recommend this to everyone!

#91 Service: Cleaning

I spent an hour in service today and it felt amazing. I haven't really done any service in quite some time, because I've been "too busy". Partly that was true - most of the service projects that the relief society sets up occur during the day and I've always worked all day every day - but partially, I just didn't make time for it.

Well today I did. There are a couple single moms in our ward, and our bishop came from a single parent household, so he asked that we do a little bit extra to help them out. So the relief society organized cleaning house for a couple of the families. I helped out this morning. It is absolutely incredible how much cleaner a house can be in just an hour with those ladies working. I know I didn't help nearly as much as I should as far as overall contribution. I don't have years of experience coming up with creative solutions to everyday cleaning problems like many of these women do, but I definitely worked hard. And I must admit, cleaning someone else's house is a lot more enjoyable than cleaning my own house. Especially seeing her face when she came downstairs - she works two jobs, one during the day and one at night to support her family, so she sleeps really late in the morning. But when she came down, you could just see all of the gratitude on her face. It was worth every moment!

Hopefully my schedule will stay flexible enough that I can help out on a regular basis!

#15 Nonfiction books: Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute

Just finished listening to this book on CD. It was great!

Definitely not what I expected - the book is a dialogue between a high exec in a larger corporation and his newer lower exec, training him on dealing with people. I've been reading a lot of these fiction-non-fiction books lately, and I kind of like them. It's definitely a different experience than reading the standard textbook like approach. I do like the intellectual feel of standard nonfiction books, but this one had a great combination of both.

And the message was superb. I know I've heard similar things before, but not quite in this way. You know when you hear a message and sometimes, even though you dont mean to, you start to apply it to someone else that "really needs to hear this" and you sort of forget about yourself? I know, you probably have never done that, but I'm usually very guilty of it. Well, this book doesn't allow you to do that. It cuts it off right from the beginning, and reminds you not to do it all throughout. Nevertheless, everyone should read or listen to this. It's not just about "self-help" but about life skills in business, relationships, etc.

#15 Nonfiction books: SHIFT by Gary Keller

This book is mainly about real estate, and about 90% applies almost solely to real estate agents, but just about anyone in sales or their own business can use the principles toward their own success.

The premise of the book is how to succeed even when the market shifts and is a "bad market." This is all what we're hearing on the news every day in every single business. The book teaches several principles and habits for taking your business to the next level, whether the market is good or bad.

Since I'm doing a lot in real estate right now, there were several specific things that I can apply directly to my own work, but I think the underlying principles will help me in anything that I try to to.

#32 Movies: Benjamin Button

Wow.

This was an amazing movie.

I'm not going to say much about it, because everyone should go see it. It was so unusual, so creative, and just so good! It was very well done, and really draws you in to all of the emotions.

I think my favorite thing is just how the movie makes you think. Its not just the fact that you've never seen a movie at all like it, but all the little proverbial quotes in it as well that just make you stop and think.

Here are some of my favorites: (don't worry, none will ruin the movie) (oh, and by no means is this a complete list...there are so many more!)

"We are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss."

"Life can only be understood looking backward. It must be lived forward."

"We were meant to lose people. How else would we know how important they are?"

"You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went, you can curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go."

"It's funny how sometimes the people we remember the least make the greatest impression on us. "

"Don't let anyone tell you different! You got to do what you're meant to do!"

"Sometimes we’re on a collision course, and we just don’t know it. Whether it’s by accident or by design, there’s not a thing we can do about it."

"Have I ever told you I've been struck by lightning seven times? Blinded in one eye; can't hardly hear. I get twitches and shakes out of nowhere; always losing my line of thought. But you know what? God keeps reminding me I'm lucky to be alive."

"Along the way you bump into people who make a dent on your life. Some people get struck by lightning. Some are born to sit by a river. Some have an ear for music. Some are artists. Some swim the English Channel. Some know buttons. Some know Shakespeare. Some are mothers. And some people dance."

"For what it’s worth, it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit... start whenever you want... you can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that stop you. I hope you feel things that you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

#24...Almost...

One of my goals is to fix something in the house all by myself.

So when the toilet started running, I was actually pretty dang excited!

Anthony had mentioned something about needing a red rubber ring and just having to replace it. Super easy, right?

So while he was at work on Friday, I thought I'd surprise him!

Well I went to home depot and went to the plumbing section and there were 2 different kinds of red rubber rings and some other red rubber things. So I asked a guy working there (I don't think he was normally working in that section, but he seemed to know what he was talking about). He told me to get the other red rubber things - toilet flappers. However, I got home, took the lid off the toilet, and my toilet doesn't even have that part in it!

So I went back to home depot again, returned the toilet flappers, and bought the red rubber rings. Then I went back home, and switched it out. Easy.

Unfortunately, after turning the water back on, it didn't fix the problem.

Now, I got smart. I took a video of what the toilet was doing and the sounds it was making and took it back to home depot (for the 3rd time) and showed it to the actual plumbing specialist. He said that I had a little bit bigger problem than I thought. See, home builders like to skimp on little things like quality toilet parts, so even though the toilets have only been in use for about 6 months, their parts were already wearing out. So I had to replace the entire flushing mechanism.

He said it wasn't too difficult, so I went home, pulled out the instructions, and got to work!

I actually got pretty far, but then I realized that I needed a plumber's wrench and I knew we had one somewhere from installing the sink in the house, I just couldn't find it.

I was looking for that thing for at least a half hour. I knew what it looked like, but it was no where to be found!

That's when Anthony came home. And he walked over to right where I was looking, and pulled it right out.

Then he walked to the bathroom to see what I had done...

...And this is what he found:

And so, since it would have hurt his manhood or something to have his wife fix the toilet, he took over.

And finished it in like 10 minutes.

So I almost completed the goal.

I'm sure something else will break in the next 2 1/2 years though. So I should start earlier in the day so my husband doesn't come home in the middle. :)

#18 Recipe: Egg Noodle Casserole

My first recipe.

And it didn't really turn out very well. I mean, the flavor was good, and my husband will tell you that, but I attempted to make my own noodles, and apparently they don't cook quite the same way as the storebought kind. Meaning, I kind of didn't cook them enough. At all.

Ok, and it took me nearly two hours to complete a simple recipe. (Part of that was running to Fresh & Easy to get the ingredients that I thought we already had...)

Overall, I definitely want to try the recipe again. I'll just make sure I cook the noodles longer!


Egg Noodles

2 1/4 c Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
3 Eggs

Combine ingredients in mixer until clumpy. Then hand mix to form a large ball of dough (add flour if too sticky or water if too dry). After you have a ball of dough, attach it to the dough hook on the mixer and mix on level 2 for about 2 minutes.

(This is where my love for my mixer comes in - I put the dough in the mixer, walked away for 2 minutes, came back and it was magically done! I love this thing!)

Let dough sit for 20 minutes before rolling out, then cut into desired shape and let dry for at least another 20 minutes. Boil noodles until cooked thoroughly. (Takes a bit longer than you might expect, at least for me).


Chicken & Noodles

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken broth (more or less, depending on thickness)
1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic
4 chicken breasts
Seasoning salt to taste (I used Laury's)
Onion salt to taste (not too much or else it is just too salty!)
Crushed black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon (ish) extra virgin olive oil

Sautee the garlic with the olive oil and add diced chicken breast. Cook thoroughly.

Add the cream of mushroom soup and cream of chicken soup, then the chicken broth until you get the desired consistency. Season with the seasoning salt, pepper, and onion salt, but again, not too much or else it will be really salty (and there is already plenty of sodium in the soups).

Add the egg noodles from above when it is all done and voila! Easy yummy food!

I think if I were to do it again though, I would add a little bit of sour cream, and maybe some fresh chopped green onions instead of onion salt, but I always try recipes as close to verbatim as possible before improvising.