To My Clients

I am taking appointments in UTAH for the week of DECEMBER 15th - 20th. Those appointments will be $40 for a Color and Haircut. This is the last week I will be taking appointments till February. Thank you all for being amazing clients!!!

Fancy Cranberry Sauce

What you will need:
1 Bag of Cranberries
1 Cup Ginger Ale
1 Orange
1 Cup Brown Sugar
A dash of Cinnamon


What you do:
In a sauce pan you squeeze the orange out until youve gotten all the juices out.  Mix in the brown sugar, ginger ale, and cranberries.  Once it gets boiling and bubbling you add your dash of cinnamon.  once the berries start to pop and burst youre ready to strain the juice. 

Take a strainer

(this is what mine looks like)


and hold it over another sauce pan.  Dump the contents from the first sauce pan into the strainer.  All the juice will be in the second sauce pan.  With a spoon mash the cranberries until all you have left is the skins of the cranberries.  Slowly lift up the strainer up and scrape the bottom of it with the spoon.  (the stuff youre scraping off the bottom of the strainer will look like Jelly.  Mix it in with the sauce in the second pan.

TADAH!  You have the most delicious cranberry sauce ever!

Binders for Emergency Prepardness

Hello!  I know that I didn't give a very detailed list of the things that you can put in your "Important Document Binder".  There is a couple of reasons but the biggest one is because there's so many different ways to do it.  But I will give you a list (in order) of how I made mine. 




When you open up the binder this is what you will see...

EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBER SHEET

• A box with our address and phone numbers
• A box with “essential” info for every member of our family (name, DOB, allergies)
• A box that says: “If you are unsure who to call and it is an emergency, dial 911!
• A box with phone numbers to all our insurance companies along with the insurance policy numbers (car, life, health etc)
• A box with other important emergency numbers (poison control, 24 hr nurse line, gas company, plummer, etc)
• A box with our doctor’s phone numbers.
• Husband’s family’s numbers (parents, siblings, grandparents)
• My family’s numbers
• Local friend’s numbers
• Non-local friend’s numbers
• Other important numbers

The next page will have the FAMILY EVACUATION PLAN

• If you were at the meeting I presented the binders you would have received an example of this to hopefully create your own.  If you were not there I will include all the links that I pulled all the information from.  

The Next thing I would include is a CURRENT FAMILY PICTURE.  

This is useful because if a child goes missing you will have current pictures of them and it will also work as proof that you are in fact the child's parent.

Now from here I used dividers to break the folder up into sections so that I was even more organized.  

My first section was FINANCIAL INFORMATION

• In this section I have all of our account information and credit card information (numbers, phone numbers, etc.)    This is also when I keep a copy of any loans we have (student loans, car loans, mortgages, etc.)

The next section is IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION

• In this section I put our birth cetificates, social security cards, passports, and marriage license.  The blog that I originally pulled all this information from strongly suggested having a finger print kit for each family member.

The next section is LICENSES AND OTHER IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

• In this section I have the titles to our cars, any licensing we have with the state (we have burglary alarm permits and my cosmetology licenses), and medical documents that are important (I have a copy of my claim for my surgery).  

The next section is RELIGIOUS DOCUMENTS

• In this section I put our Patriarchal blessings, any special blessings that we've saved, temple marriage certificate, and any other religious documents.

The final section is PETS

• Not everyone has pets right now so you can really have free reign with this section.  We have a cat and so we put his adoption records, shot records, vaccine records, and all health check ups in this section.  This is important if you have a dog as well in case there is a dog bite or if you are moving somewhere that has pet restrictions.  

Now I got all the information for this binder from:  http://www.yourownhomestore.com/survival-kit-series-week-23-important-documents/

This is a great blog to get information on having a food storage and a 72 hour kit.  

Day 12/418

I am not doing so great.  We have a lot going on in our personal lives that is really starting to wear on me.  So enter the Dr. Pepper.  I know its not healthy and I know I sound like I'm making excuses when I say "well its better than doing _____(fill in the blank)____"  And I guess in some ways I am.  But I need and MUST do better if I want to feel better.  So I'm back on the wagon... I am not going to beat myself up about it.  I am simply going to recognize that its a sign of weakness that I need to over come with lots of practice.  Its also helpful that I am reconnecting with old friends (aka Mandy) and spending time with people who care about me (Adrienne, Kelsie, Dan, Melissa, and Payne).  

BUT silver lining...

I found something for breakfast that I LOVE!!!

Especially this flavor with a splash of Tabasco. 

I add a slice of this bread toasted with a smidgen of butter.  

If you get a chance test these things out YUMMMO!

Day 412 or Day 6

I caved.  I had a Dr Pepper.  I'm not going to beat myself up about it.  But I am going to be honest about it.  Adrienne and me went to Sonic to go get ice cream and she wanted a Diet Dr Pepper.  So I (out of habit) ordered me one.  I didn't realize how habitual it really was for me.  So I drank it and it was DELICIOUS!  But I realized something about it.  I can have it on occasion.  It just cant be a normal thing everyday all day for me.  Sitting here right now I can feel my heart racing a little more than I would like it to.  So I made a discovery.  That's what I am learning today.  OH and yesterday that was my first cheat day.  It wasn't much of a cheat day though because I only ate two meals.  (I was throwing up yesterday morning... I know...TMI)  I had The Rice King (which is the best food in the world) and then I had McDonald's for dinner.  YUMO!  But now I am back to my daily calorie intake.  I think I may go over tonight because Payne is taking me out on a date to get dinner... I like our little nights out.
Catch you up next week on what happens the rest of the weekend!
XOXO
Jordan

Day 410 or Day 4...

So I am four days into this calorie counting bonanza and let me tell you something.  I actually like knowing exactly what I am eating.  I'm portioning things out and really taking in exactly what I eat.  Like yesterday I measured out the correct portion of Jasmine rice I had and the Teriyaki sauce I used and the amount of chicken I needed.  Today was harder.  I ended up skipping breakfast because I was in a rush this morning to get out the door and to where I needed to be.  So I thought how awesome it was that those calories would roll over into lunch.  Then I made lunch and realized that some of the things i SERIOUSLY enjoy are not that good for my calorie bank.  Which ended up leaving dinner with 600 calories and me not so happy about it.  So what should I do you ask... Well in our Cafe at work I went and looked at what they had to offer... Deli meats and cheeses and dressings OH MY!  Or a BBQ Bar.  I went for the BBQ Pork (lets just say I only had two bites *barf*).  I then had my choice of two sides.  I ended up just getting corn because the other options were a smothered baked potato (YUM!) or 4 cheese mac n cheese.  I ate almost all the corn and then snarfed my "organic" sugar cookie... So I guess it wasn't a horrible day.  The thing I find interesting the most is that I am soda "Detoxing".  I went cold turkey Monday morning and it was hard.  I didn't get the cravings really bad until last night and especially today.  I discovered there is a link between me getting stressed out and the amount of soda I drink.  When I am stressed out and there is chaos that I cant control around me I drink soda.  It was my "fix".  I know I'm making it sound like its a drug but in some ways it was my personal drug.  I'm learning how to deal with cravings too.  I love cinnamon candy and Ive discovered that if I eat a few pieces of candy and really enjoy them, instead of just snarfing my way through a bag or box, I satisfy the craving without eating 500 extra calories that weren't necessary.  The other thing I am working on is making meals that are just enough for myself and Payne.  He is doing the same diet with me at home when I cook and its helping a lot.  He also has stopped drinking soda.  I'm really happy I have him on my team.  We both were unhealthy.  Next step is to get us moving.  We spent yesterday afternoon walking around Fashion Place Mall in Murray.  That was a lot of fun because it was just us.  Spending time together.  Being goofy.  We didn't have anywhere to be.  We didn't have any agendas.  We just were there in that moment.  Being best friends and holding hands and walking around talking about whatever was on our minds.  Those moments *ROCK*!  But anyways back to the being healthy business.  Tomorrow is cheat day.  I know not to go over board but I am looking forward to going to The Rice King.  We decided that was going to be my cheat.  WootWoot!  Chinese food!  

Day 407... Or Day 1... Depending on how you look at it.

So today was the beginning of the changes I am making.  It started off with Breakfast.  My favorite meal that can really be enjoyed any time of the day.  I wanted hash browns and sausage.  So what should I do?  Just put it in the pan and hope that I'm not going overboard with the calories?!  That's when I remembered Emily told me she downloaded an app called MyFitnessPal.  I pulled it up on my phone, put in what I wanted to eat, and it gave me the proper portions.  I love this little app.  So while breakfast was cooking I put in what I was planning on having for lunch.  Fried chicken and rice.  I found all the components to my recipe and put them all together which gave me again the proper portions.  I love it!  That left me with almost 1000 calories for snacks and dinner.  When I got to work I found out what they were serving for dinner (because my company has a cool cafe and serves decent food for free).  Pork Chops with wild rice and sauteed green beans.  Uh... Hold the sauteed goodness please I am trying to stay away from butter and oils... and I had fried chicken for lunch.  So I had the pork and a few bites or rice but I wasn't starving.  Its nice to know that if I am watching my portions I don't have to cut everything that is good in the world out of my diet.  Like the saying says... Everything is good... In moderation.