Easy TASTY Turkey Burgers

Last time I tried to make turkey burgers, I tried all sorts of fancy things: stuffing them with avocado and spices. It just didn't work out. They were good but they still didn't have a lot of flavor. So instead tonight I decided to try it one more time. This time, a definite success. Easy, too. Here's what you need:

ground turkey
steak sauce
Adobo (my favorite spice)

Put 'em together and grill 'em up! Simple is always better. The steak sauce gave it that "beefy" taste without making it too wet.

Here's to trying everything twice!

Irony or Injustice?

A tragic irony of life is that we so often achieve success or financial independence after the chief reason for which we sought it has passed away.
Ellen Glasgow

At first, I thought it was just ironic. I can't consolidate my private loans because I don't have good enough credit or a strong enough cosigner. They can't be sure I can afford my monthly payments. Who do they think has been paying my current loans, which are higher than they would be if I could consolidate? Me! I haven't missed or been late on a payment since I started paying them back! Then, I tried to consolidate my federal loans. They have an income-based repayment plan for people who join lower-paying careers such as public service (so, teaching). Here's the thing though: if I was just a teacher, I would qualify. Because I also work at a grocery store in order to make ends meet, I no longer qualify for lower payments.

At first, I thought this was quite ironic. Then I spoke to my dad who got me thinking that it may be nearer to injustice. When I was starting college, I didn't qualify for scholarships or grants because he made too much money. With all the property we own, in NJ no less, and his 3 children - we really don't have a lot of money at all. He especially did not have a significant amount to contribute to college payments. So instead I put 5 years of out-of-state Virginia Tech payments on student loan. Now I'm broke (but not complaining - if you follow along you know I love my life!!) and trying to get just a little help. I know that the gov't will pay back some of my loans after I complete 5 years in a low-income school system, but they won't actually pay that until I've completed it.

Okay, so like I said I'm not complaining. I am, however, wondering about the state of things. Like my dad says, nobody will loan you money until they're sure you don't need it. Isn't that always the way it works? If a person works more than one job because they need to pay bills, then they might not qualify for government assistance. Yet the people who would rather sit around and be lazy, they gladly welcome their supplements each month. Is that fair? We are punishing those who really give it their all - to go to school, to work full time and part time jobs at the same time, to do everything on little sleep - and rewarding those that don't. Now, I do understand multiple sides here. I absolutely know there are people deserving of assistance and I do wholeheartedly agree with giving it to them. I also know that some people, like myself, make their life harder by choice. I chose to go to Tech, knowing I would pay back student loans until I retire. Do I regret it? Not a day in my life! I had amazing experiences and met the wonderful L because I was here. Heck, I got two degrees in five years and I'm still living in this area. I could not have pictured myself going anywhere else.

I'll take a second to tell those of you who don't know about my college-Cinderella story. I first came to Tech my sophomore year of high school to visit my cousin E. I knew then that this is where I needed to be. As soon as I stepped on campus, there was no doubt in my mind that I would be a Hokie. When it came time to applying, I applied to Tech, one safety school in case I didn't get in anywhere else, and one in-state school to please my dad. I wasn't too worried - I knew Tech would be my home. Home sweet home. :)

Anyway, I just think it's pretty unfair that I see so many people who can't scrape together two dimes while they remain honest and fair, but yet so many people are making thousands selling blow, meth, or themselves on street corners and are still getting assistance from the government. A few bad apples definitely ruin the bunch, but it is really upsetting that it's allowed to happen.

Wrestling Cake

This was my first "for sale" cake that I've made - if you don't count the store selling my cakes in the bakery. It was soooo heavy, two 1/4 sheets of yellow cake (a box mix which I doctored by adding pudding, extra oil, and beating the room-temperature eggs like I do with homemade cake), fresh-cut strawberries in the middle, covered with chocolate frosting. Then I melted white chocolate to make the wrestling mat, used pretzel rods for the posts and Twizzler pull and peels for the ropes. I used icing as the turnbuckles to hold the ropes on.

One tough part was figuring out how much to charge. This ended up being a $30 cake - mainly because the person I was doing it for doesn't have a whole lot of money anyway. After buying the supplies and then spending hours making it, turns out I only paid myself a little over a dollar an hour. I think if I did it again, I would charge more, but it's not really about making money (yet). For now I'm still trying to create a portfolio of cakes and hone my skills so eventually I can turn it into a small side business. I hope to intern at a bakery at some point so I can really learn some skills from the pros. For now I will enjoy dabbling, playing, watching youtube, and learning through error. It might not be perfect, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out :)

Why I love fall :)

"If God isn't a Hokie, then why do the leaves turn maroon and orange in the fall?"

Reason 1: Atmosphere
I love the colors of the leaves as they change. Not only do most of them turn maroon and orange, but it just gives such beauty to my long drives (35 mins to work or 7 hours home, they're all long drives). Everything reminds me of Virginia Tech, of God's work, and just renews my love of life. I know spring is the season that breathes new life in the world, but doesn't that make fall Grandmother of Wisdom? Sure, everything may be old, and a lot of it is probably falling apart, but with all of that comes so much power and hope that we shall be in that position one day.

I also LOVE the crisp air that comes with fall. Chilly, cold, and not something I feel like I can eat - as opposed to last week when the air was so thick and humid I didn't need to drink any glasses of water. It reminds me of being a kid and going troop camping at Camp Mosey Wood. I love waking up in a tent to cold air, seeing my breath. I used to call it "my air" and wondered so many times if there was a way to bottle it up and hold on to it forever. I go back to that place every year :)

As I was walking to my car on the way home from work this evening, I couldn't help but wish I was coming back to the football game. This weather is just perfect for long sleeves, hot cider, and football.

Reason 2: Activities
Football. My favorite sport. Pro, college, high school: they all have their wonders. How exciting is it to cheer on your teem with hundreds or thousands of people who have the same goal? I love it. Sports in general bring people together and it is so amazing to me how winning a game really means so much more than that.

I also want to go to a farm. I want to run through a corn maze, take a tractor ride to the pumpkins or through a haunted forest. I want to eat a hot dog and drink hot cider. I want to buy a whole gallon of farm-fresh cold cider. I want to sit outside with a pumpkin latte, pumpkin roll, or anything pumpkin related and just enjoy.



Reason 3: It's almost winter.
I love Christmas - it's my favorite holiday. I love snow. I love being with family. I love my birthday, L's birthday and our anniversary. I love Thanksgiving. Everything I love about fall is so much better because I know it doesn't go away when it's done, it just goes into another wonderful season. And tonight, L has stuck in my head "shall I play for him? pa rum pa pum pum. On my drum"

Enjoy your time :)

PS This is why I could never live anywhere other than a 4-season state. I love the seasons. Their changes make me happy with what's to come and I would really miss that anywhere else.

A Month in Review

I've been absent all month - vacationing in New Jersey and at a Girl Scout Camp. Here's a just a look into everything that went down and my proof that I really am living well!

Wedding:
~KnJ's wedding was amazing! Although this dress, one of the shortest I own, is now hanging in my closet among the near 27 others I am still constantly reliving those times. The bachelorette weekend and the wedding in Virginia Beach meant I spent tons of time having loads of fun! I forget how great it is to relax with some really amazing people. I felt so safe, secure and confidant because those are the types of people I surround myself with. It is such a great honor that people choose me to help celebrate and represent them at their weddings.

Time with my nephew:
~In the short month I had with EK, we had tremendous breakthroughs. A kid who is afraid of swimming and not trusting enough to take off his swimmies is now jumping into shallow water with no goggles and without holding his nose. He has a strong kick and can show me his long arms. He will definitely be a strong swimmer.
~When I first got home, he wouldn't even say good morning. I'm not into constantly forcing kids to use manners. Instead I help them see how bad I feel when he doesn't respond to me and just show him positive interactions using the rest of our family. Now when I walk down in the morning, if he says good morning and I don't respond he says, "Auntie Brynn! Good morning!" until I specifically address him. Then out of nowhere he became an excellent sharer, asked me to teach him how to blow bubbles with gum and wouldn't leave my side. Then, before I left, he made sure I have his mom's number so that I can call him throughout the year.
I am sure going to miss that little boy. I hope he knows how much I love him and how proud I am of him, even if he doesn't hear those words enough to know what they mean.

Camping:
~I spent 2 weeks at a camp that is not my "home camp" - it's not the one I attended for years as a camper, went through CIT and Junior Counselor, working my way onto staff and into a management position. Instead, this is a camp I had never worked at. By the end of the two weeks, I remembered what I had felt years before in those long months between summers: camp is not a location. It is a group of people, feelings you all share, memories you create and an entity deep inside you. The physical attributes, the people and the places, they may change constantly but Camp never changes.
~I learned how to make orange cake - baked right inside oranges! How exciting of a dessert would that be? I cannot wait to make it for some "dinner party" or appropriate event during the year. The only change is that I will make it in my oven instead of over a campfire. Sigh.

Family:
~I love spending time with my family. We joke, we have fun and we love each other. We play Scrabble, eat Italian food, swim, watch movies, go to picnics, drink coffee...the list goes on and on. I hope to soon live closer to home because I love being able to be near them. I miss them already.

All in all, it was an amazing month at home. Seeing friends and family and living the good life. For all the crap I put up with sometimes, nothing compares to the positives in my life right now.

Love, love.

Why YOU need MATH

"Plato, whose mathematical knowledge was broadly up to date, could converse with the mathematicians as an equal and a problem presenter, even though his personal mathematical achievements were not significant."- Taken from is God a mathematician? by Mario Livio.

This is something I try to instill in my students constantly. They don't need to be amazing mathematicians in order to be good at math, nor do they have to be straight-A math students to contribute to mathematical discussion. Here's something else I tell my students:

"The science of figures, to a certain degree, is not only indispensably requisite in every walk of civilized life; but investigation of mathematical truths accustoms the mind to method and correctness in reasoning, and is an employment peculiarly worthy of rational being."

Okay, I don't say it in these words. George Washington said this (as taken from is God a mathematician?). More than 230 years ago, good ol' George Washington realized the importance of math in everyday life.

Okay so WHY is this important? Why am I talking about Plato and George Washington? How is this relevant to today? Well yesterday I saw a mud-slinging campaign commercial, saying that since Obama took office, unemployment has risen 20% and gas 110%. To be honest, I have never looked at the figures for unemployment. It's fair to say that I haven't studied gas prices either, but I drive and I do know my math. Around this time last year, gas was almost $4 a gallon (in southwest Virginia - don't pull the "oh our gas is so much more in ___ because it counts as part of your cost of living being higher and therefor your pay directly varies. In plain English: you get paid more so you can afford higher gas). Then gas prices went down to well below $3, went back up, and now sits around $2.29. Okay, so it has gone up and down, but that's all within Obama's administration. Well, according to CNN, in May of 2008 (that's right, before Obama) gas prices hit $3.75 and were still rising. That's the same as what's happened these last 3 years. Gas goes up - gas goes down.

Sort of lost? Maybe you're still following but this is what it boils down to: if something increases by 100%, that means you take the original amount and double it. If gas has risen by more than 100% that would mean it has more than doubled. Clearly, this is not the case. This is where statistics become misleading. Gas has increased by 110%, but I don't know to which year they are comparing these statistics. Heck, gas has risen- well, what percent is $4 out of $0 - such as when we drove horse and buggies! How ridiculous is it to fake statistics like this? This is in no way pro- or anti- Obama or any other way political. This is merely a pro-mathematics rant.

YOU NEED MATH to be an intelligent, responsible and active citizen of this fair country. You need to be able to watch TV, read the newspaper, and take in information all around you, analyze it, and create your own, well-informed decisions.

This is one among billions of ways that I use math every day. You do, too.

Be mathy!

Finding a Mantra

So I read an article yesterday about a woman who uses a mantra (repetition of a word or short phrase) to help her get through life. When she stresses, when she is working out, when life gets to be too much, she repeats "I embrace life" over and over until her feelings have passed and she is renewed. That is what has started my current experiment.

I used a mantra once, for a short period of time. I looked into the mirror every morning and repeated "you are beautiful" 3 or so times. You know what? I have transformed into a very powerful and confidant woman. I don't know if it's a direct result of my morning ritual, but that really helped me get out of a pretty dark period in my life.

I currently have trouble controlling my thoughts and anxiety: they keep me awake at night, I invent fights with people that aren't really happening and I find myself getting really overwhelmed by certain circumstances. (On a side note, I will say I am starting to master the art of instantly de-stressing the moment the ball is out of my court. Between state tests,
benchmark exams, work situations, etc. I stress, stress, stress and then as soon
as the time has come and I can't do anything more, I'm done stressing. I have
realized it's pointless to keep stressing when I have done all I can.) I also need help powering through workouts, cleaning my house, and generally getting motivated to do anything.

I have decided to try a mantra. Last night, as my thoughts raced, I tried a few different mantras: "Just breathe", "I've got this", even "Find a mantra". Mm, not really liking those yet. The article said the mantra should be results oriented, but my needs are varied. It should be positive ("I am strong" instead of "I am not weak"), which isn't a problem, think the best of yourself ("I am healthy" instead of "I will try to be healthy"), and have a rhythm.

I think I am going to try "I am living well" to help me through things. When I need to say NO to snacks: I am living well. When I need to clean my house: I am living well. When I need to sleep or de-stress, I am living well. If I just need to keep running: I am living well.

This is the beginning of my new experiment. I will keep you posted as to how it goes.

Live well, friends!

**Update just a few hours later:

I need to add this recent development about why I love my the saying I chose. I took an hour today to lay out in the sun reading a book. My new mantra instantly popped into my head: I am living well. Not only can I use my mantra to help push me through the tough times, it also serves as a reminder to not take the good in my life for granted. There is a lot of good and I love to thank God for it. Saying that I am living well brings me closer to God - it serves as the beginning of prayer. I LOVE that aspect of it. Also, because I can use it during the good times and can use it so often throughout every day, I think it will be easier to remember to use it when times are tough. also LOVE that aspect! So powerful!