Another Book of Mormon Study Guide

I'm pretty much the 14 to 15 year-old teacher right now.  They've put the regular teacher into a different "special" class to teach.  The last three weeks have been an interesting time teaching them so far.  The second time I taught them I didn't even know I was doing it, so I had to wing it.  They were about as energized as the first time I taught them.  There was one kid there that wasn't there the first time and he at least had a little energy and answered some of my questions.  Then the third week on;y two kids showed up!  My lesson plan was to split them up in little groups and have them present to the rest of the class.  That wouldn't work with two, so I had to totally convert it into a normal lesson at the last second.  Then yesterday I decide I would do another Study Guide.  It worked a little better than the first time.  I had two kids that weren't there for the first one that talk a little.  Yea! I was able to get those two to answer some of my boring questions.  I figured I would share the next study guide with you all.  I did recycle the Ezra Taft Benson picture.  I was a little lazy and didn't want to draw everything new or write it out.  The type version is much either to read in my opinion.  I might make one more of these before the regular teacher comes back, or I might not.  Who knows.

thanksgiving 2012

Yesterday was Thanksgiving!  What a great holiday, you get to eat food, watch movies, and sometimes go buy cheap stuff at stores.  This was our first Thanksgiving alone.  Three years of marriage and we have always gone to family to celebrate this holiday.  We love going to see our family, but with me having to work at midnight there was no way to enjoy the holiday with family.  Our thanksgiving was pretty awesome and eventful.  We made a chicken instead of a turkey.  Turkey are just way to big for the two of us, plus we both love this chicken that Allison makes.  Best chicken I've ever had.  We also had some stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied yams, and green beans.  Allison made an excellent dinner, plus it only took about an hour to make.  Most of that was the chicken cooking.  One thing about the chicken is it's so juicy that the juices spill and smoke up the house, causing the smoke detector to go off.  It was worth though.

The main excitement came about twenty minutes before dinner was ready.  Allison heard this weird noise.  At first we thought it was just the chicken crackling in the oven.  Oh that is a beautiful noise.  It was though.  The sound got loader the closer to our bedroom we got.  The noise was water pouring out of our ceiling in our bathroom!  We quickly got buckets to catch the water and towels to wipe up the water.  We called our maintenance guy and had him come look at it.  By the time he got here it had stopped.  He went upstairs to see if everything was alright up there.  Things upstairs were okay except for one little thing.  The new person who moved in didn't own a shower curtain.  They had laid towels all along the floor and took a shower.  Not the smartest move in the book.  Luckily it wasn't a big problem, just human error.  We went on and had our dinner and hopefully our upstairs neighbor will get a shower curtain, because I can't have water pouring out of my ceiling ever day.  I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving.  Lots of love from the Indiana McLeans.

fourteen year-olds

Today I had to teach Sunday School for the 14 year-olds at church.  It wasn't as bad as teaching the adult gospel doctrine classes.  I didn't feel like they were judging my teaching skills, but I totally taught a cooler lesson for the 14 year-olds.  I made this cool little booklet to go along with my lesson.  I thought it would be really cool, but I'm not sure anymore.  Look at this, I've never received a pamphlet at church to go along with the lesson.

It has to be cool. When I'm talking about searching the scriptures I have Sherlock Holmes searching for clues!  If Sherlock Holmes isn't awesome, I just don't know what is.  Benedict Cumberbatch is the coolest guy around and he's Sherlock Holmes.  I guess my British love of Sherlock was lost of them.  Still the pamphlet is cool.  The back has a picture of the Angel Moroni.  Maybe I'm to much of a nerd and this stuff is lame.  I can't tell because I'm to close to the situation.

So the 14 year-olds were not excited at all during the lesson.  I'm not sure if they were bored either.  The lesson went super fast for me.  I didn't get very far through the part I planned to present which left a whole section off.  I really tried to get them involved int he lesson but my questions and stories didn't seem that engaging to them.  I must be getting old.  I can't relate to kids these days.

three years

On a overcloud day with a little crisp to the air, much like it is right now I made the best choice I could ever make.  The sky threaten of showers, a little rain fell.  The leaves were changing from their hues of green to brilliant reds and oranges.  I dressed in a black suit.  Allison dressed in flowing white dress.  This day meant only one thing to us.  I've made very few good decisions, but today three years ago I made the best decision of my life.  Happy Anniversary Allison!

catching up in Kalamazoo

Life has been a little slow out here in South Bend the past couple of months.  Allison has been working a bit and weekends have been included in those work weeks.  Luckily a couple Saturdays ago Allison didn't have to work and we planned a little get away to Kalamazoo.  A sweet little city in Michigan.  There we went to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.  It was chemistry day so tons of kids were there doing fun little experiments.  Allison and I decide to focus on being news anchors and weathermen.  I'm pretty sure this museum was for kids after attending it, but it was fun.  We also hit the Kalamazoo Institute of Art.  It was small fine arts museum attached to an art school.  It was a fun little weekend.

chicago

We went to Chicago early this month.  Hope you like the pictures.

potato creek state park

Allison had yesterday off. Instead of wasting the day trying to figure out what to do, we decide to go down to Potato Creek State Park and have a picnic. It was a lot of fun. We started with a good hike int he woods. We found a box turtle on the trail just hanging out. Bird watching at the nature center, then a picnic. Plus we stopped by the beach to see how it. It was a pretty awesome day.  Plus since it was Thursday instead of the holiday weekend, no one was really there!  We saw maybe three or four people the entire time.  It felt like the park was all ours.

the hawkeye hoodie

Today I tried modifying a hoodie.  I've been thinking about making my own special hoodies for awhile now and Allison told me to just do it.  I decide to make a Hawkeye from the Avengers jacket.  I wanted to make the comic version of Hawkeye's costume, because it's a bit simpler. It was a little successful.  I bought a $15 hoodie from K-Mart.  Yes, I went to K-Mart, it had the best deal I could find.  Then I went down to Jo-Ann Fabric and bought a yard of purple fleece for like $6 (I had a coupon).  Then home to start working on the little jacket.  I made a pattern, cut the fabric, cut the hoodie, and then sewed it together.  The left side looks really good, but the right side didn't work out as well.  I'm not exactly sure what went wrong, but it didn't end up as high on the right side as I would have liked.  I might try and fix it later in the week.  We'll just have to wait and see, but here are some pictures of what I accomplished.  Hope you like it.

Reuben Dog

Oh, the reuben dog is delicious.  The secret is making the special sauce.  Then throw some swiss cheese (I used provolone cheese cause we didn't have swiss) and sauerkraut on it.  The best.  The sauce is easy to make too.

1/4 cup of mayonnaise (or miracle whip as I like)
1 tablespoon of ketchup
1 tablespoon of sweet pickle relish
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire
then throw some salt and pepper in it.
(from everyday food)

Another great hot dog.  I know hot dog month is over, but I won't stop loving them.

Pierogi Fest

The last weekend in July Allison and I headed out the Peirogi Fest in Whiting, Indiana.  What's a peirogi?  It's a Polish pastry that's stuffed with mash potatoes, cheese, and other lovely savory foods.  It was a lot better than I thought it would be.  They had more food booths there than the Taste of Chicago (according to the announcer).  It was a fun little adventure into Northern Indiana.  We got to try some new foods and see some old friends that come up to it.  Plus they had an old-fashion soda booth who gave you free refiles if you bought their cup.  I drank to much root beer that day.  Too much.

 

Southwest or Mexican Dog

This Dog was a hit, especially with the skinny crinkle fries. Yes, skinny crinkle fries.  They're not as thick as regular crinkle fries and they bake much crispier than thick or normal fries.  So this dog is great, Allison loved it.  First things first, what kind of hot dog are you using?  If your using the cheap bar-s or some other brand, do not make this dog.  Cheaper does mean bad when it comes to hot dogs.  My personal favorite is Nathans.  They're New York style hot dogs.  They're actually one of the best hot dog stands in the country from what I've heard.  You can use Ballpark or Hebrew Nation too, just not cheap dogs.  Trust me on this.  Okay, so here's how to make this beauty according to Everyday Food:
In a skillet, cook two cups of corn until brown.  Add 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil and 2 sliced scallions whites (I don't know what those are, Allison told me they were like onions, so I used sweet onions.)and cook until tender.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add two tablespoons of mayo (I prefer miracle whip) and two teaspoons of lime juice.  Mix that all together.  Put that mixture on top of your hot dogs.  Then crumble some Cotija or Feta cheese and sliced  scallion greens.  I used feta and didn't worry about the extra onions on top.  Then sprinkle some chili powder on it.  There you go, one awesome hot dog.  It makes about four or five hot dogs depending on the type of bun you use.
I hope you enjoy these lovely dogs.

national hot dog month

July is National Hot Dog month.  You might know this if you read my webcomic.  I drew a comic about it, check it out here.  As many might also know, I really like hot dogs.  I remember the first time I actually got one that wasn't just ketchup and mustard.  I got a New York style dog with sauerkraut on it.  It was so amazing.  It was also the time I learned I liked sauerkraut which is the main ingredient to the Reuben sandwich.  SO back to the point the last couple of months I've started to make a lot of different styles of hot dogs.  Below are two I actually remembered to take pictures of.  I made Chicago style last night and totally forgot to photograph them.  I'm so forgetful.  Yet they were really tasty.  On the left we have the bacon wrapped stuffed brat.  I stuffed that little brat with onions and marble jack cheese, I'm not sure how it's different than monterey jack cheese.  The store only had marble.  They were good, but I don't suggest wrapping the bacon uncooked around the brat.  The bacon doesn't fully cook, learned that the hard way, but I was only able to make one of them pretty like that.  The second hot dog is the southwest dog or Mexican charred-corn dog.  I threw corn, onions, lime juice, and miracle whip together to make the topping on it.  Then sprinkle some feta cheese and chili powder over it.  They were amazing to eat.

Another hot dog I made this month was the Hawaiian Dog.  That had grilled pineapple and red onions (with sugar and cayenne pepper in the mix) on top of the hot dog.  Very good too.  The hot dog is an awesome food.  A food that can be made for kids or adults.  I like the adult styles that I've been making.  Hope everyone has some more hot dogs this month.

moved in

It's been a long time since I've updated this little blog.  Life has been slow for me.  I don't have a lot to write about.  We've been in the new place a month now.  We have are living room and bed room almost totally unpacked.  The guest bed room is still filled with boxes.  Boxes filled with books and comics.  Our large bookshelf didn't make it up here so we haven't unpacked the books yet.  I hope soon, but probably not as soon as I would like.

I've been looking for jobs.  I've even been on one weird interview with the Apple Store.  They are an odd company and I hated the way they did their group interview.  It was like they were trying to convince everybody that working at the Apple Store was cool.  It might be cool, but it's still a job.  Plus it was a two-hour ordeal.  I don't like big group events.  I work better with one-on-one interviews.  A lot less pressure to preform when your competition isn't right in front of you.

We had a fight with bed bugs just recently.  We one.  We had a very mild case of them.  We're not sure were we got them either.  We didn't have them in Bloomington and it was a week or two before we started to notice them at our new place.  Luckily we got them before it got bad.  They only found a couple, but they sprayed the whole house.  Now were bug free again!

That been the last month.  I sit at home playing x-box, watching TV, and applying for jobs.

moving wednesday

not the old world again

It official, we're moving to Mishawaka next week.  Allison took a job with the Elkhart Public Library and we found a place to live last Saturday.  It's been a busy week.  I also told UPS I was leaving them last Friday.  At first they took it pretty well.  My boss and supervisors understood that I was moving and heading down a different path.  I wasn't going to commute four hours to work for them every morning.  Then a received a phone call yesterday.  In fact I received two phone calls yesterday.  I never get calls so this was a little weird.  One was from our apartments letting us know we could move in on the 8th.  The second call was from my HR guy.  I figure it was an exit interview.  Totally normal.  It wasn't an exit interview at all.  He called me to try and get me to transfer up to Elkhart.  I did my two years for Allison already, I don't need to break my back anymore.  I politely told him I wasn't interested.  I guess that didn't go over so great.  Today at work my boss and supervisor both talked to me about transferring.  Apparently the HR guy emailed them and told them that they didn't want to lose me.  The main reason was because I had really good numbers, like I load more boxes per hour than most people.  I also have a low miss load count, which isn't true, but my drivers cover for me.  I thought about it for a whole second and was like no.  This has been the worse job of my life.  If you do a good job they give you more work till you do a bad job.  If you do a bad job they treat you like dirt.  If you complain and act out you get work taken off you.  If you are respectful and do your job they don't care about your work load.  Let me put it plainly, this job is physically and mentally killing me.  I would think about the transfer if I could be promoted to supervisor, but that's not on the table.  The only thing on the table is not losing my seniority which is one year, because I was an official employee for the first few months there.  I was going to apply to be a supervisor when it opened up this last time, but guess what?  They told me about it in November and they still haven't got around to hiring for it.  They actually have two supervisor positions up in my center right now.

Mishawaka is going to be my new world.  I'll look for a job there, but I won't take a crap job like I had to in Bloomington.  No, I'll will actually wait till I get a real job offer this time.

1,000 years

During church today a teacher asked an interesting question.  He asked what would we do if we had a thousand years to live.  On top of that we would not have to worry about housing or money.  All those things were going to be taken care of.  Pretty much you have a thousand years to do anything you want.  We were left to talk about it with each other in small groups and then came back and talked about in a large group.  I find this question a little odd to ask at church.  The person diffidently didn't understand somethings and assumed somethings that weren't on base.  Luckily I don't care about any of those things.  I find what would you do for a thousand years if you had them very interesting by itself without all the misinformation.  Some questions I had were does everyone live a thousand years and are they taken care off.  If so, that would actually change society  completely. My next question was do you age at the same rate as we do now or is it slowed down.  Neither question was answered.  I will thus say that only I live a thousand yeas and I age to twenty at a normal rate and then slow down.  Every two hundred years will be like decade till the last twenty which thus you age normal again.  Maybe a little faster in the last twenty years.

What would I do with a thousand years?  People answered such boring answer like I'd take thousand years to finish my PhD.  It might be because I'm in a ward with a bunch of PhD students.  One person said they would continue to make art and make things with their hands.  One of my friends said they would want to help animals, like having an animal shelter.  One person brought up the fact that we would probably still do all the things we do now in our free time.  We wouldn't do that much different.  I think he's wrong though.  Right now I have to work hard to support my family.  If I didn't have that I would have so much more free time.  Maybe I wouldn't learn Spanish still, but with thousand years I would do some things different.

The main thing I would do is travel.  I don't have the money or time to do that now.  Sure Allison and I get out of town all the time, but we don't go far.  One thing I would do is travel on my bicycle.  I haven't been biking much since I don't have one right now.  With a thousand years I would bike all across America and Europe.  I would also continue to draw about my life.  I would make comics about my travels.  I would enjoy seeing new cities and new countries.  I'd probably stay in areas for long periods of time though.  I wouldn't bike a pass and leave it the next day.  I'd probably bike some where and stay up to a year or longer.  I would just engross myself in the culture.  It would be amazing.  Plus I wouldn't have to worry about money, so life would be good. The one bad thing is I would want Allison with me for the entire trip.  I couldn't imagine my life without her, okay I could, but it wouldn't be good.

What would you do if you could live a thousand years?

wordless wednesday - doctor who

sharks!!!

the bridge

summer? no!

It been really warm here in Indiana the last week. It's been in the high seventies and sometimes in the eighties. What is going on with the weather here? I feel like we're not getting a spring. It's just going to summer. I don't like this. It should be in the fifties and sixties right now, not seventies. I should still be wearing pants and hoodies. I know I was talking about breaking out my shorts less than a month ago, but I just need a day off from pants.

This past year has been one crazy season after another. We had a great fall last year, until it never ended. Now we're having summer. Indiana went from fall to summer! It missed two great seasons - winter and spring! I'm still holding out thinking that it'll cool off again and we'll have spring. It's just to early for this crazy summer weather.

doritos tacos

I did it today. I tried the Doritos loco tacos. They were so good. After eating them your fingers are covered in Doritos dust. Oh, they were so good. They kind of taste like eating nachos with Doritos instead of plain chips. I'm surprised no one thought of this before. It seems so simple, coat your hard shells with Doritos flavoring. BAM! You got yourself some awesome Doritos Tacos. How awesome is that? The one thing I would add is refried beans. I'm a refried beans guy. Taco meat is okay, but those refried beans are the best. I love burritos. I blame my mother for that. She use to make burritos all the time for us kids, but she called them tacos. I still call them tacos and people are like those aren't tacos. Then I have to teach them with my fists that they are. Okay maybe I don't teach them anything, but I think about it. I think about it a lot. Back to those Doritos Tacos. One other thing I would change is the hard shell. I think they need to be soft. Hard shells break to easy. Maybe if they warped the hard shell in a soft shell with a cheese layer in-between the soft and hard layer of shell. They already have some tacos like that. They are so amazing too.

I decide while eating the Doritos Tacos I could so make them at home and better. I am going to buy a bag of Doritos Cool Ranch. Then I'm going to make some awesome burritos and crumble those sweet tasting Doritos over them. It'll be like paradise for my mouth. I get soft shell with refried beans and a splash of Cool Ranch! I can't wait to try this out. Maybe I'll use Nacho Cheese flavor too. I haven't decided that yet. I'm so doing it soon.

cheating

I order a photobook last week. I've decide that I wanted to have physical proof that Allison and I actually did things and had a past. The book came in today. I have been looking for it at work and in the mail. The book didn't come either way. It came Fedex! I couldn't believe it. The guy knocked on my door and ask for my John Hancock. I feel dirty now. I cheated on UPS with Fedex. If I had know it was coming Fedex I might not have order it. Well, I still would have. It wasn't like the company gave me a choice of who to ship from. I just thought it was funny that it came Fedex instead of UPS.

Wordless Wednesday