I Believe...

My heart broke yesterday.

After school, I was going around shopping, doing some errands.

I stopped at Northwestern Bookstore (although I think now it's called Lifeway...) and I was so hurt by what I found inside.

In case you don't know this is a Christian Bookstore.

I was browsing through all their products, and I came across something that made my heart pound and my stomach twist...

They had several, several, different reads on "The Anti-Christian Cult: Mormonism."

Ya know, I'm used to being called anti-Christian.

I'm used to being told I'm part of a cult.

I'm used to people being misinformed.

But to have it advertised in a Christian Bookstore was like a slap in the face.

First, there was the collection of books:
Books about how to help save the Mormons from their damnation.
Books about reasoning with Mormons so you don't get sucked into their cult.
Books about how to use scripture to show Mormons the light and help bring them to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Books with "proof" about how the Mormons are Anti-Christian.

Then there were the pamphlets:
Handouts to conveniently pass to others, so that everyone may know the dangers of this anti-Christian cult.
Pamphlets to give to Mormons, about how their faith is working with Satan.

My heart broke.
I left the store fighting back the tears.
It's one thing for someone to tell me their opinions about my faith.
I understand that.
But when I'm in a professional, {Christian} bookstore, and the store, the company, the franchise, is openly defiling my {Christian} religious beliefs, I am torn.

Don't you think if you're going to write a book or a pamphlet, that you would do your research before you publish?
How can you write an entire book with such strong misconceptions about the topic you are writing about?
And aren't Christians meant to not judge others?
Isn't that Christ's job? At the end of time?
To judge us according to our actions, our sins?
How can someone who claims to be Christian write such awful, harsh, inaccurate, and judgmental words about a fellow Christian faith?
And how can a place that claims to be a Christian bookstore allow such writings to be available in their store?
How can they condone such harsh judgements of other faiths?
It goes against everything Christian.
It goes against everything Christ taught us.

I am a Mormon.
I am a {Christian}.
I do not belong to a cult.
I was not brainwashed into the beliefs I hold today.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I believe Christ to be my Savior, God to be my Heavenly Father, and the Holy Ghost to be my constant comforting companion & source of guidance.
I believe the words taught in the Bible, both Old & New Testament, and I study them regularly.
I also believe in the words taught within the Book of Mormon, and I study them regularly.
I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.
Not God himself, a Prophet.
And I believe we have living prophets on the Earth to give us divine guidance from our Heavenly Father today.
I believe Thomas S. Monson to be the world's living prophet today.
I believe in being the face of Christ to all around me.
I believe in good works & selflessness.
I believe in the importance of baptism for the remission of sins and the partaking of bread and water as sacrament every Sunday.
I believe every Sunday to be the Sabbath day of our Lord.
I believe the power of the Atonement of our Savior, and the importance (and necessity) of repentance in our lives.
I believe in Jesus Christ.
I am a {Mormon}.
I am a {Christian}.

Generosity Goes A Long Way

There is so much I love about my husband.

The list could go on and on.

I am not going to sit here and write a post about everything I love about him.
I don't want to make people gag over my gushiness.

I just want to share a little something about him.

The thing I love the most about him:

his incredibly big heart.

Thomas is someone who truly does live for others.

I love watching him.

Watching the way he treats people.

Strangers.

Family.

Friends.

Everyone.

He's so generous.

So caring.

We went to Goodwill last Thursday, looking for a frame for our marriage certificate. 

On our way out, he stopped to help a woman load a computer chair into her car. 

He races ahead of people to get the door for them at stores.
He offers to help strangers all the time.
That's the most fascinating to me.
Strangers.
I understand offering to help my dad lay the wood floor.
I understand offering to help his mum cook dinner.
But I've never seen anyone so kind to total strangers.

He's just so kind-hearted.
Helping with youth activities at church.
Giving rides home for people from his work...even if it means waiting around an hour after he's been cut from his shift.
Offering advice to long-distance friends over the phone.
Happily & willingly collecting trash from around the neighborhood on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon.
Driving family & others to the airport.
Actively going to Feed My Starving Children when his busy schedule allows - and being silly, happy & energetic the whole time there.
He truly enjoys helping others & seeks opportunities to do so.

I look up to him so much.
He inspires me.
Every day, he is the face of Christ to others.
He is full of charity, patience, and kindness.
I strive to be like him.
He is incredible.
Incredibly big-hearted.
Incredibly caring.
Incredibly wonderful.
Just simply incredible.

Thunderstorms & Pizza Rolls

Well, Spring Break officially came to a close.

Sadly.

I definitely enjoyed it more as a teacher than I ever have as a student! 

I wanted to showoff a little something I did over break.

I was working on school work one afternoon, 

and I needed to feed myself. 

So what did I do?

Pulled up my pinterest account and looked up what recipes sounded good.


Speaking of which, I've been asked to link my pinterest account to my blog, so if you're interested in following my pins, you can find them here:
Katie Jo's Pinterest

Anywho,

I decided to go with these pizza rolls.

You can find the recipe {here}.

They turned out GREAT!

But I may be biased. 
But the thing I love most about this recipe??
SO SIMPLE!


Ingredients:
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
Pepperoni
Cheese Sticks


Butter
Garlic Powder
Parmesan Cheese


Step One:
Roll pepperoni (about 5 slices) & half a cheese stick into the crescent roll and place on cookie sheet that you've coated with Pam (or some other form of cooking spray).

Step Two:
Stick it in the oven (that you've already preheated to 350 degrees. 
Let rolls evolve into butter, gooey, wonderfulness for 10-14 minutes.

Step Three:
Coat with butter/seasoning mix that you've melted together in a little dish in the microwave.

Step Four:
Enjoy the deliciousness.

For me?

I enjoyed mine with my book, out in the sun.

Oh yeah, and a little dish of marina sauce for dippin'.

That was a great lunch.

Try it out!

You'll love them.

One thing I would change though:

Cut the cheese up to smaller bits.

After cooking, the ends were melted & oozing out, 

but once I got to the middle, the cheese was pretty much a solid hunk of mozerella.

Which is delish, but I woulda preferred gooey.

So I think copping up the cheese more would help it melt faster.

And the best thing about this treat?

You could put anything you want in it!

Thomas & I decided next time we're going to make each roll a different treat.

Ham & pineapple in one.

Perpperoni in another.

Sausage.

Peppers.

Olives.

.....mmmmmmm....

Give 'em a shot.

They're tastey!

Oh, and just so ya'll know, 

it's thunderstorming right now.

Yes, in Minnesota in the middle of March.

I'm so happy right now!

I love thunderstorms.

And pizza rolls...

Spring Break - Woot!

Welp, it's Friday of Spring Break week.

I must say, I think Spring Break is far more enjoyable when you're a teacher than when you are a student!

I have {loved} not getting up at 5am.

And going to bed at 9:30.

And grading assignments and tests.

And after school meetings.

And lesson planning.

It's been wonderful.

Of course, I do still have work I've been doing.

I'm preparing to make the transfer to Blaine Senior High in about a week.

Ah! It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.

I don't want to leave Skyview, I have loved it there.

Those seventh graders are wonderful. 

But alas, time does not stop, and my time there is just about done.

I'm excited for Blaine, though.

I've been having dreams about it.

All good, so that's a good sign, right?
Plus, my fortune cookies lately (I eat a lot of Chinese food) have all talked about a positive near future. 

Good sign, right?
I think so.

Anywho, back to Spring Break...

It's been lovely.

The weather...OH. MY. GOODNESS.

Gorgeous.

The events?

Wonderful.

I've been extremely busy, but a wonderful kind of busy.

Much time with family.

And soon some time with friends.

Thomas and I still haven't had much time together.

Although, to be honest, even if we had all week together, I think I'd still complain it's not enough. 

But he's been working and in school still, so he's super busy.

We did get yesterday afternoon together because he got someone to take his shift for him so we'd have at least one date day, so we went bowling & cooked lunch.

But because I don't have those 9:30 bedtimes this week, I've been able to stay up even once he's home, and we've had a handful of late-night games & movies and several morning sleeping in, cuddled together in bed. 

I've loved it. 

Also for Spring Break this week,

I went to the library & got some books on vacationing in California!

I've been researching & planning some more for our honeymoon!

Once we've got the week fully planned, I'll let ya know!

Oh! Exactly four months today we'll be leaving for it! 

Woot! Woot!

I'm super pumped.

Thomas says I talk about it too much & I get too excited for something so far away.

I say he doesn't get excited enough. 

Anywho, so Spring Break thus far has been beautiful. 

Today I'm working more on my certification portfolio for UWRF, then I've got work.

Tomorrow, after a long shift at Target, I'll get to spend some much needed time with some amazing chicas in my life!

It turned out to be a beautiful week.

I love Spring Break. 

Think I picked a good career field - more to come in the future!

Woot!

Taco Bell

Taco Bell.

It's one of my faves in life.

Not just favorite food.

I mean faves in the "general"/"everything" category.

I love Taco Bell.

Not just the food.

The place too.

Sooo many memories at Taco Bell.

Sooo many gatherings with friends.

Sooo many midnight TB Runs.

I love Taco Bell.

I love it even more these days.

Because they have a new menu item.

That's brilliant.

And delicious.

It's the Dorito Taco.

A taco with a nacho cheese dorito shell.

Brilliant.

So, advice for this beautiful Tuesday day?

Go to Taco Bell.

Order the Dorito Taco.

And enjoy.

Disney on Ice - Our Perfect Date Night

So, as you know, if you're an avid reader of my blog,

Thomas & went to Disney on Ice last Friday.

It was a much needed, and wonderful, date night!

I was giddy the whole day, and a wiggling ball of giggles on the drive down.

I got home from school at about 4, and in twenty minutes we were changed and out the door to get our date night started!

We started our night by going to TGIFriday's for dinner.

It's one of Tom's favorite places, because he can't get enough of the Jack Daniel's steak they have.

Dinner was great...with the minor setback of my dad crashing our date.

Oh yes, he did.

I had called him to double-check we were going to be heading the right way to the Target Center, where to park, all that jazz.

Through conversation, I told him we were having dinner at TGIF first.

Ten minutes later, he's walking through the door...

...I think he may be having some separation issues... :P

But dinner was delicious.

I was a bit more excited than he was!

We finished off dinner with some yummy oreo cream dessert, then it was back on the freeway to head to the Target Center!
My dad had told us to park in Garage C, and that 94 all the way will lead right into the garage.
So, we drove looking for signs to exit for Garage C...well, you actually have to exit onto 4th street, and Garage C is right off there...
...soooo, yeah, we missed our exit.
No biggie, we got off at Hennepin Ave.
And then drove until we could find the garage.
But we never did find it.
So we parked in some grungy run down garage.
It was on 4th street, so we figured we must be close to where we need to be...
...nope.
We weren't.
After walking around in the cold for awhile, trying to find the Target Center, we finally stopped to ask someone where we should go.
These two gentlemen laughed at us, because we were quite a ways from the Target Center.
Ah well.
At least we knew where to go now.
We finally got there, with numb fingers, noses, & ears (we kept our lips warm with kisses...) ;)
Looking back, I wish we had taken pictures while wandering downtown...
...but I was too anxious!!

Well, we {finally} arrived at the Target Center at abuot 6:30.
Eeeeek!!
First thing I noticed as I walked in the doors??
All the adorable little girls in princess dresses!!
Ahhh, needless to say, my baby fever was incredibly high, mommy radar going off like crazy.
Sooo stinkin' cute!

Thomas & I found our seats, and immediately felt a little out of place...
We were the only ones not toting little kids.
Oh, well...soon enough, right?? ;)
Well, I had to pee right away, so I left Thomas there...alone.
A minute later, I recieved this text:
"I look like a creeper..."
Yeah, he probably did.
But as soon as I got back, we were accompanied by another young couple.
Another childless young couple.
They looked like they were still in high school.
I think that made Thomas feel better about sitting there.
Me? I couldn't care less about it - I was giddy, giddy, giddy!!

We had time to kill, so we wandered around, looking at the crazy stuff they were trying to sucker parents into buying (and succeeding!).
I wanted a shirt, but their shirts didn't say "Disney on Ice" on them, they just had characters.
If I wanted that, I'd get one at Target for $5, not here for $20.

Well, the show eventually started and...WOW!
It was amazing.
I was flooded with so many memories as the show started.
My cousins & I went to Disney on Ice with our moms a handful of times.
I started tearing up, in all honesty.
It's sad to realize I'm growing up.
I miss so many great times with my cousins.

Me, Cassie, and Mal at one of several Disney on Ice events!
I love that at the age of 5 I was already a bookworm! 

Anywho, the show was amazing, of course.
You can't expect anything less than amazing when it comes to Disney.
Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald Duck were our MCs.

They kicked off the show with Princess and the Frog.
I voted that one my favorite for the night.
The dancing was AH-mazing.
It's incredible the moves they can do on ice in ice skates.
I thought it was phenomenal.

The second story they told was Cinderella.
My least favorite one.
Most of the dancing/music involved only two people.
Not so dramatic.
We had intermission in the middle of that one.

We came back to wrapping up Cinderella, and then our last story began.
It was Tangled.
This one was Tom's favorite.
And I'll admit - it was spectacular!
They did this amazing move with Rapunzel's "hair" where the skaters were flying around on these giant ribbons, doing acrobatics.
It was awesome!
Maximus, the horse, was amazing too!
His costume was awesome!
But, again, the reason it wasn't my favorite was because it was mostly just Flynn & Rapunzel the whole time.

The quality isn't the greatest, the light makes it hard to see them,
but you get the drift about the acrobatics! it was amazing!

The finale was beyond spectacular.
Absolutely beautiful!
They did it as if it was Rapunzel & Flynn's wedding.
Mickey & the gang came out first, all in spectacular white costumes.
Then, the castle doors opened, and all of Disney's princesses and their princes danced out in pairs, one-by-one to their theme music.
It was amazing!
Once everyone out, they did a finale number.
I loved it.

The show was spectacular.
I think I thanked Thomas a hundred times on our way back to the car!
As we're giggling, kissing, arms around each others' waist, getting lost in the skyways of downtown...it was wonderful.
Huge perk once we got to the car?
Found our parking only cost us three bucks!
Score!

Once home, we continued our date night with some more fun!
Played some pool...and, of course, I got my booty kicked!
But that's okay, it was worth it!
We had so much fun just hanging out.
It had been too long since we had been able to spend any real time together.
If we have time together at all, it's usually an hour or less.
And we're usually stuck with homework or work to do.
So it was a perfectly wonderful, blissful, magical night.

We wrapped up the night by putting a movie in, and cuddling up together in bed.
Ahhh, blissful.
Magical.
Perfect.

Simply perfect.

Honeymoon-palooza!

Big big big BIG BIG exciting news in the Macmillan household yesterday.

Thomas and I booked our honeymoon!!

HOLLA!

I'm very excited.

Already got the countdown going.

Can we still call it a honeymoon if is six months later?
I don't know.

But I'm going to.

So.

Want the deets?

Okay, I'll give ya them.

Originally we had planned on going to San Diego.

I loved it there when I went, and there's lots to do.

Then we decided to do half in San Diego & half in Anaheim.

We wanted to see Disneyland while we were out in Cali.

But then I changed my mind about spliting it.

I thought we'd be too busy then.

Every day was planned with some attraction to visit.

No time to be lazy on the beach.

Or to wander around the town.

So we decided only one or the other.

We finally chose Anaheim because that would be a new place for both of us.

So we are officially going to Disneyland for our honeymoon!

We booked our flight and hotel yesterday.

Along with purchasing our tickets for Disneyland.

So! The deets!

Our flight will leave at 7:30am Monday, July 16.

We'll arrive at LAX sometime around 11 - I don't remember exactly.

We have a 3 day park hopper pass for Disneyland.

We plan on doing some other attractions, just haven't looked into anything else yet.

We've talked about Legoland, Six Flags, and Hollywood.

We will leave California Sunday the 22 at about 10am, arriving back in Minnesota sometime around 2ish.

I am suuuuper excited!!

I've got the countdown going on the calender.

We just bought our bathing suits last week.

I just want to start packing already!!!

Eeeeek!!

Call me Mrs. Bookworm

I love reading.

I'm such a huge bookworm.

If I got paid to read books all day...best. Job. Ever.

But I don't.

So I'll settle for reading in my free time.

I just wish I had more free time to actually get to read.

Ah well.

I'll take what I can get!

I just ordered a new book from Amazon the other day.

Since I had finished the Hunger Games a while back, I had been looking for something new to get my hands on.

Well, the teachers at school had been talking about "Pillars of the Earth."
I had never heard about it.

But one of the teachers said it was her absolute favorite book.

Ever.

So, that's how I found my next book.

I ordered it from Amazon.

Barns & Noble only had the $25 hardcover copy.

Target didn't sell it online.

And I didn't wanna pay shipping.

Oh, I used Hamish's account - he gets free shipping.

So I got it from Amazon.

And less than 48 hours later, 

It was sitting on the countertop when I got home from school today,

Just waiting for me to open its pages.

I'm excited to read it.

Hope it's a good one!

I love being a bookworm.