Getting To Know Me!

My name is Wanawan C.  I was born in a small town called Sawankhaloke, Thailand.  I have no brothers or sisters (lucky me), but I have lots of cousins.  I grew up close to a river where I fetched water, took baths, and learned to swim.  When I was young, you could say I was a tomboy.  For fun, I used to hunt lots of small animals with a homemade slingshot.  One time I got so carried away with my playing that I didn’t eat anything all day and ended up fainting.  In high school, I enjoined being on the volleyball team.  After finishing high school in my hometown I attended college in Bangkok, Thailand for a few years.  Then, my life completely changed when my cousin asked me to come to America to help with her business.  I decided to postpone school and come to the U.S.  At the time, the scariest thing for me was the thought of being on an airplane for the first time.  On the other hand, I was so excited because this would be my first time traveling away from my country.  It was one of the most exciting moments of my life.

While living in Bangkok I rarely cooked because I could walk outside my apartment and get food in a minute.  When coming to Houston, though, I had to cook for myself and my cousin, which was a chore at first, although I learned to love it.  Of course, Thai food is number one on my list.  One of the dishes I like is Papaya salad with grilled chicken and sweet rice. 

After living in the U.S. for a couple years, I met a returned missionary named Ryan Cahoon.  He introduced me to the church and soon after I was baptized.  In March 2000, Ryan and I were married.  In December 2001, Reena, who is 9 years old now, came along followed by Jonathan seven years later (he turns 2 in January).   Not long after our marriage, we moved to Galveston for nine months.  Then, we moved back to Katy and went to the Nottingham County ward for a couple years before heading to Austin, Texas.  When Ryan finished his masters in accounting at UT, we decided to move back to Katy, hopefully for good!!   We have been in the ward for quite some time.  We love it here.

            

                I am a stay-at-home mom.  I couldn’t say that I love every minute of it, but I would not trade it with anything else in the world.   I also take some classes online at HCC.  I would like to finish an accountant degree at U of H and still have a long way to go.  I don’t like reading; instead, I am better at watching or listening. I love music and like to sing.  I also like to draw even though I’m not very good at it.

                My husband is an accountant at Apache.  He is my hero.  He fills my heart with his love and makes me feel complete.  I love him and thank him for loving me.  Reena is my angel.  She brings me joy and peace.  She likes to sing and she is a peacemaker.  Little Jonathan is my teacher.  I learn a lot from him.  I learn to keep things out of his reach, to put safety inserts in outlets, to not give him a bowl of cereal in the living room, to close the bath room door, to be patient, to order takeout instead of dining-in, and many more things.  I am sure he still has LOTS of things to teach me.

                 

                 My goal is to be a good mom, good wife, good daughter, and good friend.  I want my kids to grow up to be good people and live the life that Heavenly Father plans for them.  One of my teachers taught me that we should “learn from our mistakes and not repeat them.”  I remind myself of this when I need to forgive someone else or even myself and try to remember that we are only human.  We are not perfect and all make mistakes, and we can pray to help others learn from their mistakes.

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Getting To Know Me!

My name is Cheryl F.  I was born in Wahoo, Nebraska but was raised in Alaska until I was 12 and then in Montana.  (I am not a fan of cold weather, so Texas weather is nice). I come from a large family, 5 brothers and 4 sisters (I am the 4^th child).  One of my sisters is adopted.  My parents only had two children at the time and were foster parents—she is a native Alaskan.

My husband, Tom was adopted as a child from Madrid, Spain.  He also served in the Madrid, Spain Mission.

            Tom and I met in Bozeman, MT at a church Institute dance.  We were both attending Montana State University.  We were married in the Idaho Falls Temple.  We have 3 children—1 boy and 2 girls.  Our son and eldest daughter are attending BYU in Provo.  Our youngest child is 18 and is attending school in Austin, TX.  Our son served in the Salt Lake City mission area before he started BYU.

            After my husband graduated from college as a Chemical Engineer, we moved to Luling, LA (west of New Orleans).  We moved to Katy, TX for one year in 1997 for Y2K work issues.  We loved living here and were sad to move back to Louisiana.  We didn’t stay for long there though—in 1999 we moved to Tokyo, Japan for 1 year and then to Kerteh, Malaysia for 2 years.  We were then back in Louisiana for the next 3 years.  In January of 2005 (after repairing roof damage from hurricane Katrina) we moved to Milan, Italy for 1 ½ years.  (Our son was on his mission at this time).  We then moved to Kuwait for one year.  The summer of 2008 the girls and I headed to Katy, TX to find a home.  Our daughter Samantha headed off to BYU that fall, where her brother was already going to school.  Tom finished the work in Kuwait in October of that year.

This February my husband and I went on a Western Caribbean cruise to celebrate our 25^th wedding anniversary (6 months late).

While living overseas we were able to travel to many other countries.  I have been to 32 countries on 5 continents, so far (yes, I am keeping track).  We will leave for another overseas assignment in the next year or two, but will be back again.

My husband and I have enjoyed teaching Primary together. This year we are teaching the 9 year old class.  We also serve as YSA advisors.

I love reading, puzzles, games and traveling.  When my husband retires we would like to go on a mission together.

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Establish a House of Order Activity

Thanks to all of those who put together our "Establish a House of Order" Relief Society activity this past Thursday! We received so many great tips and ideas for how to better organize our meals, our homes, and our time. The following are some of the ideas our presenters shared with us:

Meal Planning

Kim C.

Feed Your Sheep

• Store what you eat, eat what you store
• Set your budget for your family
• By frequently used items when they are on sale, so you can buy in large quantities
• Plan your menu around what is on sale
• Don't be afraid to can or freeze items!
• If you don't bake find a bakery outlet (i.e. Sara Lee, Mrs. Bairds, etc.)

Kim's Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

5 cups warm water

3 TB yeast

2/3 c. honey

2/3 c. oil

1/4 c. Vital wheat gluten

1 TB salt

14-15 cups freshly ground wheat (I usually do half hard red wheat and half white wheat.) The best if you have enough flour is if your dough is still sticky but pulls away from the sides of your mixer.

Mx all ingredients in order in a heavy duty mixer for 10 minutes.

Let rise until double and then divide into 4 or 5 bread pans. Let rise again until double then bake in 350 oven for 30 minutes.

If you aren't going to cook all loaves, put dough into bread pan to shape. Then remove the shaped dough and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Then place in freezer.

Time and Budget Saving Food Tips

Alice B.

Living in Houston, many foods have a very short life, even while refrigerated! So, to stretch our budget, free up meal-prep time, and give variety to our meals, below are a few hints.

• I munch on celery a lot. I like to wash and slice it and have it ready to eat. I find that recycled, Hillshire Farms, lunch meat boxes keep the celery fresh for WEEKS!
• I also cook several things in bulk, then divide and freeze to speed up future meals' preparation.
• Rice: cook & freeze in 1-2 c. packs
• Brown Rice: add beef bouillon & dried onion, cook and freeze in 1-2 c. packs
• Ground Beef: brown, drain and freeze in 1 lb. packs
• Chicken: put in large kettle, cover with water, season with salt, pepper, onion, poultry seasoning. Cook, shred, freeze in 1 lb. packs
• Chicken breasts: grill, cut in cubes and freeze in 1 lb. packs

Clutter Control

Darla D.

ORGANIZING CLUTTER

You can't organize clutter, so that's where I start in keeping organized -- get rid of clutter. When I'm cleaning and I pick up a rarely used item I ask myself: "Do I ever want to see this again?" if the answer is no, I donate or throw it away immediately. If the answer is yes, I ask myself "When I want it, where will I look for it?" not "Where does this go?". I also stay committed to actually putting things away - - don't put off and think that you will do it later - - if you have a problem with clutter, you won't do it later.

3Ls

LESS is more - The lass you have, the less you have to put away.
LITTLE steps - Put together a bin full of certain items you are not using and store it away for awhile. If you don't open it within a year you never will.
LABEL - If it doesn't have a label it is in a bin and forgotten

3 Questions to ask your self before a spontaneous purchase:

Am I going to use it often?
Am I going to use it in the near future?
Where is it going to go?

Fly Lady Advice:

Don't allow yourself to be sidetracked by wasting time at the computer
Pick up after yourself. If you get it out, put it away.
Don't try to do two projects at once. ONE JOB AT A TIME.
Don't pull out more than you can put back in one hour.

MOTIVATION IS WHAT GET'S YOU STARTED - HABIT IS WHAT KEEPS YOU GOING!

Time Management

Kay H.

"Life offers you two precious gifts -- one is time, the other freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will. Every day, every hour, every minute of your span of mortal years must sometime be accounted for. And your eternal reward will be according to your choosing." Elder D. Todd Christofferson

THE 4 D's OF TIME MANAGEMENT

• Do it!
• Delegate it!
• Dump it!
• Defer it!

Action Steps for you:

• Identify high value activities
• Time limits for tasks
• Don't waste time waiting
• Learn to say "No"
• Keep to-do lists -- short and long term

Getting To Know Me!

 My name is Kate C. I am 24, and I love: reading, blogging, skiing, quilting, cooking, going to estate sales/yard sales/antique shops, but especially being home with my family. I was born in Lubbock, Texas but my family moved from there to Illinois and then western Massachusetts, where I did most of my growing up. My dad was the first person from his family to leave Texas. Our ancestors immigrated to Texas from the Czech lands in the late 1800's. That has been one of the neatest parts about moving to the Houston area; generations and generations of my ancestors lived only 30 minutes or so away from Katy!

I spent my junior year of High School in Rennes, France on a study abroad for 9 months. There I got to live with an LDS host family, ski the alps, visit the Louvre, have my first kiss, but most importantly: learn French. I will always remember how I felt singing the hymns the first Sunday at the local branch; I knew that even though I was really far from my family, I still had a home in the church.

I went to BYU and switched majors several times. I was admitted to their Photography BFA program, but discovered it was not interesting to me. Then, I switched to Middle East Studies and Arabic. I went to Jordan for a study abroad. There I learned how to walk discreetly, turn down a marriage proposal, eat a diet of mostly rice and bread, haggle, but most importantly: learn Arabic.

When I returned, I took a semester break, then went back to Jordan to live with an awesome Muslim family that I had met the first time. They have five daughters around my age. I did my own "study abroad" of sorts, and there were pros and cons: more and less freedom. It was an adventure, that's for sure. I was able to travel a little through the Middle East before I came home. I went to Lebanon, Egypt, and Israel/Palestine. When I got home, I switched majors to French Teaching. Why? I had figured out that I wanted to teach High School or Middle School Arabic.  "Arabic Teaching" didn't exist at BYU, but I could get certified to teach Arabic after I got a teaching license in something else. I also minored in TESOL K-12.

                                                                                                                                                                       

I should mention that I met Danny my freshman year at BYU, we dated for four months, then he left on his mission. I wrote him every week, and also dated a lot. But he is my true love. When he came home, we dated for another seven months before we got engaged. His family is from Colorado. We were married in the Boston Massachusetts Temple in May 2008. He had an internship in Boston, and we lived there for the summer after we got married in a teeny tiny studio apartment. It was heaven.

Before I graduated, I was hired to teach Arabic at a charter Middle School in Lehi, UT. I taught there for a little over 2 years. My second year teaching, I taught two classes from material that I developed, while at the same time taking 21 credits from byu including several online classes, student teaching in French...and being pregnant! That was a busy time!

During my third year teaching, there were a lot of political problems at the school. Danny and I realized that he could graduate in December and get a job, which was a semester earlier than we had thought. We prayed about it a lot, and I decided to quit my job early to stay home full time with Jane. It was a hard decision because I teaching Middle School Arabic was my dream career.

We were very blessed because Danny got two job offers soon after applying. We chose the job in the Houston med center because it felt right. I am grateful we did, because I love living here in Katy! I especially love the friendships we've made so far, and I really hope to continue to make friends with everyone in our ward and neighborhood.



                   

I have been a stay home mom for almost two years, and it has been more rewarding and challenging than I could have ever expected. We have two children, Jane (18 months) and Dan (5 months). I feel very blessed. I was just called to serve in the Primary over Activity Days for girls. I am very excited, and happy that it will give me a chance to meet more of you!

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