Hey, Check This Out!

Here's a little story about life. I figure it belongs as a Christmas story in December because that's about when it started last year.

Actually, it started last July when Kristen and her family moved away. Even though we'd only known them for about six months, the whole family became our best friends. Like us, they had five kids, but what was even more remarkable was that the kids were roughly the same ages and sexes so everyone had someone to play with. Kristen and I were a lot alike and Joseph and Rob had a lot in common. We all enjoyed each other. But, then life barged in and took them away from us and they live about 2000 miles away.

That experience totally spoiled me. I wanted another family that just matched ours at our doorstep. It isn't in the cards at the moment. Now for my story which led to an a-ha moment for me.

Last December I was reading my brother's blog. He often writes very thought provoking posts and so I have to check out the comments when I read his posts. In the comments section, I saw that someone named Marni had left a post. I didn't know who she was, so with a mystery to solve, I clicked on the link that took me to her blog. I couldn't figure out what the connection was, so I just settled down to read some of her posts. This was one of the first I read (coincidentally, a Christmas post).

I returned to her blog a few times. Once, reading a post about Google Analytics, I noticed that my brother had made a comment. The funny thing was that by that time I had forgotten that I had originally found her blog through my brother's. Now this really was a mystery!

I think I left a comment on her blog and she visited my blog and left a comment. I guess that's history. Here's the A-HA moment: Hundred's of e-mails between Marni and I later, I've realized that even though I might not have a friend at my doorstep, it's o.k. I have a friend. One who understands my life pretty well. One who has inspired me to continue reading aloud to my kids. One who has led me to think more about my own education and, more importantly, spirituality.

In many ways, life has not delivered the neat little packages that I think I would like to have. Thank goodness that the possibilities aren't limited to the conceptions of my mind!

P.S. Marni and her husband (who is actually great friends with my brother and thus the connection) have five kids. If I could only find a way to get the kids together!!!

P.P.S. If you read the top post on Marni's blog, she talks a lot about libraries and books. I second that post!

Sweet!

I must say that I have the sweetest and kindest friends and family. I appreciate you lending me a hand and offering to help me in my time of need. Seriously, thank you.

Now, I need to address the wording of my gratitude statement. Some of you may balk at being called sweet. That's o.k. I completely understand. Hopefully this won't embarrass Joseph as I explain.

This weekend I was going through old picture albums and journals. In one of the albums I came across an old list. It was Joseph's hopes for his future wife. Now come on. Most of us either wrote a list or had a mental list of some kind. Mine went something like this (and just so you know of my shallow-ness, I think it was in this order):

1) Good looks (check. oh yeah!)
2) Brains (check!!! He's an absolute genius.)
3) Money or the potential for making it (check, we'll never be rich, but I don't care anymore)
4) Returned missionary (check, loves the people of Guatemala and wants to go back)
5) & etc

Anyway, Joseph's list was something I had come upon before he even asked me to marry him. I gasped as I read it. There were things I would never qualify for. One item in particular. Sweet. Now some of you know me and some of you really know me. I have a super saucy side. I've never once thought of myself as sweet and it certainly wasn't my goal then. (Though I love sweet people.) Still, my good husband, then boyfriend, decided to marry me. I can only guess that he saw my potential and had a store of superhuman patience for the wait for my transformation (still waiting, I assume).

New topic:

Some of you know that I like to blog and that if I'm not blogging, something is wrong. More than one caring person has called or e-mailed to say that they noticed I wasn't blogging, is everything ok? I'm so touched by that! This is just a heads up to say that I won't be blogging much at all for the next two weeks or so. Don't worry. I'm gonna be o.k.!

Healthy Heros

This post goes out to Julie, a friend to me in a crucial and difficult time of my life and marriage. I'll never forget how you listened to me go on and on about my problems. I called you almost every day and you listened to me complain, cry. You listened to my desolation. You didn't let me give up. You told me I could do this. You loved me. I'll never forget!

So, I'm approaching parenting (finally!) in a new way. It's not that I haven't done this in the past, I just haven't done it consistently or with as much anticipation and excitement for the results as this time. I'm working with a new awareness and it's pretty exciting. The whole deal is that every interaction is meant to create RELATIONSHIP. Rather than me barking out orders of things that have to be done NOW, I'm trying to take the time to explain how things work and why they need to be done. When a child misbehaves, rather than dishing out an immediate consequence, I'm trying to look eye to eye and lovingly explain why it's a problem and how I'd rather they don't repeat that action. I guess I'm willing to do this several times over if need be. This is still in the works. I don't have it all figured out. It's a good thing I believe in a God who works in my life every day, every hour, every minute, if need be.

I look for extra opportunities to build relationship as well. We listen to CDs in the van each morning, but we turn it off when we drop May and Elijah off at their school, so they don't miss anything. That means I have a few minutes with Nathan before I drop him off at his school. We have a deal that he gets to sit in the front seat to and from school because otherwise he'd have to be cramped between two car seats in the back. Sometimes we just flip on NPR but the last few days I'm talking to him more.

Last night I sat Nathan down to answer some questions about himself. My sister, Jodi, has started doing this with her kids (she also writes in their journals on their birthdays each year about the preceding year) . She sent me her questions and so I've begun to record the answers from my kids. One of the questions was, "Who is your hero?" Nathan answered, "Well, it used to be President [Gordon B.] Hinckley, but now it's President [Thomas S.] Monson." I thought he made an excellent choice.

This morning as we were driving away from the Elementary School, we saw Nathan's fourth grade teacher, Mr. Ulrich. Mr. Ulrich was just who Nathan needed last year. He thought Nathan was spectacular at a time when Nathan was really down on himself. I said to Nathan, "Maybe Mr. Ulrich is a good hero?" Nathan agreed, but obviously thought his previous choice worked better. Now here comes the part that Julie taught me. She teaches her kids something that she first learned herself called "Healthy Heroes." I can relate to this also. There isn't any one person who is perfect. I can choose a hero, but there may be a way in which they disappoint me. Then, my tendency is to trash the idea of hero. Why have a hero that will ultimately just let me down. The idea of "Healthy Heroes" is to find many, many people, all with different characteristics that we admire, while also realizing that they will have their shortcomings as all people do.

I taught Nathan about this today and told him to look for heroes all around him. I enjoyed it and I think he was listening. After all, it's about relationships, right?

Will You Be My Valentine?

"I love you Lucy. I love you so much. I made a snow woman."

Sariah's best friend Lucy, moved to Utah last summer. Sariah still thinks of Lucy often and decided to write her a valentine the other day. I've mentioned this before, but I just love it when kids first learn to write. I remember Nathan's kindergarten teacher , Ms. Fisher, showing us Nathan's first writing and explaining how children start out experimenting with writing. Kids will sometimes just write the first sound in the word and other times they will write all of the consonant sounds for the word down. Sariah has done both of these things in her letter. If she encounters a sound other than long or short vowels, she will often ask me what letters make that sound (i.e. the "oo" sound in you, as above. I didn't know what she was spelling so I just told her "o o").

Sariah drew pictures on the bottom of Lucy with her long hair and herself with her shorter hair. She always draws herself with a belly button.

Speaking of Lucy, Sariah and I found a book at the library on Wednesday that reminded us of her. It is called "Gossie and Gertie" by Olivier Dunrea. These two little goslings are best friends. Gertie always follows Gossie around until Gertie eventually decides that she will do her own thing. Gossie is thrown off by this and keeps yelling at Gertie "Follow me!" Finally Gossie gives in and follows Gertie instead, straight to their bowl of food, where it is reiterated that they are best friends. It's a sweet little book that reminded me of Sariah and Lucy's friendship. It's comical to think back to there squabbles and then, conversely, their hugs.

Two friends

One fond memory from our vacation was watching May and her friend Hannah Miller. We met the Millers on temple square the day of May's baptism to look around there and then go out for lunch. The picture above sort-of captures the emotions, even though I didn't actually have my camera out when they saw each other. They ran towards each other and greeted each other with happy voices and hugged. It was so sweet. I love it because I've always been sort-of challenged about showing affection. I'm happy to see my daughter be sort-of normal!! And I just love it that she has had that kind of friendship so early in life! Thanks Hannah for being such a good friend!

May's baptism

Maybe if I start in the middle, I'll get somewhere!

Almost exactly in the middle of our vacation marks a special date for the whole family, but most especially for May. Our wonderful friends, the Millers) who moved from Michigan to Cedar City in July came up to be with us for the whole day. Another great pair who spent the day with us were my sister Shellie and her husband Brady (who is Sariah's forever friend!) We spent a part of the day on temple square. We visited the large Christus statue in the visitors center and also went around the side of the Salt Lake temple where you can climb the steps and stand next to the enormous, beautiful East Doors of the temple. It was just wonderful to be with friends and enjoying the spiritual aspects of life.

Then we ventured down the street to a beautiful Olive Garden Restaurant and had lunch. It was so lovely and the food was even better. Joseph and I had Apricot Chicken. That's a recurring daydream of mine!

We had to rush back to pick up the baptism clothes and Sunday clothes and then rush to the West Bountiful chapel where May was to be baptized. May looked lovely.

As a side note, my friend Angie visited us (in Michigan) before we left for Utah. I told her at that time that Nathan was going to give a talk on baptism. At that she quizzed him on the things he wanted to speak about. It was a great help to him. One of the things that stood out for me from that interview was that Joseph was the one who would baptize May. It is so special for me to see the father of my children performing these sacred ordinances.

Nathan did indeed give a wonderful talk (and later received MANY compliments). He seems to have a gift for writing and giving talks. He spoke just to May and I was so pleased with how he shared his feelings from his own baptism three years ago. May's cousin, Jordan played the piano beautifully. One of my favorite primary songs this year was May's choice:

Jesus entered Jordan's waters
When his work had just begun
God the Father spoke from Heaven
This is my beloved Son
Hear him!

The room was full as we crowded in to see May baptized in her lovely white. She was very happy at that moment. Her grandfathers stood as witnesses.

My sister Shellie stepped in last minute and gave a nice talk for May about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Once again Joseph performed the ordinance of giving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. There were so many special men there who helped with that ordinance. We were blessed to have many, many family members and some special friends who came to be with us. It was wonderful to see my aunt and uncle there. May carefully chose the people she wanted in the program. One of those people was her uncle Sam who has a beautiful singing voice. He sang our closing song.

Thanks especially to Grandpa M who reserved the church and organized a potluck dinner for afterward where May and our family could socialize with family and friends that we have not seen in a long time.

Intersection

I've been thinking a lot this morning about how people's lives intertwine. We meet friends, get to know them, love them, then they move away. Recently our friends, the Millers, moved away. At a good-bye dinner, Joseph mentioned wanting to sing "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." At least this time, it will only be a short while before we meet with the Millers again as they have decided to make the trip up to Northern Utah for May's baptism! YEAH!!! I have fond memories of singing that hymn at the end of General Conference when our beloved prophet has just finished speaking. It is such a uniting and strengthening song, but also pulls at my emotions and longings for the day when we will all truly be together, without the partings.

Yesterday I had a short meeting with somebody I didn't necessarily think I would see again. Steph Gibson was my visiting teacher for part of the time that she lived near me. (As a side note, she was the first one to recognize that I might have post-partum depression and was actually brave enough to loan me her book about it. I was pretty defensive about that at the time, but I did indeed suffer from that illness. She opened up the door to my actually looking at a solution. She doesn't know this, but I will always be grateful for it.) We took a lovely drive to Hastings, Michigan to see her daughter, Aspen, be baptized. We were only there for a brief time, enough to exchange hugs and say our hellos, but it was well worth it. I'm so happy to have actually SEEN her again. She has a beautiful family and the love in the room was very strong. Thanks for letting us be there, Steph!

Delicious Braided White Rolls

Here's a tribute to my best friend from college, Erin (Batman--that really is her maiden name) Munk who taught me how to make rolls, and I'm not going to tell you how many years ago.

This was the recipe her family used, although as I understand it, this is one quarter of the whole recipe. I "braid" my rolls by tying a knot in dough that I have rolled between my hands. Then I tuck the ends under. After years of making crescent rolls, I have decided that for some reason, the braided rolls have a better, moister texture.

Here's the recipe. Like the brownie torte recipe, I will need to take and post photos later.

1/2 cup butter (you can use margarine or shortening, but I prefer butter)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 T. salt
2 cups milk, scalded
2 cups flour (I prefer unbleached)
1/2 cup warm water
2 T. yeast
2 eggs
4-5 cups flour

In a large bowl, put the butter, sugar and salt. Heat the milk until scalded (blow over the top of the milk, once a skin has formed on the top, it is scalded). Pour the hot milk into the bowl and stir to melt the butter. Allow to cool somewhat before adding more ingredients.

While the milk is scalding, add water and yeast together in a small bowl to dissolve the yeast.

Once the milk mixture has cooled a bit, add 2 cups of flour and stir. Add the yeast. Add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Finally add between 4 to 5 cups flour. The amount will depend on what kind of flour you are using. Some flour absorbs more liquid. You want the dough to stay nice and moist (not sticky, just moist) so take care in the amount of flour you add. At some point the dough will become too thick to stir and at this point I clean off my spoon and use my hands. Knead a couple of minutes to get a smooth dough.

Allow to sit and raise until double. Push the air out of the dough. At this point, you decide what shape of rolls you would prefer. If you want crescents, divide the dough in two pieces. Take each piece and roll into a circle. Cut the circle with a knife into 12 triangles. Roll the triangles from the large end to the small. Allow to rise for 15 to 20 minutes and bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes.

For "braided" rolls, divide the dough into 24 equal parts. Take a piece of dough and roll it between your hands until it is 10-12 inches long. Make a knot in the roll and then tuck one end under the knot and one end into the top of the knot. Let rise and bake as above.

The picture is of the slightly smashed finished product (I've been storing these in bags since last night).

Thanks Erin, my family LOVES these rolls!

Chocolate Chip Brownie Torte

I thought that might get your attention Shelley! ;)

My good friend Kristen (she's moving and I'm not sure I will ever be able to totally forgive her for this!), told me that a blog is a great place to post family favorite recipes. She also told me that I HAVE to post this Brownie Torte recipe.

This recipe came from a friend from college (Allyson Neuhaus). She made this wonderful concoction one evening for a dinner we served to our dates. Later, she let me copy it out of her Hershey's cookbook.

I'll have you know I've made this recipe about 5 times for different things over the last three months and not once have I had a bite. I used to eat several slices of it. My kids love it and so does Joseph who is a chocolate convert.

I'll try to take a picture the next time I make it and post it here. It's easy and it also turns out looking like it took a really long time to make (looks fancy!).

Chocolate Chip Brownie Torte
2/3 c. butter
12 oz. mini chips
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 c. chopped nuts (I always use sliced almonds for this)
cream frosting (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 15 1/2" x 10 1/2" x 1 " pan with waxed paper or foil. Grease. Heat butter and 1 cup chips in 3 quart pan over medium heat until chocolate is melted. Stir remaining ingredients into chocolate. Spread evenly in pan. Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes.

Invert on board. Remove waxed paper. Cool cake completely. Cut cake crosswise into 4 equal pieces 10" x 3 3/4". Place one piece on serving plate and spread about 3/4 c. frosting over top. Repeat 2x. Frost sides and top with remaining frosting. Garnish with remaining chips. Chill at least 1 hour. (I usually mix in all the rest of the mini chips into the frosting and garnish the top with more sliced almonds)

Chocolate Chip cream frosting:
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. chilled whipping cream
1/4 c. powdered sugar
2/3 c. mini chocolate chips

Beat whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in chilled bowl until stiff. Stir in semi sweet mini chips.

Here's the patriotic fruit pizza we had for the fourth of July. The fruit was wonderful. Maybe we'll make this one every year!