I Like Order

I cooked all day yesterday and today for Mark and Katherine's reception. They had the reception on Sunday afternoon because the vets' would have a hard time making it to the hall two days in a row. The reception was scheduled for right after church. Everything was so sweet. But I have to tell you, it was nice to be in the kitchen. I love my mother-in-law to pieces, but I don't ever want to plan a wedding with her again. I am pretty laid back because I have gotten the scheduling and lists preparing for a wedding down to a science. Our immediate family has done so many weddings that, Jimmy, Kate and I could probably do one a week without batting an eye. That is not a formal wish or request- just saying, that there is some formula to follow. However, my sweet mother-in-law doesn't really like that formula, as prevalent as it might be.
While everyone setting up was running around trying to get every last detail pulled together, I was taking my time and calmly putting together the food. Diana kept coming over and commenting how quiet I was. Apparently I am a very loud person, because she was not the only one to comment on my near silence. Regardless of my lack of speaking, everything turned out great.
We had tons of extra food and lots of happy people- I would count today as a success.

Goal Accomplished!

Our family finished reading the Book Of Mormon today!

Sometimes it is a real struggle to read the scriptures everyday, but I know we are blessed because of it. When we had the foster children, I made a promise with Heavenly Father that we would read the Book of Mormon everyday, pray together everyday and hold weekly family home evening. Things were not perfect with the boys here, we still had struggles. But, I really don't want to know how much worse it would have been if we didn't do those three things. I have to admit, I am a little sad that the boys weren't here to finish the book with us. I think it would have been fun for them to experience that little triumph.

I know this book is true, I am grateful for the peace it brings me. If not for the spiritual aspect, reading the Book of Mormon out loud with Kate everyday has made her a superb reader and taught patience. I will never regret taking time every day with my family to read. We are on to starting the Book of Mormon for the third time! We all tried to guess how many times we would read the book as a family before Kate went off to college. But thinking of that made me too sad so I couldn't pick a number. Kate chose 10. Let's hope, little girl...

A Sweet Love Story

This is Mark and Katherine:

 We have them in the back of the car to take them to the temple. You see, after 20 years of waiting, Mark and Katherine will be married in the temple. Mark is a war vet that lives at the Yountville Vets' Home. My in-laws are the coordinators for the Vets' Home Sunday Services. Those two do a great job really showering the vets with love. When they first starting coordinating, Mark approached them with a request- he wanted to marry his sweetheart. Katherine was Mark's caretaker for 18 years. He desperately wanted to marry her, and she him, but she refused to marry anywhere but the temple. Mark was not a member of the church. But Mark studied the gospel and ending up joining the church a few years ago. And then it was a matter of someone willing to help these two love birds accomplish their dream. Because Mark is an amputee, it makes travel very difficult. Not only did they need a ride, but someone who could help lift Mark in and out of the  vehicle. That's where we come in. We offered to drive the couple to the temple. With Jimmy's training as a nurse, he knew how to properly lift Mark without getting hurt.

 The drive to temple was sweet- but there are no words to compare the way I felt witnessing these two getting sealed for time and all eternity. I was a blubbering mess. The love between these that have waited longer than I've known Jimmy was palpable. I will be forever grateful to have been part of this sweet couple's special day.

Dog watching

On occasion, we watch the neighbor's dog while they are out of town.
We love, love, love to watch Maggie.
Kate and I have been watching the Dog Whisperer TV show, which we thought would make us amazing this go round with Maggie.
To be honest with you, I am pretty sure Maggie's in charge while she's here.
And we love it. At one point, our family had dogs- but I swore I would never do it again. .
But every time we watch Maggie, we always want a dog.
Until just one thing or another happens, I am snapped back into reality.
This week, Miss Maggie needed to go outside so badly that she may have jumped through the window screen. To chase a cat. At 2 am.

Another time, we got a call from the humane society asking us to pick up the dog that had run away- twice.
As much as I like dogs...
We have decided we are really good dog watchers and that's where it ends.

Music to my soul

I LOVE Pandora.
I love turning up the tunes and rocking out in the kitchen.
Because the kitchen is for dancing, you know.
I thought it would be fun to share my list of Pandora stations- you know, so you can judge me....
Because folks, I listen to some weird music sometimes.
This list is exactly what stations I have on Pandora, please feel free to point and laugh at them if you so choose (with a star by the top listened):

Lenka*
80's pop
Today's adult hits
Contemporary Bollywood
90's alternative/grunge
Symphonic
50's rock n' roll*
60's oldies
Golden oldies
Tween
Pop rock
C+C music factory
The Beatles
Mandy Moore
En Vogue
Ingrid Michaelson
Amos Lee
Justin Bieber *
Billy Joel
Weezer
The Hush Sound
Mika *
Garth Brooks
Cake
Chicago
Glee Cast
Plumb
Madonna
Lady Gaga
Erasure
The Platters
Christmas
Swinging Christmas
Dance Cardio
LDS hymns of worship
Taylor Swift
Jason Mraz
Love Songs
Disney Children's *
Imagine Dragons
Classical Christmas
Country Christmas
Jewel Holiday
Dean Martin Holiday
Hairspray
Lemonade Mouth
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Eric Hutchinson *
Hilary Weeks
The Piano Guys
Spice Girls *
Rod Stewart

After typing these I realized I have a ton of stations... and maybe a slight problem...

'poor me' post

Kate is home from school again today.
Another home bound day for us and the second riding lesson cancelled.
I am sad about that. Tuesdays are the best days. Kate and I love being around the horses.
It has been a hard couple or months for me.
Today, I just felt it all compounded.
I am especially 'poor me' over the fact that my best friend has been gone for two months.
I know that her move was imperative to her family. I am glad she is following God's plan for her. But that doesn't make me miss her any less. I hate that I can't drop by her house on a whim, call for a last minute hike or get a rarely needed hug. We still talk on the phone, but both of us are not really phone conversationalists. It has been hard for me to attend activities without her. Not because I can't talk to any of my other friends- quite the contrary. But, I just miss her experiencing the same things I experience. When you spend time with someone in many different times and places, that's one less thing you need to talk about to be caught up to date.

Once again, I know she is in the right place right now. I just wish where she belonged was closer to me...

Aww man...

I finally took Kate to school today after missing a week and a half of school.
They called and asked me to pick her up.
I just want this poor girl to get better!

Happy Birthday Diana!

It's this lady's Birthday today!

The whole family came over to celebrate.
 

Kate read a special story and sang a song to Nana as part of her birthday gift:

The birthday girl chose this for her dinner:

spinach salad

barbeque chicken (the kind with mustard and brown sugar- yum!)

roasted red potatoes

haricot vert

chocolate cake

You guys, the recipe for the cake- to die for
The King Arthur Flour company publishes a magazine. This publication gets all the winning cake recipes from each state fair and makes all fifty, then chooses a top recipe. The winner of the nationwide contest is from Utah. I chose to make the top recipe called Masquerade Cake. Holy Crap. It was soooo good. I was a little apprehensive because the recipe required beets. But, man oh man- it was phenomenal. And because I love you all so much, I thought I would grace you with the recipe:

Masquerade Cake

1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar

1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) vegetable oil

1 can (15 ounce) sliced beets

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups (6 3/8 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 cup (2 1/4 ounces) cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling

1/2 cup (4 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup (2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup (4 ounces) confectioners’ sugar

1 tablespoon Instant ClearJel

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup (2 ounces) heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks

Frosting

3/4 cup (4 1/2 ounces) bittersweet chocolate chips

6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, softened

7 tablespoons (3 1/2 ounces) heavy cream

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups (8 ounces) confectioners’ sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and line with parchment two 9” square pans.

For the cake: In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the sugar and oil. Drain the beets and reserve 1/2 cup of the juice. In a blender, puree the beets with the reserved liquid. Add to creamed mixture along with the eggs and vanilla. Blend well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt. Add to the creamed mixture and mix for 30 seconds. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, the turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 minutes. Divide between the prepared pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from their pans, peel off the paper and cool completely on rack. Cut each cake in half to make four 9” x 4” strips.

For the filling: Whip the cream until it holds a stiff peak. In a small bowl, mix the softened cream cheese and butter together. In another bowl, whisk together the Instant ClearJel and confectioners’ sugar. Whisk the cream cheese mixture and confectioners’ sugar mixture into the whipped cream in small amounts, alternating between the two until all are added. Chill the filling thoroughly before using.

For the frosting: Melt the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until smooth. Remove from the heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Add the cream, vanilla and powdered sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.

To assemble: Spread the filling on the tops of three of the layers of cake and stack four layers high, topping with remaining cake layer. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours. Remove from refrigerator and frost. Garnish with grated white chocolate. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Refrigerate leftovers.

Servings » 16

Mediocre yet fabulous

 After so much time spent at home, my mother-in-law offered to watch Kate so Jimmy and I could go out for a much needed night on the town. As with most dates, we did our standard dinner and a movie. Which is not to say that I don't enjoy other things... but I really love the cliché of dinner and a movie. A lot. Tonight we decided to go see the critically acclaimed movie, Gravity and eat at the Red Hen. In both cases, Jimmy and I were underwhelmed.

I know many people really enjoyed Gravity. I thought the imagery was beautiful. I also felt like the premise had so much potential. But as far as character development, I wanted more. Plus, there was not enough of a break from intensity. and I know the ending was happy, but I only got a second to revel in the triumph before the movie was over! The movie was so intense that I had to sit awhile to restore my pulse back to normal. Jimmy and I thought it was pretty funny that people were milling about in the theater during the credits and nearly ran to the exits when the music started getting intense again. I don't even think people realized that they all did that!

After the movie, we ate at Red Hen, which I hadn't been to in years. The last time I went, I got a pulled pork burrito with green sauce that I just loved. And so, I was dreaming of that meal on our way there. Once we got the menus, I could not find the exact dish I had been dreaming of. I chose the item on the menu that closest resembled what I had remembered. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. Our food was so-so.

So, Jimmy and I went and spent the day together experiencing things that were just, eh. But, the time I spent with Jimmy was just fabulous. I think that most married people will agree that sometimes the most memorable times together are when things don't go according to plan. We laughed a lot. Don't get me wrong- I love a kick-butt date with all the bells and whistles. But more than anything I like to share it with Jimmy. It really doesn't matter where we go or what we do. All that matters is that we are together.

A week of co-pays

As most of you know, health insurance has changed quite a bit in the past few years. When I had Kate, it cost a whopping $100. That included a few nights in the hospital and all the extras she needed to be healthy because Kate was born so early. I cannot even imagine how much everything would have cost if we had no insurance. Just in the past two years, our premiums have sky rocketed and the co-pays went from $5 to $85. Also, we are now responsible to pay all tests, x-rays, labs...

We spent a hefty amount this week on Kate's medical care for her pneumonia. Not only did she have multiple appointments, but it just so happened to be my week for a few appointments of my own. In fact, I spent every day of the week at Kaiser for one reason or another.

Even though we spent more than I had expected on care, I spent the time there very grateful for modern medicine. When we were waiting for x-rays, I just ached for my daughter who was crying in pain from coughing. She is not one to complain about pain. Jimmy and I know she is not feeling well if she says so. To see tears dripping from her eyes just about broke my heart. I think all parents would agree that there is no amount they would not pay to help their child. In the midst of this time of Kate's sickness, I have found much to be grateful for. I am so happy that she is well on her way to recovery.

Confessions of a Bored SAHM

What does one do when they are house bound for TWELVE DAYS?

Oh, you know- catch up on ALL the laundry:

Get sick of looking at the laundry room the way it is and gut, clean and reorganize the laundry room:

 Read books:

 Think of how nice the laundry room looked after gutting, cleaning and reorganizing. Decide to wash, rinse, repeat on the office closet:

 Then get this huge pile plus more (not pictured) for donating:

 Think that I might also want to donate some of Kate's books and reorganize her bookshelf:

 Then go to town on her shelves:

 Bake and wrap lots and lots of bread in between all this:

 Administer medicine:

 Make homemade chicken noodle soup:

Make homemade tomato sauce (and pasta!):

 

And just when I thought I couldn't get any more bored I did a 1,000 piece puzzle

(That is a big puzzle with many tiny GREEN pieces. I hate that color right now)

I need to get out of this house...

p.s.- If I hear another episode of Wizards of Waverly Place in my house, I think I will go insane.

I know I'm weird

Wanna know something that bothers me so.very.much. ?!?!
White noise.
I know that's strange.
It just drives me crazy.
Crazy enough to dedicate a whole blog post to how much it irritates the heck out of me.
We fortunately have two switches in the bathroom.
One to turn on the light. And one to turn on... the fan.
I am a good girl and make sure I turn on the fan during a shower. But I run my naked booty over to that switch the moment I hop out of the shower to turn the fan off. I don't know why I have such an aversion to white noise. It is actually really silly.

Almost as silly as my aversion to:
chalk (my Sunday school class has to write on the board for me) and
wind turbines (If I stare at them too long, I start to have anxiety issues- Jimmy always has to drive to Disneyland.)

I know we're late to the party

But we have really loved watching

Friday Night Lights

 

Jimmy and I rarely sit down and watch anything together-

it's a near miracle for us to both be hooked on a show.

I love the characters, not so much all the teenage drinking.

If you are a fan, we just saw the episode with this part:

We laughed pretty hard when Tim Riggins kept repeating that statement.

 Jimmy went as far as posting this picture on my computer desktop waiting for me to find it.

He's a funny boy, Jimmy... he does that often- take an inside joke and post it somewhere just waiting for me to discover it. I love it. And I return the favor by jumping out at him when he least expects it...

Patience is a virtue

and darn near impossible to acquire...

Kate had an appointment this morning.
As always, we were 20 minutes early.
Fortunately, they got us in quickly.
Which turns out to be the only early thing done all day.

The doctor took one listen to Kate's breathing and sent us straight to X-Ray. (I know the real term is the radiology department, but seriously- how often do I get to use the letter 'X' ?!)
She told us to come right back to the office after going down to the lab.
Well, we waited in line for an X-ray for over an hour.
Kate was in tears, just sitting on my lap.
It was just a mother's worst nightmare. When the X-ray was finally completed, we returned to the doctor's office...
they were closed for lunch.
We waited for two hours then were finally seen and received a prescription.

Then we waited in another line at the pharmacy.
Which took another hour.
Now I wanted to cry.
In line I kept looking over at my little girl wearing a mask (mandatory), looking like a zombie, weeping and coughing. It was just sad.

By the tie all was said and done, we were at the doctor's office for over 5 hours. That's six episodes of Chopped. Something needs to be done about that.

Hoopla's a good thing

General Conference in The House of Graham is like a holiday. We go all out.
Favorite foods
Fancy jim jams
Games and packets
New journals
Lots of notes
We do not do anything but watch conference- and love it.

Unfortunately the internet went out on Saturday between the morning and afternoon session. It was pretty devastating. That may sound like a pretty steep word to explain my feelings. But I'm telling you, it is appropriate. We PLAN for this weekend. Because Kate was sick we couldn't drive down the hill to watch it at church. The kindly neighbors offered a spot on their couch, but we really didn't want to get their family sick.
In our conversation with the neighbors, the wife said, "Maybe there's a reason you're not supposed to watch it."
How silly. Right?
Wrong!
The reason why we needed to see that session another day is this:
We had a nice enough time watching conference but Jimmy and I were preoccupied with Kate's health. She coughed the whole time and was unable to take notes and do the games and packets. That little girl looks forward to conference just as much as we do. Rather than having a environment buzzing with joy and excitement we were all subdued.
Now, this weekend we are planning on watching the afternoon session we missed.
With all the hoopla.

Mormon X-Mas morning

I saw that saying on  a blog this morning. We call the first weekend of October and April "Mormon X-Mas morning" because we spend the day in jim jams, eat yummy (and usually special) food and watch General Conference. Two things that are a tradition in the House of Graham as far as GC traditions go are: ice cream sundaes and 7-layer dip.
This year, we threw a curveball! Whaaaat?!
That's right! We made 7-layer dip, alright...

Mediterranean 7-layer dip!

'Twas delicious, folks!

Recipe:

hummus

tzatziki

cucumbers

red bell pepper

red onion

feta cheese

olives

 

I got everything from TJ's

And if you want to get all craaazy- throw on some pepperonchinis!

8-layer dip! Is that even possible?!

Instead of tortilla chips, use pita chips for dipping.

I will not be opening a chinese restaurant anytime soon...

Kate is still very sick. I am concerned she has pneumonia. The advice nurse asked that we wait out the weekend to see if anything gets better... and so I have spent 3 days worrying about my little girl and her spiking fevers. But, I will listen to the nurse.
Because I missed work yesterday due to Kate's illness, I didn't want to miss today as well. In swoops my fabulous mother in law! She offered to watch Kate while I went off to the daycare. Jimmy's sister and her husband will be coming into town tonight and Nana was making dinner for everyone.  Nana had plans to cook all day at our house while I was gone and just reheat everything.
It turns out last minute that I didn't have to go in to work after all, so I stayed home to help Nana cook the food. Well... Nana had all the ingredients for some pretty involved recipes. I like to cook. Don't get me wrong. But the recipes she chose to make were very labor intensive.

I think it was blessing in disguise that I wasn't needed at work. It took us gals 5 hours to cook everything for dinner. And we only made three things! You see, Richard (my BIL) was having a birthday that evening. Richard likes Chinese food. So Nana chose Chinese recipes... well, Americanized Chinese food recipes.
We breaded and fried pounds and pounds of meat.
We made many sauces.
We chopped up tons of veggies.

It was a ton of work, but we had a good time. However, when we sat down after all that work and looked at the receipts, we both decided it wasn't worth it. After all the shopping was said and done, the food cost around $90. Because we used all copy cat recipes from Panda Express, we reasoned that it probably would have been a better idea to just buy the food already made.

Lesson learned.
On a happy note- we had enough orange chicken to feed a small country. Anyone hungry?

Following promptings

I went down the hill today to deliver four loaves of bread around town. When I was driving down Silverado Trail, which is a very busy road with a high speed limit, a little boy darted across the road in front of me. He was being chased by his mother that could not catch him. I saw the panic and concern in his mother's face and made a split second decision to catch him. When I looked in the rear view mirror I saw that the mother could not get across the street because no one would stop to let her cross. This little boy was running fast. When I first followed him, I got ahead and turned into a driveway to head him off and he ran around the car. The poor mother was trailing far behind. Then I sped up to get way ahead of the boy and physically catch him. When he got to me, I was able to put my arms around him and just barely hold on to him until the sobbing mother caught up.

She was really emotional and just said, "Thank you, thank you! He's autistic. My son has never done this before. Thank you for catching him." I just looked her in the eyes and responded, "It's okay. He's okay. You're okay." Then I insisted on driving them home. At first the mother declined, but she was pretty shaken up and I could tell she needed it. When she finally agreed, I got to learn a little more about them. I informed her that I was delivering bread. When I got to their house to drop the mother and son off, I gave them a loaf of bread. The woman tried not to take it, but I was insistent. She took the bread and the boy took the butter and off I went.

As soon as I got into the car, I just burst into tears. This is why:
1) That morning I was making bread dough. It takes 24 hours for the dough to rise, so you have to plan ahead before delivery the following day. I felt a prompting to make an extra batch of dough. Rather than question it, I just made the dough. So, the loaf that I gave away today could be replaced tomorrow by the dough I made today.
2) I realized that the events leading up to me leaving at the exact moment I did were meant to be. I needed to leave the house at the precise moment I did.
3) I also realized that Heavenly Father put me in that place because He loves His children. He loves me- letting me be of service. He loves the boy, keeping him safe in traffic. He loves that mother.

When I realized these things in quick progression, I was just overwhelmed with the spirit. I called one of the customers and asked if I could deliver her bread tomorrow rather than today and she was totally fine with it. Everything worked out. Everything was okay. I am so glad that I got to be part of that experience. I am so glad Heavenly Father trusted me to help his child. I am grateful that I listened to the Holy Ghost multiple times to be able to help. I have to tell you, I absolutely love being a part of His plan.

Poor Sick Baby

When I picked Kate up from school, she was really quiet.
You know something's wrong if Kate is quiet.
In public, Kate is really shy.
When she gets around someone she feels comfortable with, it's hard to get her to stop talking.
Whenever I pick that girl up from school she is talking non-stop. I think that's she's trying to make up for being quiet all day.

So when Kate said she was tired and wanted to take a nap when we got home, I knew immediately that she was sick. That's always been the indicator. So now I sit with my poor sick baby that is running a high fever. I think she'll feel better soon. Unless she gets the pneumonia that has been passed around the family... let's hope not.

Kismet

Yesterday was a kismet kind of day...

Last week when I was shopping for the bacon and cheddar we'd be using for Kate's bread, there were a few raised eyebrows. The cashier asked what all the bacon was for. And then I launched into my story about Kate raising money and baking bread- you know, cause bread is my life now. (That's not complaining in any way- just a fact)
Well, one of the neighboring cashiers said, "I'll buy a loaf!" And I took her up on that. She mentioned this on Friday and we had one baked for her on Monday morning, ready to deliver. I had an extra loaf that morning because someone rescheduled last minute. Because it takes 24 hours for bread to rise, when someone cancels too late in the game- I'm stuck with an extra loaf.  I actually didn't know what I was going to do. If this had happened in the past, I would have kept the bread (all to myself) and eaten it piece by piece until the evidence was gone and my family wouldn't have known the difference. But, I am a changed woman. I only do that on free days, now.
But I digress...
Anyway, when I had this extra loaf, I went crazy texting trying to sell it off.
When we were getting ready for school, Kate and I wrapped up the bread and put a loaf in the car for the cashier at Trader Joe's. I had an inkling to grab the extra loaf and put it in the car too. After dropping Kate off, I went straight to TJ's to find this cashier. I walked up and down the aisles and see her in the distance- then stopped and did a double take. Someone who had already ordered bread and paid the previous day 9but was scheduled for a Friday delivery) was shopping in that same aisle! I looked at her and just blurted out, "Do you want your bread today?" A little stunned at my brashness, she stuttered, "Uh... sure!"
I bebopped my way out of the store and grabbed a loaf for each woman. I was able to do a delivery 2 for 1. It was pretty cool. On my way out I had to grab a couple of things and this is my receipt:

Cool, huh? So, my friends- it was a kismet kind of day...