Christmas Conversation

Today we talked with Ben in Georgia where he is serving a mission.  It was amazing to Skype with him.  Here is a screen shot of us chatting.    He is a good missionary, who loves God and wants others to know Him.  It was so nice to talk to him.  He comes home in April, less than a week after I graduate.

Real Meaning of Christmas

I was touched by this video.
Enjoy!

First Real Snow of the Year

This is what we woke up to this morning and it's still coming down. This is out our back door looking at our deck. It might be time for us to go buy a snow shovel today. :(

Straight from the heart

Went to a funeral today.  The beautiful baby girl was 7 hours old.  My heart ached to watch my friend and his wife bury  their 3rd child.  Sometimes life brings unexpected trails and tribulations.  Several years ago as I worked as a medical social worker on the Labor and Delivery and Pediatric untis, I helped families as their babies died or with fetal demisses.  I cried with them, and often would feel sad for them.  But it was so much easier to walk away at the end of the day with a prayer that they might find peace. 

Today as I watched husband and wife and family say good-bye I struggled so much more.  Maybe because I know them, have that personal connection and care about them.  I watched the husband carry the small casket and cried knowing that for a time, that would be the last time he carried his baby girl.  How grateful I am for comfort I feel in knowing of God's Plan of Salvation and the knowledge that we can be with our families and loved ones again.  The pain is still present, understandably so, for them.  But they also speak of peace they have received.  I pray they might have peace and that we may never have to pass through that trial. 

Williamson Family Picture 2011

General Conference Weekend

A priceless weekend is having both sets of parents in town and one brother from both families at the same time, enjoying general conference together, many shared meals and memories made, family pictures taken, trees trimmed, weeds pulled, deck worked on, apples picked, 15 quarts of applesauce made and bottled, tons of apple pie filling and apples in syrup bottled thanks to Elisa and Joshua, and hours of visiting. We love our family.

Update - weekend adventures

This weekend was a full one.  Here is some of what we did:

Jasmyne came to Utah to attend the BYU vs. U of U game.  We got together on Friday night and had a nice visit. 

I taught deep muscle relaxation at our Relief Society Super Saturday.  I love this relaxation strategy.  I like it before bed or before getting up.  I took the transcript from this video.  Here it is if you want to try it:

I worked in the garden.  Here are some pictures I took 2 weeks ago of our apple tree and garden  and one that I took yesterday of the tomatoes and broccoli I picked.

At Super Saturday I also learned a new bread recipe.  It is a multi-purpose dough and so far I love it. I'll post the recipe soon.  I made way too many carbs. on Saturday and Sunday:

Saturday - French Bread

Saturday - Hamburger buns, rolls, and long sandwich buns

Saturday - Cinnamon twists and rolls

Saturday - I tried to simplify life by cutting the rolls and bagging them individually so that we can make sandwiches then put them back in the bag and take them to school or work.

Derek loved the cinnamon rolls!

Joshua loved the cinnamon rolls!

Sunday - 2 loaves of bread

 

Sunday - even more cinnamon rolls

It was a fun baking weekend!

Other weekend projects include studying for classes, and attending a community event to talk about adoption and avaliable counseling resources. 

Adventures of the week

Here is some of what we did this week:

Joshua's school had its NJHS Induction Ceremony.  He was in charge of refreshments.  I wish we had taken pictures of the beautiful table of all the food.  Here though are the brownie bites we spruced up with whipped cream and fruit.  We also served, lemon cucumber water, 3 different bunt cakes (Don't know what they are all the rage.  We had Red Velvet, Chocolate and Swirl flavored cakes), a veggie platter, and cookies from Paradise Bakery.  I think the kids thought it looked beautiful and that it added to the special occasion.  For me, I left at the end of the night exhausted.  We had some minor/major set backs that we had to work through, like the teacher in charge of bringing the lighter for the candle lighting and the plate, cups, napkins forgot those items and remembered 5 minutes before the program began.  I sped to the store, ran through it pulling items off the shelf like a mad-women on the 90's TV show I loved, Super Market Sweep.  The store did not love me to say the least.  In the end, we were able to set everything up in time. 

Our garden is growing well still.  The weather is cooling down so I hope the copious amount of tomatoes growing ripen quickly.  Here is a bowl full  of green beans I picked this morning.

It's apple season and our Granny Smith apple tree is producing away.  The apples are smaller but they taste great.  Here is a bowl full of peeled, cored, and sliced apples that I did tonight. 

Joshua and I decided we would use the apples for an apple pie.  We did not agree on the recipe to use, he wanted the one his family used growing up and I wanted the one in my family.  So, we decided to do a competition of apple pies.  Here he is making his pie. 

His pie finished first and tasted good but the real test was to compare it to my pie.  Joshua took my pie out of the oven and placed it on the cooking rack.  Unfortunately it did not stay there.

Joshua tasted the pie anyway. 

Derek tasted the pie anyway. 

I tasted the pie anyway.  -  Don't worry we tasted the parts that did not touch the ground.

So who won the pie making contest?
We will have to reschedule our pie making match due to an inability to form a conclusion.

He says he did as mine could not be properly judged.  So I had to forfeit.  I claim sabotage.  Therefore he's disqualified.

Some of the other things we did were:
I started school and a new internship.
Joshua's work is improving.
We rebuilt some of our sprinklers - quite a learning experience and pictures to come soon.
Got our broken car towed to a repair shop and fixed.
Cleaned the house from top to bottom - it is now in need of that cleaning again and it has only been a day.
Both Joshua and I played the piano.
I taught primary and Joshua taught young mens.
We made new friends at work, the store and school.
I visited with an old friend on the phone.
I went to Zumba.

Back to school - sometimes it's not fun

AHHHH!!! 

Do you ever have crazy teachers? 

Do you ever have teachers who think there class is the only class you have?

Have you ever had a teacher who said, "well I work 70 hours a week and will be doing all the reading in class too" implying that we should suck it up and be fine with the 3 inch binder stuffed with articles of "Supplemental Reading" that he will be testing on, and the "Required Reading" is of 4 large books.  He's crazy!

I will finish this semester but I don't know that I will do all the readings - unfortunately that will effect my grade.

LAME, LAME, LAME!  FRUSTRATED, STRESSED, FRUSTRATED, STRESSED!  That's what I think adn feel!  BLAHHH.

Chocolate? Yes, Please!

I love chocolate!  I found this recipe and they made the most delicious chocolate cookies with chocolate chips.  I found it on allrecipes.com, one of my favorite recipe websites!  Once I made the dough, I measured out balls 1 Tablespoon large, then divided the balls in half, rolled them into a ball.  Cutest bite size cookies!  Great size for lunches.

Here's the recipe: 

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies I

Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 10 Minutes Ready In: 45 Minutes Servings: 48

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened 1 1/2 cups white sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Thoughts and feelings

Right now I am feeling frustrated and a little disappointed that the bread I have been working on for the last 6 hours has not turned out.  This project all started when I saw online that a garage sale/fundraiser/bake sale was being held tomorrow for a 14 year old name Jacob Watson.  Jacob was one of Joshua’s students this last year.  We went and visited him in the hospital when he was first diagnosed with Leukemia. 

Since they are having a bake sale, I thought I’d make and donate some artisan bread.  It is easy (normally), beautiful (normally) and tastes great (normally).  I quickly made up the dough and left it to rise.  During that time I went to buy a new baking stone as ours had seen its last day a few weeks ago.  Quick trip I thought.  Run to the store, run in, grab the stone, pay for it, home in 30 minutes.  Wrong!  It took me 4 stores until I found it.  Finally, I get home, season the stone, and get everything ready to bake.  When I go to put the first loaf in the oven it won’t come off the pizza peel.  Now this is not the first time that has happened.  In fact, it has happened every time we try it.  Stupid pizza peel. (Side note, we bought the pizza peel for $30 to my protest against doing so.  Tonight at the first and second stores I went to, I saw the same one for $10.  TEN DOLLARS! Ridiculous.  I should hold to my guns about not spending that much.  Paying more does not always mean it will work better.  Stuff sticks to it all the time and drives me crazy.)    

Back to the story; finally I get the first one off the peel and into the oven onto the new baking stone for the stones debut.  As it is baking, the stone cracks in half.  WHAT!!  STUPID STONE!  I still have 2 loaves to go.  So I decide to use the larger half of the stone anyways to cook the rest of the loaves.  Each loaf comes out looking …well…, not as beautiful as normal.  I have just tasted one.  It’s not very good.  Not only am I’m rethinking taking anything to the bake sale but it’s now nearly midnight, I am tired, have had to clean the kitchen again, used up most of my flour and thrown away 2 of the 3 loaves of bread.   I’ll just have to wait to see if the 3^rd is a nasty as the others.  Either way, I can’t offer to have it sold.  I suppose it’s a tender mercy that I tasted it and did not subject others to it as well. 

Good Bye Wasatch Mental Health

Today was my last day of my internship at Wasatch Mental Health.  I really enjoyed my time there but alas, I am a relieved to be done.  I am now closer than before to completing my masters degree.  I also do not have to deal with those kids yelling or staff dynamics.  I have learned through my time there I believe in positive reinforcement as I saw it change behaviors better than negative punishments. 

Now I have a few weeks to recollect myself before beginning my last 8 months of the program and beginning working at LDS Family Services as a therapist and hopefully in adoptions as well.

One of today's projects

Ugly 80's light fixture makeover. 

I strongly dislike the way this light fixture looks but buying new one is not in the budget for right now.  So, since Joshua is out of town I decided to do a makeover using something I love and he does not....spray paint.  In honor of him though, I bought the "Brushed Metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze" spray paint.  I figured I could try it and since I did not like the light the way it is, if it looked bad, I still would not like the light the way it is...and we could always choose another color to paint it.  

Here is how it turned out:

Before - Dinning area light fixture

After - dining area with same light fixture

I love it!!!

Home Sweet Home updates

The Garden:

It grows a little more each day.  The after picture is a month old now.  Since this picture I have torn out the lettuce and planted winter squash in its place.  The 12 pepper plants have not produced anything as of yet.  A bad bug kept eating their blossoms before they could have a chance.  Two nights ago I went on a bug killing rampage.  The garden is no longer organic to say the least.  But the bugs are gone, including a great reduction in the number of earwigs outside and inside the house, and there are 2 jalapenos growing now!!!!  Here are some pictures:

Before - Garden a few weeks old

After - Garden a month ago - recent pictures to come soon

Joshua's Mother (Elisa) and Dad (Glenn) came up during the last week of June to install beautiful handcrafted, specially designed cabinets for our downstairs room.  Dad did a wonderful job designing, building and installing them.  We were able to help lacquer and seal and sand and wax each piece.  I really enjoyed the time we had together, working and visiting.  Elisa again was priceless in her helping us.  She is so efficient and has long eyes to help us work through various projects such as landscaping the front yard.  With their help we accomplished more in those few days than we had in the month and a half we had lived here.  Here are some pictures of some of the projects:

Before - the ugly recesses in the wall next to the wood burning stove

After - the recesses are filled with wonderful bookcases.  Don't worry the book cases have been straightened up now so they look better.

After - beautiful knotty alder wood cabinets.

Landscapping:

After - water efficient plants.  Before it was overgrown with weeds and tulips (in the early spring)

 

 

Donut Falls Hike - July 22, 2011

Several Friday's ago Joshua and I went to for a hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Doughnut Falls (a waterfall that has eroded a hole in the rocks and now falls through it like it is a doughnut).  We live so close to world class hiking, camping and ski resorts that we want to take advantage of it.  I enjoyed being outside again.  Here is some of what we saw. 

Near Doughnut Falls

Me downstream from the fall

Joshua and I on our hike

Poor angle of Doughnut Fall

The view from the top of Doughnut Falls

Joshua on our hike

Me when we were above the fall

Memorial Weekend 2011

Time to play catch up on blogging.  I keep thinking I'll soon have the time to do it but that time probably will never be here.  So here goes.  Here is Memorial Weekend 2011.  Jasmyne, Daniel and Caleb drove up from Arizona see our new home and visit.  Having them was very nice.  We played on the love sack (Giant bean bag chair), went to the park, played with the neighbors, went to the mall, went to church and went cardboard sliding at the park.  I am so glad they were able to come.  They are such fun people to be with.

Here are some pictures I took when we were cardboard sliding down the hills and playing at the park.

Pizza Recipe

I love this combination for pizza!  This was a recipe I found sometime ago and since we are having some friends over for dinner tomorrow we decided to bust it out along with California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ Chicken pizza recipe. 

Arugula Pizza on homemade dough with a white sauce

Pizza dough

         

Bread machine pizza dough recipe

            1 c Water, 80- 90 degrees

            ¾ tsp Honey or sugar

            1 ½ tsp Salt (sea or kosher)

            1 ½ T Extra virgin olive oil

            2 2/3 C. Bread flour

            9 T Whole wheat flour

            1 ¾ tsp. Yeast, active dry, instant or bread machine

            Put in pan in the order listed here.  Turn on in pizza dough cycle.

White sauce (enough for 2 pizzas)

2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
2 Tbsp fresh basil, minced
1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese, shredded (or Kraft parmigiano)

Heat the butter in a small saucepan. add the flour and stir until thoroughly mixed. slowly whisk in milk, adding gradually. stir in remaining ingredients. the sauce will thicken upon standing.

Topping

            Caramelize onions in Balsamic vinegar

            Tomatoes, sliced

            Mozzarella

            Arugula (put on when it comes out of the oven)

About 45 minutes before making the pizza, preheat the oven to 500 F (or higher if your oven goes that high) with your baking stone or tiles on the lowest shelf or directly on the floor of the oven. If you don’t have a stone, you can bake on the back of a large baking sheet, but don’t preheat the baking sheet.
To shape the pizzas, dust a pizza peel or the back of a sheet pan with cornmeal or semolina flour. dip your hands in flour and pick up the dough round. Very gently lay the dough across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion on your hands. keep it across your knuckles and it will slowly stretch as you bounce it. If it sticks, gently put the dough down and re-flour your hands. Eventually, you can move to a full toss instead of a bounce, and the dough will quickly shape into a large thin round.
Lay it on the pizza peel or pan and top lightly with your favorite sauces, cheeses, veggies and meats. keep in mind that this is a pretty thin crust, so a little topping goes a long way. slide your pizza from the pizza peel directly onto the hot baking stone or place the sheet pan in the oven and bake for 5-8 minutes. The edges will puff a little bit, brown and crisp up.  Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. Wait a few minutes for the toppings to set before slicing and serving.