Super Sunday

Why is it Super Sunday? I don't know--I just liked the alliteration. We ate both meals in bed today. I told Ben he shouldn't move too much and he didn't argue with me on that point. He's been in bed nearly all day. It smells like pancake syrup in the bedroom now but oh well.

I got the baking bug tonight. I'm just addicted to baking--I can't stop! Despite the fact that we're trying to keep Ben on low-fat foods, I just really wanted to make cookies tonight. But I decided to get creative and I made up a new cookie recipe. I used whole wheat AND oatmeal for these cookies so if you want some more whole grains in your cookies, try this recipe. VERY tasty, by the way.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal and Whole Wheat

Sift together:
1 C. whole wheat flour
1 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream well:
1/2 C. butter
1/2 C. canola oil
1 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. white sugar

Add and mix well:
2 eggs, 1 at a time
1 tsp. almond extract

Add:
1 C. oatmeal

Mix until blended well

Slowly add previously sifted dry ingredients until just blended. Don't overmix.

Add 1 1/2-2 cups mixed chocolate chips. I used a combination of white and semi-sweet.

Bake at 375 until just brown around the edges--about 8 or 9 minutes.

I could hardly believe there was whole wheat flour in this recipe. You could probably even mess with the ratio of whole wheat to all-purpose flour and have more whole wheat than all-purpose. Well, that's all she wrote! Enjoy!

A Long Thursday

We've had a bit of excitement in our house this week. At 4:45 Thursday morning Ben woke me up with a horrible pain in his upper right abdomen. He just couldn't get comfortable, and after doing some research on the internet I thought he was probably looking at kidney stones or gallstones. We got dressed and headed over to the emergency room via his parents' house, where his dad and uncle Larry were able to give him a blessing. The emergency room was completely empty so we were seen almost immediately. Not that it made the whole process much faster. The ER doctor came in and after a bunch of poking and prodding decided that It was probably gallstones, but that they needed to do an ultrasound to be sure. After that the nurse came in and said that Ben couldn't have any pain medication until after the ultrasound and that someone was coming in a few minutes to take him to ultrasound. An hour later, they finally did come and take him to ultrasound. When he came back, Ben said that the technician found gallstones, and the doctor came back a few minutes later and said that it was gallstones and Ben would need surgery to get his gallbladder out. We asked if he could have some pain medication and an hour later someone finally came to give him some meds. To make a long story short, they admitted him into the observation unit of the hospital and he finally got into surgery at about 5:30 that evening. When he got back from surgery he was coherent and feeling much more comfortable. They did the surgery laproscopically, making only 3 small incisions. Apparently his gallbladder was completely blocked with a stone about 1 centimeter in diameter. No wonder he was in so much pain! He spent the night in the hospital and came home yesterday morning. He's really doing very well. He's a little more sore today than he was yesterday. We had to go to the grocery store yesterday to buy some more low-fat ingredients. With the removal of his gallbladder (which stores bile--the stuff that breaks down the fats in the food you eat) we're not sure how he'll tolerate fatty stuff. So at least for the next two weeks he's on a low-fat diet. Although he didn't feel too much discomfort from all the walking around yesterday, I think he's feeling it a little more today. He'll probably go back to work Monday since all he has to do is sit at a desk and work. Altogether, we feel very blessed. It could have been much worse. Ben had a very skilled surgeon and he's recovering very well. We're so grateful for all the prayers in our behalf. Trust me, we've felt them.

Making decisions

So this whole subbing thing isn't working out as well as I thought it would. Instead of working 20 days a month like I thought I would, I'm working about half of that. When I went one week subbing 1 1/2 days, the next week subbing 4 days and the next week subbing 2 days, I decided enough was enough. The main reason why I wanted to sub was to open the doors to potential teaching jobs. For better or for worse, the doors just aren't opening right now, so I've decided to move on from that, for now. I'm still planning on getting my teaching credentials and possibly start teaching later on down the road, but for right now, I'm going to explore other avenues. Initially I thought I would just go ahead and get another full-time job. I just couldn't bear the thought of leaving home at 6:30am and not getting home until 6:30pm, so I began looking for full-time administrative jobs here in the area. I didn't find a whole lot and I wasn't feeling really motivated either. Last week I went for a walk in the park and I realized that getting a full-time, hum-drum job wasn't really what I wanted to do. I realized that I wanted desperately to explore my talents and passions: teaching, creativity and music. I have an opportunity (through networking) to teach science lessons at a couple of local preschools. I also have a piano, and with a little brushing up I could teach piano lessons. In addition I happen to be quite smart and there's got to be some people out there looking for math/science tutoring. It took me about a week of going back and forth, weighing the pros and cons, discussing my options with friends, but I've finally decided to follow my passions. I think my mom summed it up best when she said, "what do you have to lose?" Well, I realized, absolutely nothing. So, yesterday I put an ad on Craigslist for tutoring, I sent out a proposal for the science lessons, and I'm planning to make up some little flyers for piano lessons. I've already had one response about the tutoring. It's all coming together and I'm very excited and happy. I'm especially grateful for my wonderful and supportive husband without whom I would not be able to do this so easily. Despite the fact that I was initially very depressed and angry that teaching has not working out, I think the Lord has blessed my life and given me an opportunity to bless others with the talents and gifts which He has blessed ME with.

More food experiments

Sometimes I think I should just turn this into a cooking blog. I end up talking about food half the time anyway!! Last night we had my in-laws over for dinner and I decided to make the cheesecake I've been drooling over for weeks; ever since I saw it on a Food Network Show. The cheesecake is called The Ultimate Cheesecake for very good reason--it's the best homemade cheesecake I've ever had. You can get the recipe HERE. You absolutely have to use room temperature cream cheese or it will be lumpy. Here's how it turned out. And yes--I made that, from SCRATCH.





I also decided to get a little creative when I tried to find something to serve the grapes in. I didn't have a medium sized serving bowl so I found this vase and made a grape arrangement.

The Bread Drug

I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't get much better than a slice of freshly baked bread. Very rarely do I ever close my eyes and sigh with satisfaction while eating anything, but this week I made some bread that generated such a reaction. Ben LOVES bread, and his mom spoiled him by making homemade bread nearly his whole life. I don't have the patience to make bread unless I can use my stand mixer to knead it or else the breadmaker. I actually started this bread in the breadmaker with the intent of shaping it into loaves once the dough was made, but it was just too much flour for the breadmaker to handle, so I ended up having to take it out and finish it in my mixer. I also modified the recipe slightly, but the base recipe comes from The Basics and More Cookbook. It was so good that I want to share it with you.

Light Wheat Bread
2 T. yeast
2 C. warm water
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. honey
1/4 C. vegetable oil
2 tsp. salt
1/3 C. potato flakes (this keeps the bread soft like a dough enhancer would)
5 C. white flour
1 C. wheat flour

Combine warm water, sugar, honey, oil and yeast. Combine flour, salt and potato flakes in mixer. Add wet ingredients, stirring with paddle attachment until thoroughly blended and dough doesn't stick to the side of the bowl. If needed add a little more water or flour to get the right consistency. Switch to dough-hook and knead dough on low speed for 7-8 minutes. If you don't have a mixer, you can knead it by hand but you have to knead it for the full 7-8 minutes or it just won't be the same. Let rise twice in warm place until double. The first time punch the dough down. The second time, gently place the dough on a cutting board and divide equally into 3 parts. Grease 3 bread pans and gently shape dough into the loaf pans. If you do this right, the dough will retain quite a bit of the air once it is in the pan. Let the dough rise in the pans until it peeks over the top and then bake at 325 for 10 minutes and 300 for 25 minutes. Of course, you should have a piece the second it comes out of the oven!

Enjoy!

It's been a boring couple of weeks. Last week I subbed four out of five days, this week I haven't been called in yet. I've actually been feeling like I should start looking for other full-time employment so I've updated my resume and I'm putting out some feelers to see what's available.

I've realized (with a little help from my spare tire) that since I got married, I've been very very sedentary. I think partially it's because I'm still in newlywed phase and just wanting to be together with my husband all of the time. The other reason is that my husband's goal in life is to exert as little physical effort as possible so I indulge him sometimes and we just stay home. Last night though, I decided that we needed to get OUT of the house. It took a lot of convincing and a little actual physical pulling, but I got my dear husband out the door and we went to a nearby park where we sat on a bench swing for an hour or so and just talked. When we're at home we read books or watch TV so it was so nice to put that all aside and just talk. I'm not looking forward to the end of daylight savings time when it will be dark at 6:00 or 7:00!

I worked on another sewing project this weekend. As the Ward Choir Director, I always have to carry my hymnbook and other music. I've been getting really tired of lugging it around by hand, however, so I decided I needed to make myself a little tote bag. I used 2 placemats for the main bag part and an old leather braided belt for the handles. After having a huge war with invisible thread (the thread won), and one broken needle, I finally got the handles attached. Sewing the placemats together to form the bag was a much easier process. Here's the final product:

An Ode to My Best Friend

My best friend Kylene recently graduated with her Master's Degree and having just passed her boards, is now a certified Physician's Assistant! I'm so excited for her that I can hardly contain myself. More than excited, however, I am incredibly proud. Kylene has always been a "go-getter". When she wants something done, she devises a plan and brings it to fruition. Being a bit of a flake myself sometimes, I am so impressed with people who seem to know what they want and how to get it!

Kylene and I met during our freshman year out at BYU. In fact we were roommates, along with 4 other girls. It was apparent right away that we would be very good friends and after just a few months we were practically inseparable. She left me after freshman year and moved to Hawaii where she attended BYU Hawaii, and I stayed in Utah. She came back to Provo for one summer and moved into my apartment and we had so much fun being together again--it was like we'd never spent any time apart at all. (It's still like that). A year later, she decided to go on a mission, and she left before I got to see her. While she was on her mission she kept writing me letters encouraging me to go. Although I had been waffling back and forth for some time, I finally decided to go on a mission. I turned in my papers without telling her, and when I got my call I photocopied it and sent it along with a letter to Taiwan, where she was serving. I wish I could have seen her reaction to my surprise, but even though I wasn't there, her next letter said it all. She was so excited for me! I left for Ukraine just a few months before Kylene returned from her mission. By the time I got back from my mission she had moved back to Provo and was working as a CNA, trying to decide what to do with herself and her education. I moved in with her and we got to be roommates again! We had an absolute blast this year, especially since most of our other roommates were so cool. Kylene told me how she wanted to become a Physician's Assistant but she wasn't sure she could get into a program anywhere and so she was ready to settle for a nursing degree. I knew she could do PA school, because Kylene is one of the smartest and most dedicated people I know. But my confidence alone wasn't enough. In the midst of filling out nursing school applications, however, Kylene realized she couldn't settle for anything less than what she really wanted, and decided that whatever the outcome, she would apply to PA school. I remember when she told me she would pursue being a Physician's Assistant, I was so excited! I had always known she could do it, I was just waiting for her to realize it! After working in Provo as a CNA for a year, she moved down to Las Vegas to live with her brother, and continued working as a CNA. She completed the application process and soon was receiving phone calls from several schools wanting to interview her. She stopped in Provo once on her way to a couple of the interviews so I got to see my dear friend again. When all was said and done, she had several acceptance letters, but finally decided to go to school in Philadelphia. It turned out to be quite fortuitous, as she met her husband while she was at grad school. Now, after two years of tears and laughter, dilligence and disappointment, she has graduated from PA school and passed her boards.

I am so proud of Kylene and all that she has accomplished. Her graduation is truly a victory not only for her but for those of us, her friends, who know and love her. Her journey to this moment has inspired me in ways that she may never even know. In a society that struggles to understand the value of education, I am so proud to call this accomplished and wonderful woman my best friend.