I'm having a week. I don't have them very often, but this is one of them.
So, I present the folks of HEE HAW, who express my feelings so much better than I can. And with nifty overalls.
17 years ago
3.12.2010
3.10.2010
3.08.2010
Scenes from a cell phone camera.
It's been a while since I transferred pictures from my phone to my computer. I found some cool stuff.
These are my men. So alike. But they're cute so I'll keep them.
This is Chef Adalberto Diaz. He taught me and my sister Kiirstin how to make all kinds of bread during a cooking class at a bistro called The Blue Lemon in Alpine, UT. I almost asked him to run away with me just so that he could cook for me for the rest of my life--even though I'm married and he's about a foot shorter than me.
This is the pizza he cooked for us. That's fresh pizza sauce, prosciutto, fresh mozarella and tomatoes. Eat your hearts out. (PS--I successfully replicated this crust at my house last week. Because of this, I am planning a gourmet pizza party, my friends!)
I posted this on facebook, but I still find it laughable. What's a woman to do--stay true or go rogue?
These guys are part of my Wednesday night volleyball crew. I love me a good game of volleyball!
Fact: I love the Olympics. Fact: Carter was forced to love the Olympics, too. he became so enthralled with Apolo Ohno that I decided to take him ice skating at the Olympic Oval in Kearns, UT.
He tried to be brave and let go of his old man walker a few times.
But he felt more comfortable like this. He made it all the way around the oval eventually, though. I was proud of my little man.
I hate the pre-springtime brown yuckiness in Utah. But last week, all the snow melted and it actually got warm enough for Carter to go outside to play without whining the whole time. It was nice to get out of the house (despite the admittedly redneck swingset).
This last weekend, we packed up the fam and drove to Island Park, ID, where Randy's family has a cabin. We snowshoed and snowmobiled, drank hot cocoa and ate junk food, played the Wii and watched movies. And Camryn had her first honest-to-goodness snowball fight. (We had three of them to be exact.) All in all, a great weekend. It was nice to escape for a while.
The end.
These are my men. So alike. But they're cute so I'll keep them.
This is Chef Adalberto Diaz. He taught me and my sister Kiirstin how to make all kinds of bread during a cooking class at a bistro called The Blue Lemon in Alpine, UT. I almost asked him to run away with me just so that he could cook for me for the rest of my life--even though I'm married and he's about a foot shorter than me.
This is the pizza he cooked for us. That's fresh pizza sauce, prosciutto, fresh mozarella and tomatoes. Eat your hearts out. (PS--I successfully replicated this crust at my house last week. Because of this, I am planning a gourmet pizza party, my friends!)
I posted this on facebook, but I still find it laughable. What's a woman to do--stay true or go rogue?
These guys are part of my Wednesday night volleyball crew. I love me a good game of volleyball!
Fact: I love the Olympics. Fact: Carter was forced to love the Olympics, too. he became so enthralled with Apolo Ohno that I decided to take him ice skating at the Olympic Oval in Kearns, UT.
He tried to be brave and let go of his old man walker a few times.
But he felt more comfortable like this. He made it all the way around the oval eventually, though. I was proud of my little man.
I hate the pre-springtime brown yuckiness in Utah. But last week, all the snow melted and it actually got warm enough for Carter to go outside to play without whining the whole time. It was nice to get out of the house (despite the admittedly redneck swingset).
This last weekend, we packed up the fam and drove to Island Park, ID, where Randy's family has a cabin. We snowshoed and snowmobiled, drank hot cocoa and ate junk food, played the Wii and watched movies. And Camryn had her first honest-to-goodness snowball fight. (We had three of them to be exact.) All in all, a great weekend. It was nice to escape for a while.
The end.
2.26.2010
A Little Bit of Innocence Lost.
Today, in the car on the way to a training for my job, Carter and I had a moment. It was not a particularly pleasant moment (for me), and I hadn't really realized until it was upon me that I would have to meet this particular challenge at some point. (I think it was like most parenting challenges--you know you have to tell your kids about unpleasant things at some point or do the whole "tough love" thing, but it's never quite as hard in your mind as it is in real life.)
This morning, my son learned about war.
Our war. Our warS.
We were listening to NPR's Morning Edition, and the lead story after the news update was an in-depth report about the suicide car bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan this morning. 17 people died. People were shooting at other people. You know, the same kind of news headlines that have become all too common, and therefore have faded into our subconscious mind. They are now just a fuzzy background noise that accompanies all of the "real" stuff going on in our quiet lives here in the states.
But for Carter, it was like a lightbulb went on.
"Mom, who was shooting?" he asked.
I paused and then explained that some people don't like other people, so they use guns to hurt them. I asked him if that was an OK thing to do, and he replied that it was not.
"But, why did they do that?" he asked.
"Because they are in a war," I said.
"What's 'war?'" he asked again.
I turned off the radio. I tried to figure out how to explain hatred and terrorism and politics to a four-year-old who has never had to deal with any of those things before. And tears came to my eyes.
This was the moment when Carter was going to start to see the world for what it is a lot of the time: a scary, hate-filled, uncertain place. This was his first look into all the things that make all of us parents fear for the future of our children. This was his first step out of innocence.
I DID NOT want to have that conversation. But I did. I told him that when lots of people fight lots of other people, it's called a war. I told him that it's sad because people get hurt.
He was fine with that explanation. We talked a little bit more, and then he seemed satisfied and let the topic drop. I didn't tell him that hate-filled people killed almost 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11. I didn't tell him that a sadistic, empty-souled tyrant named Adolf Hitler killed 6 million people almost a century ago. I didn't tell him that there's a good chance that he'll have to live with wars of one kind or another for his entire life.
Am I over-reacting? Maybe. I know that he still feels safe here at home with his family and that what we talked about today will probably not affect his day-to-day life at all right now. But a seed has been planted. A precedent has been set. And it makes me sad to think that this is the day he learned that people hurt and kill other people, a concept he will now begin to witness every day for the rest of his life.
And so it begins.
This morning, my son learned about war.
Our war. Our warS.
We were listening to NPR's Morning Edition, and the lead story after the news update was an in-depth report about the suicide car bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan this morning. 17 people died. People were shooting at other people. You know, the same kind of news headlines that have become all too common, and therefore have faded into our subconscious mind. They are now just a fuzzy background noise that accompanies all of the "real" stuff going on in our quiet lives here in the states.
But for Carter, it was like a lightbulb went on.
"Mom, who was shooting?" he asked.
I paused and then explained that some people don't like other people, so they use guns to hurt them. I asked him if that was an OK thing to do, and he replied that it was not.
"But, why did they do that?" he asked.
"Because they are in a war," I said.
"What's 'war?'" he asked again.
I turned off the radio. I tried to figure out how to explain hatred and terrorism and politics to a four-year-old who has never had to deal with any of those things before. And tears came to my eyes.
This was the moment when Carter was going to start to see the world for what it is a lot of the time: a scary, hate-filled, uncertain place. This was his first look into all the things that make all of us parents fear for the future of our children. This was his first step out of innocence.
I DID NOT want to have that conversation. But I did. I told him that when lots of people fight lots of other people, it's called a war. I told him that it's sad because people get hurt.
He was fine with that explanation. We talked a little bit more, and then he seemed satisfied and let the topic drop. I didn't tell him that hate-filled people killed almost 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11. I didn't tell him that a sadistic, empty-souled tyrant named Adolf Hitler killed 6 million people almost a century ago. I didn't tell him that there's a good chance that he'll have to live with wars of one kind or another for his entire life.
Am I over-reacting? Maybe. I know that he still feels safe here at home with his family and that what we talked about today will probably not affect his day-to-day life at all right now. But a seed has been planted. A precedent has been set. And it makes me sad to think that this is the day he learned that people hurt and kill other people, a concept he will now begin to witness every day for the rest of his life.
And so it begins.
2.03.2010
Green with......
I took these...
...and made these...
...so Carter and I can make cute things like this...
...and ended up with this.
Oops.
The volleyball crew is not going to let me hear the end of this tonight. It's hard to take a spike seriously when it's hit by a hand like that. *sigh*
I think it's time to invest in some rubber gloves.
...and made these...
...so Carter and I can make cute things like this...
...and ended up with this.
Oops.
The volleyball crew is not going to let me hear the end of this tonight. It's hard to take a spike seriously when it's hit by a hand like that. *sigh*
I think it's time to invest in some rubber gloves.
1.29.2010
Give it up for the Greeks.
Anyone who knows me knows that I adore food--good, well-seasoned food and lots of it. And though I love all types of food (except tofu and tripe) Greek food is what I crave a lot of the time. Not only is Greece the birthplace of philosophy and mythology, it's also the cradle of civilization when it comes to seriously yummy eats.
My obsession with all things Greek comes as no surprise to my old co-workers at APX Alarm. When I was pregnant with Carter, I ate Greek food from a little restaurant a couple of miles from the office almost every single day. For at least two months, it was pretty much the only food I ate, period. I never got tired of it. It was so much of a sure thing, in fact, that my friend Lindsay remarked one day, "Steph, I'm really concerned that your baby is going to come out Greek." He didn't, but I probably wouldn't have minded.
Skip ahead five years to present day: specifically GIRLS NIGHT OUT tonight! I got put in charge of making a pasta salad for dinner. I decided that instead of making a run-of-the-mill Mormon pasta salad (though they're also very yummy), I wanted to make a Mediterranean pasta salad. I thought about it for a few days, and with a little help from the internet I came up with the most divine pasta salad EVER in the history of salads! Ok, I may be exaggerating and it could prove to be a huge flop at our shindig tonight, but to me it tastes like the holy grail of pasta salad.
So, long story short, here's my first-ever recipe! It may still need some tweaking depending on the response it gets at the party tonight, but it's still pretty darn good. I hope you like it!
Stephanie's Mediterranean Pasta Salad (I'll think of a better name for it later.)
Ingredients:
Salad--
16 oz. Rotini pasta, cooked to al dente, drained and cooled
1 large cucumber, diced
3 vine-ripe tomatoes, diced
1/2 red onion, diced really small
1 cup pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped
3-4 oz. crumbled feta cheese
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
Dressing
(Note: I modified this recipe from a similar one I found on Allrecipes.com. It can be used for any type of salad, and I think you could probably also use it as a marinade. This recipe makes more than you need to dress the salad, so pop it in an airtight container and keep the leftovers in the fridge for a few weeks....though I doubt it will last that long.)
1 c. good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 c. red wine vinegar
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried basil
3/4 t. pepper
3/4 t. salt
3/4 t. onion powder
3/4 t. dijon mustard
Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a large mixing bowl. Using a wire whisk, beat the heck out of it until the mixture has emulsified. Set aside. (You can even make this a day in advance to allow the flavors to blend.)
In a large serving bowl, combine all the salad ingredients. Pour some of the dressing mixture over the top. Toss the salad together and then taste it to adjust the amount of dressing if needed. Serve with grilled chicken or steak kababs or just eat a huge bowl of it all by yourself. Live and let live, I say.
P.S.--Trying out recipes is hard on my kitchen.
My obsession with all things Greek comes as no surprise to my old co-workers at APX Alarm. When I was pregnant with Carter, I ate Greek food from a little restaurant a couple of miles from the office almost every single day. For at least two months, it was pretty much the only food I ate, period. I never got tired of it. It was so much of a sure thing, in fact, that my friend Lindsay remarked one day, "Steph, I'm really concerned that your baby is going to come out Greek." He didn't, but I probably wouldn't have minded.
Skip ahead five years to present day: specifically GIRLS NIGHT OUT tonight! I got put in charge of making a pasta salad for dinner. I decided that instead of making a run-of-the-mill Mormon pasta salad (though they're also very yummy), I wanted to make a Mediterranean pasta salad. I thought about it for a few days, and with a little help from the internet I came up with the most divine pasta salad EVER in the history of salads! Ok, I may be exaggerating and it could prove to be a huge flop at our shindig tonight, but to me it tastes like the holy grail of pasta salad.
So, long story short, here's my first-ever recipe! It may still need some tweaking depending on the response it gets at the party tonight, but it's still pretty darn good. I hope you like it!
Stephanie's Mediterranean Pasta Salad (I'll think of a better name for it later.)
Ingredients:
Salad--
16 oz. Rotini pasta, cooked to al dente, drained and cooled
1 large cucumber, diced
3 vine-ripe tomatoes, diced
1/2 red onion, diced really small
1 cup pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped
3-4 oz. crumbled feta cheese
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
Dressing
(Note: I modified this recipe from a similar one I found on Allrecipes.com. It can be used for any type of salad, and I think you could probably also use it as a marinade. This recipe makes more than you need to dress the salad, so pop it in an airtight container and keep the leftovers in the fridge for a few weeks....though I doubt it will last that long.)
1 c. good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 c. red wine vinegar
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried basil
3/4 t. pepper
3/4 t. salt
3/4 t. onion powder
3/4 t. dijon mustard
Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a large mixing bowl. Using a wire whisk, beat the heck out of it until the mixture has emulsified. Set aside. (You can even make this a day in advance to allow the flavors to blend.)
In a large serving bowl, combine all the salad ingredients. Pour some of the dressing mixture over the top. Toss the salad together and then taste it to adjust the amount of dressing if needed. Serve with grilled chicken or steak kababs or just eat a huge bowl of it all by yourself. Live and let live, I say.
P.S.--Trying out recipes is hard on my kitchen.
1.27.2010
Male Bonding.
I really enjoy living in our neighborhood, but one thing Carter has missed out on is man time. The only kids his age on our street are girls. He loves to play with them and they love to play with him, but I've been looking for a little boy his age in our neighborhood so we could invite him over for a playdate.
A few months ago, I met a family with a little boy named W. They are the cutest family and even though W. is a year younger than Carter, the two boys have already started their own mutual adoration society. So today, W. came over to play. In fact, they are playing Hyperdash in the next room as I type this.
The funny thing is that even though they've played together often at church functions and such, this is their first actual "playdate." Because of this, when W. first came over he was a little shy. As in, didn't say much and only shrugged his shoulders when I addressed him directly.
That's when I pulled out the Froot Loops and cut up an apple. We all know that sharing food with a friend is a social activity, not designed to feed any hunger except the kind that craves affection and fun. So, the ice slowly began to melt.
And that's when I overheard this conversation.
W: "My house is better than your house. We keep our mixer in the pantry."
Carter: "Do you have a back yard?"
W: "We have two yards."
Carter: "You have two back yards?"
W: "No, only one back yard and one front yard."
[Pause]
Carter: "HEY!! We're the same! We have one back yard and one front yard, too!"
[Both giggle.]
W: "We're going to get the Transformers movie."
Carter: "We have the Big Chance of Meatballs Movie for a minute." (Sidenote: This is Carter's name for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which we rented from the Redbox for a day TWO WEEKS AGO. And yet he still quotes almost every line.) It's the one with all the food."
[Pause]
Carter: "Row, row, row your boat and drive it up the sea! Merry, merry, merry, merry, life is like a lollipop."
W: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"
Carter: "Lollipop."
W: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"
Carter: "Lollipop."
W: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"
[Pause]
W: "Sometimes we burp."
Carter: "Yeah."
And then they were friends for life.
Boys are SO FUNNY.
A few months ago, I met a family with a little boy named W. They are the cutest family and even though W. is a year younger than Carter, the two boys have already started their own mutual adoration society. So today, W. came over to play. In fact, they are playing Hyperdash in the next room as I type this.
The funny thing is that even though they've played together often at church functions and such, this is their first actual "playdate." Because of this, when W. first came over he was a little shy. As in, didn't say much and only shrugged his shoulders when I addressed him directly.
That's when I pulled out the Froot Loops and cut up an apple. We all know that sharing food with a friend is a social activity, not designed to feed any hunger except the kind that craves affection and fun. So, the ice slowly began to melt.
And that's when I overheard this conversation.
W: "My house is better than your house. We keep our mixer in the pantry."
Carter: "Do you have a back yard?"
W: "We have two yards."
Carter: "You have two back yards?"
W: "No, only one back yard and one front yard."
[Pause]
Carter: "HEY!! We're the same! We have one back yard and one front yard, too!"
[Both giggle.]
W: "We're going to get the Transformers movie."
Carter: "We have the Big Chance of Meatballs Movie for a minute." (Sidenote: This is Carter's name for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which we rented from the Redbox for a day TWO WEEKS AGO. And yet he still quotes almost every line.) It's the one with all the food."
[Pause]
Carter: "Row, row, row your boat and drive it up the sea! Merry, merry, merry, merry, life is like a lollipop."
W: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"
Carter: "Lollipop."
W: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"
Carter: "Lollipop."
W: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"
[Pause]
W: "Sometimes we burp."
Carter: "Yeah."
And then they were friends for life.
Boys are SO FUNNY.
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