HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We've had a quiet night getting ready to welcome the New Year here at our house!  Tiana's with some school friends overnight and so it's just Kent and I.  We've played some games, Scrabble, Trouble, Set and Quiddler, and we made spring rolls!  I made up some of the Chinese mustard that we had here at the house but it smelled funny so Kent went on the hunt for some new fresh stuff.  Unfortunately all he found was prepared stuff and it was BLAH!! Oh well!  The spring rolls were done just right!  Now we're down to a mere 20 minutes before the big year change-over!  Wishing you and yours a very Happy, Healthy, Successful new year!!
Spring roll pictures are here if you care to look!

#63103

The year was 1992 sometime after October 10.  Wedding cash in hand, walking with Mom and Dad D. through Costco, we made some of our first major purchases as a married couple.  One of our purchases was a Rowenta iron.  That was a BIG deal!  I mean, a Rowenta iron?  For us?!  Well, I'd say that particular big deal purchase lasted us maybe 5 or 6 years.  Whatever else we bought, well, I can't even remember it!  But the one purchase that has become the legacy of all of them is Item # 63103.

Let's travel back in time a bit.  Costco ca. 1992: You bring your heavily laden cart to the register where team member #1 begins to read off each and every item number to team member #2 who gunfire-rapidly types in each item.  Team member #1 then moves everything from one cart to the next to ensure that each item is accounted for.  Talk about an amazing bit of work, really.  Many members all yelling out numbers - how to keep YOUR team straight!  The item numbers are put on each item on a large, brightly colored sticker so as to be easily found by team member #1.  So, they get to item #63103.  I really wish I remember how much it cost us.  For such a long-lasting item, I'm so very sure that we have more than gotten our money's worth! 

Item #63103 has been so useful.  Item #63103 has traveled through 3 states and two time zones, returning again to it's city of purchase.  Item #63103 has protected old dishes for transport to Value Village; Item #63103 has covered plates and plates and plates and plates and plates and maybe even a few more plates of Christmas cookies; Item #63103 has been used in crafting; Item #63103 has been cut small to cover the top of the wine cup at the Union Meeting in our home.  Item #63103 seemed to be an ever-springing, never-ending bit of usefulness.

Alas, Item #63103 is nearing the end of its usefulness.  After 18 years of faithfully serving our household, Item #63103 is running out.  This relic of Costco's history started its useful life at our little duplex on 200th St. that we paid $465/month for, it moved to Avenue C in Billings, MT and back to Mountlake Terrace, making it's final stop in Lynnwood.  I can't say for sure when Item #63103's useful days will be over, but I have to say, in a sappy, maudlin way, I'm going to be a bit sad!  We've been through a lot together.  We've done a lot together.  We've made lots of people happy together.
Thank you Item #63103!!

Item #63103 aka polyvinyl films

 

Some of the very last plates of Christmas cookies that Item #63103 will have the pleasure of wrapping.

Happiness ready to go!

December 25, 2010

So, since my mother-in-law is upset with the fact that this blog hasn't been updated, I guess I better do something about that!! ☺
For a true update, I must add that PART of the reason this hasn't been updated is because I decided to get sick earlier this week, too!!  I fell ill despite the fact that I washed my hands practically every time Tiana LOOKED at me while she was so sick.  I wasn't as sick as she was, but I was still quite down for longer than I wanted to be during this week!
Since no one else decided to get sick (yet!),  Mom and Dad came up on Friday to spend the holiday weekend with us.  They got here in the early afternoon and Tiana was pretty excited to get on with the tradition of opening presents Christmas Eve.  So, we did and then we had a light dinner of chicken and dumplings, cheese and crackers.  We played Five Crowns and Quiddler and at almost midnight I called my host-mom in Germany to wish her Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas! And we went to bed so that Santa could come and fill our stockings! ;)  We opened our stockings this morning, which contained the standards - toothbrushes, toothpaste, candy - had breakfast and set about to do not much.  After I got the ham in the oven, we took off for a short walk to enjoy the LOVELY, warm, clear blue-sky day.  It felt SOOO good!  We had lunch, skyped with Justin, Kathy and co., with Aunt Mavis and co. and then we played another round of Five Crowns.  For a smattering of what we did, you can check out the photos I posted here.
So, what did Santa bring?  Tiana got a new camera, a body pillow, robe and pj pants, hand warmers, a shirt and a whole bunch of other stuff I'm sure I've forgotten!  Kent and I bought ourselves a new point-and-shoot camera. He also got flashlight sorts of things!!  Of course!!  I got a new tape gun for crafting and SCHOOL SUPPLIES!!!  Coda was very pleased with his new tennis balls and the treats grandma made for him.  He was less than enthused with the bone he got, too.  Interestingly, so was Pixie, so I'm going to take it back.  There MUST be something wrong with it!  If neither dog was interested in it, it must be bad!  Anyway, I think that's our day in a rather large nutshell!  I hope you've had a nice and relaxing day.  Or maybe you've had raucous fun and that's even better!

Round 2!

     This is original art based on Emergency Room round 2!  Please, imagine that yellow/orange blob to be a peach!  Thank you very much!

     ER round 1 consists of sitting in the local emergency room for about 3½ hours.  That was following a VERY rude awakening at 1am by a VERY sick child.  I don't think Tiana has ever been so sick, or lost so much in one fell swoop as she did that morning!  It was a very big production that then continued in the form of violent dry heaves through until about 7:30.  Add to that, about 6:30 or so the runs started.  Ok, TMI but it is back story for the next stories.  In the morning I called the doctor just to see what I should do.  She offered to send a prescription for Zofran (anti-nausea medication) to the pharmacy for me.  I actually already had some for Tiana from earlier this year and so I gave it to her.  Fast forward to about 3:30 pm.  Tiana's really not wanting to down anything and the fever starts to go up.  I call the doctor's office again.  Because of my morning call, they suggested I bring Tiana in and they'd see her.  She really wasn't doing well AT ALL!!  Her blood pressure was pretty low, almost pass out point low!, when she was sitting or standing, her pulse was really high and so they decided that fluids, IV style, were the way to go.  Oh, but their IV nurse had already left for the day so they sent us to the ER.  So begins ER round 1. 
    Kent had to go to Special Meetings because he had the sound system, so it was just me and Tiana for the long haul.  So we get there with orders from the family doc.  Those aren't good enough, of course, so we had to wait for the entire set of everything AND another doctor to evaluate her.  And she had to pee.  But first she had to wait for the other patient at the end of the hall to be arrested.  Ok, drama over, time to pee -- in a cup of course.  She makes it back to the bed, lays down and waits.  FINALLY a little boy, I mean the doctor, walks in.  No joke, this must be one brilliant teenager!  He really can't be over about 19!!  Nice guy, really "gets" the teenager in Tiana and agrees that yes, she needs IV fluids.  So, in come two more teenage nurses (I'm going to be soo old!!) to start the IV.  When I find out that it will take at least an hour to drain into her, I take off for a bite of dinner.  I haven't really eaten all day and am in this for the long haul.  I come back and she's pretty much just watching the telly getting hydrated.  We're sent home and all enjoy a nice long night.  An UNINTERRUPTED night! 
     Now it is Thursday morning at about 10 am.  I wake Tiana and try to get her to eat. She's really having none of it. Everything still tastes like last night's big episode. About 10:30 she calls out that her side hurts so bad.  I go to check it out and yes, it's the lower right side, yes right where that nasty little good-for-next-to-nothing appendix resides.  Call number 3 to the doctor.  Yep, given recent history, go straight to ER don't stop at the doctor's office. So, I insisted on a quick shower for me and time enough to get some "toys" together to entertain myself for the day. We walk in and immediately recognize 2 of the nurses from the night before!!  Not good!  They recognized us, too, even worse!!☺   
     So, it's determined that we'll start with an ultrasound since there is no radiation to affect her young body, particularly the abdominal region.  They are hoping to rule out any gall bladder infections or appendicitis.  Well, due to too much ultrasound-impermeable gas, the appendix is rendered un-findable.  That means we need more IV fluids, more blood work (to compare to last night's), more urine sample (can't do that!), possible pain meds and finally possible CT scan.  Because the ultrasound was so brutal, Tiana's pain went from a 9.5 to a 12 on a scale of 10.  They decide to go ahead and give her a small dose of narcotic.  That leaves her LOOPY!!  And of course, it is AFTER the pain meds that she gets to go to the restroom.  And yes, I had to help, but can I just say, that's nigh on impossible while holding an IV bag, holding her up, not LOOKING at her while she's taking care of business and then getting her "proper" again!!!  So, duty done she's to now start drinking this peachy flavored concoction of oral contrast for her impending CT scan.  Vile looking stuff and I guess vile TASTING stuff.  This is the first time the tears start to flow.  Even the IV needles didn't allicit this type of response.  At some point, though, in her loopiness, she looks at me with these glassy eyes and says it tastes like metallic poop and peaches.  I told her I didn't know what that tasted like because I'd never had it and then I asked if she'd had some at school or something.  She told me that she'd one time eaten a robot's poop and then a peach!  It was so funny!  I'm sure you really had to be there but it was quite hysterical!  And so was she!!!  She was laughing so hard and tears were just streaming down her face and then...she fell asleep!  Just like that.  Over.  Done.  Sleep. 
     Almost 6 hours later we learn that for the most part they have no idea where the pain is coming from or what is causing it.  All blood counts are fine, urine is mostly fine, CT is clear.  Next stop, doctor's office tomorrow for a female exam just to make sure that THAT region isn't causing the problems.  Now if she'd just EAT!!!

Hello!!

WOW!  Where to start?  I've been in a different world for awhile now, I guess.  We have been SUPER busy with all sorts of choir/music/jazz concerts/gigs and whatnot.
At one of the 2 sleepovers Tiana had I made a coffeecake that was SOO good!!  Even Kent had the second half of the piece he took!!  I took a basic recipe and switched a few things up.  I can't leave a recipe alone you know!!

 BASIC COFFEE CAKE

Cake:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup sweet butter, room temp
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk -- OR -- Sour Cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Streusel:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp softened butter
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts, or chocolate chips, and/or raisins

Grease a 9" cake pan and dust lightly with dried breadcrumbs
Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg. Alternately add the dry, sifted ingredients and the milk with the vanilla mixed into it.
Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. Top with 1/2 the streusel and a bit of the coconut. Top with the remaining batter and then the streusel.
Bake at 375º until tests done. I find it varies greatly by the oven it's baked in, ranging from 25 minutes to 45, so just test it to be sure. That is the only "fussiness" of this recipe, it is easy and reliable.

And now for my changes:

I used a little less sugar in the cake, used ½ butter and ½ non-fat plain Greek yogurt, egg substitute for the egg,  substituted the milk and vanilla with light eggnog and I did NOT pack the brown sugar in the streusel.  It was so delicious!!

 After the delicious coffee cake breakfast we headed out for the Mello-Aires first gig singing at Macy's.  The kids sounded good and would have been heard if they'd had a sound system.  But later in the day they did have that system and sounded great! 

.  

 We spent some time with my sis, Ivona, and her family as well as Trevan, Jill, Toriana and the very new Bryson!  That was so fun!  Jonathan preferred to spend his time in Uncle Kent's arms, but maybe someday he and Bryson will be good friends!

  Moroccan Party

Last night we were invited to join our neighbors as they welcomed their new baby with a traditional Moroccan party.  Can I just tell you it was INCREDIBLE!!!  The women were all stunningly, exotically beautiful in their traditional dress.  There was music, dancing, DELICIOUS food, and the evening was topped off with a belly dancer!  I didn't get any photos of her because the lights were too low, but it was obvious that this, too, would be a traditional addition to such a party.  Many of the people joined in the dancing either by dancing or their participation was a call similar to what we know as an "Indian war holler" or clapping.  The women rained cash on her.  The food was all home prepared by the grandma who just recently arrived in the U.S.  There were cooked vegetable salads (served cold), olives, a fabulous eggplant salad, bread (that's the utensil!  No forks, although they were kind enough to offer them to us.), saffron rice, lamb and chicken.  I tried a little of everything and it was all so incredible!  Tiana and Kent liked it, too.  There were some fried, honey dipped almond cookies as well as other almondy, coconutty cookies.  Had we stayed, there was tea (most likely mint) and coffee.  Such an awesome cultural, learning experience!!  Check out the photos at the link under the picture of Said (SIGH-ed) and Laila.

 

Party fun 

Today we had a little early birthday party for Jonathan.  Gordon, Ivona, Emily and Jonathan joined us for tacos after meeting and then we had cupcakes for the soon-to-be birthday boy!  What fun!  Tiana also gave Emily an old ladybug umbrella of hers.  I guess that was the absolute HIT of the day!!  She hasn't stopped playing with it since they got home according to Ivona!! I forgot to mention one thing that made us all laugh!  Emily came to Tiana and she said, "Why do you always have a mess in your room?"  Gave us all a good laugh!  According to her dad, she gets asked the same question!
And to finish today I baked a ½ batch of gingerbread cookies and a batch of sugar cookies.  Getting closer to being ready for the holidays!
And with that, I believe that you are mostly caught up on the happenings at our house!  We still have 3 more concerts/gigs to go before the winter break and then it is crunch time before school starts and Aimee gets here from Australia.  She'll be with us for 11 days.  All sorts of fun yet to come!

I can do this!

Ok, so there's a lot I haven't blogged about lately, and there's a lot I will blog about, but for today all I have to say is, "I CAN DO THIS!!"  I just got my math book in the mail today and looking at it, my confidence level has been raised and I know I'm going to be okay!!  I can do this!  I'm going to do this!  But can I have just a bit more time to pull myself together beforehand?!?!