Kitchen Creations & Crafts

While most of the time I'm busy with the daily "to do" tasks...  Sometimes I get to be a little crafty or cook-y.  (Yum, cookies! Wish I had some!)  There's probably a better word for someone spending time in the kitchen - culinary artist - except I'm just a beginner, so anyway, enough rambling already!
For David's graduation I made him chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting per his request.  And so I tested out my newly acquired frosting tip skills.  I think I did pretty good w/out the best frosting possible.  It was fun doing these, even at 1am before graduation day.

And then on Mother's Day  it was decided each child would make part of the dinner for the 18 family members at the Clark's.  Well, I didn't even have pots/pans big enough to fit food for 18!  But it worked out.  I was in charge of two meals (and never had made them before may I say) - Potato Salad & Lime Cilantro Rice (Cafe Rio knock off).  And they turned out GREAT, at least they were mostly eaten, I think I made too much, and I liked it, so that's a start. :)

Here's me with the potato salad.  I actually had to boil the potatoes in two pots, and then let them sit in the fridge for several hours before they would cool down.  I had my cousin Steph's recipe and tips so I think that helped with the "success".  Peeling all those potatoes, cutting up the veggies, eggs, etc - it all sounds like a piece of cake on paper, but it sure did take 1/2 a day at least!  Next time, I'm making enough for only 2.

And then for the Lime Cilantro Rice - I had 2 pots and 1 rice cooker for all that rice!  David was a big help in both of these when he was around, which was definitely great.  What would I do without him?  Okay, getting side tracked again.  Below are some pictures during the rice process and then the final product.  It called for all these limes, but I would have even added more, me and citrus, yum!

David frying the rice above....

And lastly, I'm not sure how, but I still had some creative crafty desire and although I was going to make a wreath for ME first, below is the wreath given to my mom-in-law.  I guess I practiced on this one and the one for me will be even better maybe?  David helped pick out the flowers and colors and I think it looks very summery and nice to have their address on it, although if anyone does this, the numbers are on with hot glue and with all the varied sticks, its hard to keep it on because it's not level.  I'll post our wreath as soon as I finish it too.

And I didn't get a picture, but Saturday night we (my sis-in-law and me) made brownie cookies from pinterest which was very good too - along with a nice BBQ dinner of veggie kabobs and steak, hamburgers, etc.  More culinary creations from the 4 of us :)

He Did It!!

I'm so proud......

My David is a college graduate as of May 4th 2012!!!  Really, how cool!?!?!?  And just as a side, he's been in school for years, and the whole time we dated and married, so I'm just saying, finally I get my D to myself!  (not totally true but so much better)

David, you've put so much time, work, effort, and really did as much as you can to get graduated this May.  I've watched you and you really have done all you could and I'm very proud of you.  I'm happy you are done and you don't have to put up with stupid teachers or classes that don't care about you anymore.  If done again I know you'd switch majors and do things differently, but good job and persevering and sticking through the very tough situations the Biology department at U of U has.  (Note to anyone at the U, yes we are saying don't ever major in Biology).

CONGRATULATIONS!  Take a break, relax and enjoy doing "nothing" for as long as you need.  Although I know you aren't the type to sit still very long, which is just fine with me.  I'm excited for our summer together (even if there's still some studying and dental school application preparation, everything is going to be so much better without full-time school).  I love you babe!

Below are some pictures from the main event at the U of U campus.  First, at 9am he and I went to the university presentation.  He walked in with his graduating class and then they presented some awards and officially declared everyone a graduate.  (We had fun texting back and forth as some of the speakers were snoozers hehe).  Then we walked over to Kingsberry Hall in the Presidents Circle for the 11:30 Science Department graduation.  We had some good support there including his parents, a few siblings (Amber, Josh, Jon & Annie and kids) and his grandma, as well as my mom came from AZ to be here.  And then me of course :)  And he walked across the stage and they were lucky to get his name right (not that David Stephen Clark is hard right?)

That's him above shaking his dean's hand... so hard to see, i know!

Afterwards, we put on a Graduation party at our home Friday afternoon at 4:30pm.  I had fun planning and decorating and making the food....  Wish there were 3 of me so I could have done more cutesy desserts or decor, but we did what we could with what we had.  And if we had an entertaining type home, wow, the things I could do.  But we had lots of people stop by to congratulate David and celebrate with us - neighbors, his family, my UT family, and a few close friends.  Thanks everyone for coming!  (And thanks for the help Mom & Steph! Only one minor incident -  losing some keys as well as not getting the balloons up where I wanted, but oh well)

I know... the D got ruined - but I am getting my baking and decorating skills down for sure!  It was fun testing out my cupcake decor tips and such...

Congrats Baby!

Grandma's House

My grandma moved into a nursing home, memory unit care center, last April 2011.  A year later, she's doing great, but as such, her sons have decided to sell her home.  Its been a bit strange and sad for me as she's still alive and yet we have gone through all of her personal items and then also just finished a estate sale, and her home will soon be up for sale.

We were able to go through and find items of rememberance and that was the best part for me.  My grandma made SO MANY ceramics.  Seriously, 100 boxes full in her garage and then a couple bedrooms and shelf units full.  So I was able to bring some home (finally just repackaged this week!) including: Santas, a winter house collection, halloween haunted sets, some easter decor, and some odds and ends, including her microwave (yay, ours was on the way out).  Honestly it was really hard leaving her home for the last time before the sale because I just want to remember it how it was.  I know it's just a home, but to me there are so many memories there.  The most prevelant being my many visits to see Grandma over the summers by myself or from college at BYU, etc.  We've been buds and loved chatting about whatever was on our minds.  We also made ceramice together during those summers, watched her garden all the time, flew to AZ together every holiday, etc etc.  I think I'd like to claim "closest granddaughter" title :)  Especially as I realized that the other grandkids just weren't close by or something but it was really just her sons who went through all of her belonings with us.  I guess I'm just more sentimental or something.

And the good thing, I can still go chat with Grandma Ginny anytime.  She's not all here, doesn't know who I am, but she does have her spunk and is actually happy in her new place.  So, it makes for a good visit to grab a coke down the hall or chat about whatever she's been doing (over and over).  Fact: I really haven't dealt with death in my family or friends too much yet.  I have such a hard time just saying goodbye to someone leaving the state, etc, I know when someone actually leaves this life, it will impact me a lot.  There will be a hole where they were.  I don't like thinking about that stuff at all.  I do know there's a better place that we'll all be going and they'll be waiting for us to join them - but the day to day will be different and it will be a growing experience I'm sure.  Not looking forward to it, just saying.

Here are some pictures taken before the estate sale.  (I do have to ask my future self to try not and let this happen when its my turn to leave this life... I hope as I get older that I just continue to get rid of more and more and if there's keepsakes I can pass them on to my kids or grandkids while I'm still alive, making it less difficult to get rid of all the nick-nacks.  David told me this and I thought it was a good suggestion.)  We had to stop by the house during the sale and man that wasn't fun.  I didn't even go inside because it just bothered me to have random and "odd" (for real) people coming in and poking around.  It just seemed like a violation to her life and hobbies and all that she made for herself.  I know people have to do it, and they had to do it because what else can you do with those items when no one wants them?  But, it was hard to watch for me.

Anyway, here's Grandma's house :)

Her street and driving this is what we'd see.

My favorite kitchen and green chairs that as kids we'd always stick our fingers into the backs.

The room I usually stayed in (above)

And these are only a few of the Santas and ceramics, didn't want to go crazy with all the pictures we took, but I have a CD full....

Not again...

I hadn't blogged for a few weeks because I thought, ah, nothing is really going on with us.  But I guess I'm just in denial or failed to remember all these things, so here we go again....

This post isn't one of those, oh look the cute couple are having so much fun....  Nope, not like that this time.  Okay, I'll just get right into it.

David had another kidney stone!!  This is his second, in case you were wondering.  And we really were hoping that he'd never have one again.  I know he'd agree with that for sure, we've even avoided certain foods that we thought were the cause of it before.  So we were babysitting our nephew while his sister was born, and had an enjoyable time at the hospital visiting them.  But I guess we wanted a little more time spent at the hospital or something?  We were home the Monday night after Easter and Tuesday morning I woke up slightly earlier than usual, to David up - not usual.  David apparently had been up for an hour as he was trying to figure out what was wrong with his stomach as the vaguely familiar pain progressed.  When I woke up David said he was in pain and I asked, kidney stone?  And he thought so.  There really wasn't any discussion or having to convince him of a hospital visit.  Here it was almost 6 am and he was dressed in two seconds while I was still trying to wake up and run to the bathroom etc.  I was ready and David was already in the car, with it running and him in the drivers seat.  Well, knowing last time we went a lot later in the process and he couldn't even sit and was in lots of pain in the back, I didn't want him driving us this time.  But he really wanted to drive himself to the hospital, I guess to check it off of his "must do in his lifetime" list.  So we went, and luckily he didn't go through the red lights like he wanted, ha ha.

The hospital last time made us wait 2 hours before getting him in and drugged up, luckily this time, they weren't very busy so we were checked right in and he was hooked right up.  The IV is the worst part, and then when that was bad, they gave him fluids because of dehydration.  He used 2 of them right up in the first hour or so.  Wow.  Can't believe I can watch or be there, by the way.  But anyway, they were out of their regular medication so they gave him some other stuff which is supposed to be 10x stronger, but really only took the edge off, so we didn't think it was that good.  Plus it also gave some side effects, like David forgot to breathe, so he was hooked up to oxygen pretty quickly.  After his CT scan and blood work, they confirmed it was a kidney stone.  He still wasn't very comfortable and kept going in circles - more meds - stomach ache - nausea - relaxed for a few minutes - more pain - nausea - more meds - nausea...  And they were trying to take him off the IV meds and put him on pills and the cycle just kept happening.  Finally his body calmed down a bit and as long as he could breathe and stand up they said they'd send him home so he could just manage the pain at home.  They also said the kidney was 1 cm away from his bladder so he should be passing it in the next few hours.
They were wrong on that estimate!  David relaxed at home all evening - his brother and dad visited for a blessing (while on their way home from the hospital with their newborn by the way, wow).  And then we just slept, relaxed and stuff.  He had 4 different meds that were to be taken daily or every 6 or 8 hours etc.  While he missed school, I texted all his buddies to take notes, etc.  And then the stone still didn't pass with all the liquids, etc.  At least the medicine helped a little and David felt good enough to even take a test for his class on Wednesday!  Wow.  The teacher didn't care that he had a stone, so he had to go.  Wow again, but the U is starting to not surprise me at all.  David finally passed the stone after class on Thursday.  He was exhausted and it took him all weekend to recuperate.  But he did get a present, a little stone, and now we get to see what the cause was and if this will be a dietary change or hereditary.  Both don't sound too good.

Glad my baby is okay now!  So sorry he had to go through it.

Easter Surprise

We had the best surprise this Easter!  My sister-in-law and brother-in-law had their second baby, first girl join the family!  And wasn't she lucky to come early Easter morning - how fun!

David & I were the lucky ones to get to watch their first born while they spent a few days in the hospital.  We camped at their house and enjoyed living in luxury for a few days... And then also came home thinking, wow, we live here?  Not that our home is bad, just not a big nice new lots of room to cook play etc etc.  But where we are is good for now.  We had SO MUCH fun getting spoiled becuase we were able to be a part of this special occation, get to hold the cutest baby, and also hopefully did a good job babysitting.

I've decided that I am now the "baby whisperer" for our home.  So you know those little kids say so much, but sometimes its hard to know what they say unless you are their parents or around them a lot?  At first we had to do some guess work, but after the first day or so, I felt like a pro.  No longer did I hear "I need a kiss you" - and thought he wanted a kiss (although how cute would that be) but I figured it out, he needed a tissue!  And of course, what 2 year old asks for those?  He's just too good and too smart and so sweet.  And now his world has been turned upside down, and he's a big brother, and a good one I hear!  Okay and to prove that I understand toddlers, this past weekend I spent a few hours with an old roommate (post to come) and her kids were talkers and while usually I'm just nodding and pretending to understand, I could have a full on conversation about anything that popped in their heads.  I felt pretty proud, got a new talent from babysitting my nephew :)

I was also spoiled and able to visit the hospital a few times and hold the little one for A LONG time :)  I think little newborns are the cutest things ever.  And while I may not know why they cry, they have the cutest cry and sweetest little faces.  We visited her last weekend too and I got spoiled will lots of baby time, they are so sweet to let us visit and be Aunt & Uncle for a bit!  (Even when she cried, it was okay, I just realized how much her parents do for her, how much sleep they may be losing these days, but its all because they love her).

Anyway, the pictures tell it all don't they?  What a fun surprise!  Easter was really just filled with babysitting and holding the little one.  But I also made some rice crispy baskets will jelly beans (forgot to take a picture but they were cute) and then we stopped by the Clarks for a bit to fill up on more jelly beans and a good dinner.  The kids did an Easter egg hunt and then we headed back to babysitting.  I was also lucky to miss Monday at work.  Wahoo!  (Ended up missing Tuesday too - post to come)  Yay for new babies and families that share them with us!  Congrats you guys!