Ok, so any of those who know me know I struggle with few things... those few things just happen to be in large areas.
The other evening, Jeff and I decided to cook a raspberry swirl cheesecake... the recipe had been sitting on our counter with the ingredients in our fridge, taunting us for the last few weeks, as we have not had time to make it.
Jeff immediately took over the KitchenAid Mixer, while my particular job was gathering and measuring ingredients to add. 1 package cream cheese, check. 1 egg, check. 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice (or whatever it was... we like lemon and just always use a whole lemon), check. Pour half in pan and then drop in raspberry preserves, check... whoa, wait a minute. The raspberry preserves sunk to the bottom of the mixture like the Titanic. This didn't look right... and further more, why was the mixture so fluffy?
Well, upon Jeff and I intently reading the recipe again, we found the lemon juice was supposed to be "divided," my guess is to lighten up the preserves to prevent major sink-age. Also, the mix was simply suppose to "combine, but not mix the ingredients well." Oops, that would explain why it looked like Meringue (and yes, I had to look that up). Hmm... we decided to bake it anyway and see how it turned out.
DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER! The cheesecake ended up to be a disaster... it looks like someone got sick and vomited on top of burned Meringue... with a gentle heart and adventurous nature, my husband decided to dish it up and see how it tasted. Well, remember what I said it looked like....??? Yeah, tastes about like that, too. We figured it MIGHT get better with time to sit (like those, 'eat the next day because it tastes better after sitting' dishes). Nope. Still the same, if not a little worse.
Jeff had remarked upon finding our mistakes in the recipes that I may have had trouble with some of my schoolwork. The conversation went a bit like this:
J: "You know those read-the-directions-first tests we used to take in school? Did you ever have problems with them?"
Me: "Why do you ask, what what does it have to do with this?"
J: "Where you'd be the only one writing, and everyone else is just sitting there?"
Me: "Yeah...."
And then it hit me: Real life application of those tests to cooking. NO WONDER I'VE BEEN HAVING SO MANY DISASTERS (toasters aside, because I swear those 11 pieces of crap malfunctioned on their own!).
In any case, I tried to upload pictures of the "cheesecake," and even my computer rejected it. :)
Hope your day is tastier than ours! :)
Friday, March 11, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Heather, Party Planner Extraordinaire
Heather, Party Planner Extraordinaire. Let me tell you, in addition to my domestic diva skills, I am also becoming quite the party planner extraordinaire. In fact, I could probably add both to my resume pretty soon. :)
As some of you know, I am the Matron of Honor for my dear friend Kym. As her wedding is quickly approaching, I have found myself ordering invitations, booking venues, and planning the ultimate good time in party games. In fact, I've even wrangled her fiance into helping with some. :)
As per usual, there is usually a setback in my abilities. As many of you know, when I cook the setback is typically the smoke detector. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that when it comes to party planning, doing too many things at once seems to be my setback... For instance, I was checking out Jeff's cousin's registry for baby items while ordering invitations, and included the location of the cousin's registry instead of the couple's on the invitations. Oops. At least it was a quick fix, and Kym was totally ok with registering for more cool kitchen gadgets at another location. God bless dear friends! :)
Hope all is well with you and yours!!! :)
As some of you know, I am the Matron of Honor for my dear friend Kym. As her wedding is quickly approaching, I have found myself ordering invitations, booking venues, and planning the ultimate good time in party games. In fact, I've even wrangled her fiance into helping with some. :)
As per usual, there is usually a setback in my abilities. As many of you know, when I cook the setback is typically the smoke detector. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that when it comes to party planning, doing too many things at once seems to be my setback... For instance, I was checking out Jeff's cousin's registry for baby items while ordering invitations, and included the location of the cousin's registry instead of the couple's on the invitations. Oops. At least it was a quick fix, and Kym was totally ok with registering for more cool kitchen gadgets at another location. God bless dear friends! :)
Hope all is well with you and yours!!! :)
Friday, February 18, 2011
The 8 Do-Mores
I have been staring at The 8 Do-Mores each time I am with my clinical supervisor, and this week more than any other time, these have found a special place in my heart.
THE 8 DO-MORES
1. Do more than exist, LIVE.
2. Do more than touch, FEEL.
3. Do more than look, OBSERVE.
4. Do more than read, ABSORB.
5. Do more than hear, LISTEN.
6. Do more than listen, UNDERSTAND.
7. Do more than think, PONDER.
8. Do more than talk, SAY SOMETHING.
Hope all is well with you and yours, and that you, in your own way, find yourself Doing More. :)
THE 8 DO-MORES
1. Do more than exist, LIVE.
2. Do more than touch, FEEL.
3. Do more than look, OBSERVE.
4. Do more than read, ABSORB.
5. Do more than hear, LISTEN.
6. Do more than listen, UNDERSTAND.
7. Do more than think, PONDER.
8. Do more than talk, SAY SOMETHING.
Hope all is well with you and yours, and that you, in your own way, find yourself Doing More. :)
Friday, February 4, 2011
The Snow-pocolypse
You may have all noticed the last 2 titles of blog posts both contained the theme of what is considered to happen near the end of the world. While it is not 2012 just yet (tee-hee), these are also terms that the media have been throwing around freely over the past week or so.
While they may have used these terms as "shockfactor" to indicate a blizzard headed our way, I honestly remember worse from when I was growing up in western Kansas. We DID get quite a significant blizzard (it looked like an angry 5 year old was shaking a snowglobe violently outside of our home); news reports indicate our neighborhood got anywhere from 15 to 23 inches (how scientific is that... I can guess-timate that the North Pole's temps may vary from cold to colder, so THERE people who get paid to pay attention!). It WAS really nice to get to actually "do lunch" with my husband, who was able to work from home for 2 days (we had Heather-sized drifts in our street and driveway, and our garage door was iced shut).
We also have been shopping for new glasses for me. We realized my eyes may have began declining when Jeff's favorite game became "Guess what my wife thinks this movie is" on Netflix, but had no idea the significance of what would occur in my recent eye appointment.
For those of you following along at home, I have had glasses since 8th grade. At that point, they were more "optional" than not in order to work with my astigmatism. They became mandatory when I entered graduate school, as my eyes could not keep up with the amount of reading. At this point, they are pretty much a daily feature. I tell you this to explain how much of a surprise it was when my eye doctor suggested something that still makes me shudder to this day: bifocals. WAIT, WHAT?! I'm only 20-something!!! He noticed immediately my disdain for this recommendation and began backpedaling quickly; in truth, I may have been a bit forceful when I politely declined his recommendation. At this point, he explained, they were merely optional, although he indicated in 5 years they would no longer be optional.
This has, of course, rattled me slightly. My dreams have been riddled with my new white hair motif as I sit knitting in front of various situations (I kid you not). Jeff has had a few good laughs out of it. It has also made me think about our lifestyle. I cannot tell you the last time we went out with friends, the last time I went to a *shudder* bar (perhaps my bachelorette party..???), the last time I CHOSE to be young. I also spend much of my time doing responsible, previously thought to be boring things, like scrapbooking, cooking, and working. My biggest excitement over the past month has been getting groceries for a whole week for the total of $9.18 (thank you coupons!). Perhaps my dreams are not too far off.....
As most things that are labeled "optional" in my eye care, I have chosen to not partake in getting bifocals this year. I believe I will save this as a 30th birthday present to myself... if I can last that long. :)
Hope all is well with you and yours! :)
While they may have used these terms as "shockfactor" to indicate a blizzard headed our way, I honestly remember worse from when I was growing up in western Kansas. We DID get quite a significant blizzard (it looked like an angry 5 year old was shaking a snowglobe violently outside of our home); news reports indicate our neighborhood got anywhere from 15 to 23 inches (how scientific is that... I can guess-timate that the North Pole's temps may vary from cold to colder, so THERE people who get paid to pay attention!). It WAS really nice to get to actually "do lunch" with my husband, who was able to work from home for 2 days (we had Heather-sized drifts in our street and driveway, and our garage door was iced shut).
We also have been shopping for new glasses for me. We realized my eyes may have began declining when Jeff's favorite game became "Guess what my wife thinks this movie is" on Netflix, but had no idea the significance of what would occur in my recent eye appointment.
For those of you following along at home, I have had glasses since 8th grade. At that point, they were more "optional" than not in order to work with my astigmatism. They became mandatory when I entered graduate school, as my eyes could not keep up with the amount of reading. At this point, they are pretty much a daily feature. I tell you this to explain how much of a surprise it was when my eye doctor suggested something that still makes me shudder to this day: bifocals. WAIT, WHAT?! I'm only 20-something!!! He noticed immediately my disdain for this recommendation and began backpedaling quickly; in truth, I may have been a bit forceful when I politely declined his recommendation. At this point, he explained, they were merely optional, although he indicated in 5 years they would no longer be optional.
This has, of course, rattled me slightly. My dreams have been riddled with my new white hair motif as I sit knitting in front of various situations (I kid you not). Jeff has had a few good laughs out of it. It has also made me think about our lifestyle. I cannot tell you the last time we went out with friends, the last time I went to a *shudder* bar (perhaps my bachelorette party..???), the last time I CHOSE to be young. I also spend much of my time doing responsible, previously thought to be boring things, like scrapbooking, cooking, and working. My biggest excitement over the past month has been getting groceries for a whole week for the total of $9.18 (thank you coupons!). Perhaps my dreams are not too far off.....
As most things that are labeled "optional" in my eye care, I have chosen to not partake in getting bifocals this year. I believe I will save this as a 30th birthday present to myself... if I can last that long. :)
Hope all is well with you and yours! :)
Monday, January 31, 2011
Snow-mageddon
Hey all, it's been awhile! We are expecting snow-maggedon here. I'M SO EXCITED (side note: I can work from home)!!!!!
The New Year has brought us many blessings so far: Jeff and I are both healthy for the first time since Thanksgiving-ish (we blame the kiddos I work with for bringing us the gift of contagious germs), we're happy, and Duncan is continuing to grow.
New Year's resolutions for the year include decreasing toxicity and dark energies in our lives (Jeff tells me I sound like a hippy... I have no idea where he gets this idea LOL). This means that we are going to spend less time stressing, less time with technology, more time cuddling with our puppy, more time laughing, and less time with people who try to make us feel like we're less than we are.
Jeff spent a weekend sanding, painting, and building for me to have a craft room/home office. I am excited to have my very own space where I can go to get some quiet time. He EVEN promised to help me move the Ugly Chair in from the garage, where it's been exiled since we moved into our house (BIG improvement, as he told the people helping us move that it would be ok to drop the chair in gasoline and accidentally light a match over it).
We also got to spend almost a whole month celebrating Christmas... Jeff's work party was on the 10th, mine the 16, family in town from the 18-23, celebrating with Jeff's mom on Christmas day, and with my family the weekend of the 8th. We truly had a blessed Christmas season with our families this year.
Jeff is now home safe, so I will sign off. Hope this message finds you healthy, well, and warm! :)
The New Year has brought us many blessings so far: Jeff and I are both healthy for the first time since Thanksgiving-ish (we blame the kiddos I work with for bringing us the gift of contagious germs), we're happy, and Duncan is continuing to grow.
New Year's resolutions for the year include decreasing toxicity and dark energies in our lives (Jeff tells me I sound like a hippy... I have no idea where he gets this idea LOL). This means that we are going to spend less time stressing, less time with technology, more time cuddling with our puppy, more time laughing, and less time with people who try to make us feel like we're less than we are.
Jeff spent a weekend sanding, painting, and building for me to have a craft room/home office. I am excited to have my very own space where I can go to get some quiet time. He EVEN promised to help me move the Ugly Chair in from the garage, where it's been exiled since we moved into our house (BIG improvement, as he told the people helping us move that it would be ok to drop the chair in gasoline and accidentally light a match over it).
We also got to spend almost a whole month celebrating Christmas... Jeff's work party was on the 10th, mine the 16, family in town from the 18-23, celebrating with Jeff's mom on Christmas day, and with my family the weekend of the 8th. We truly had a blessed Christmas season with our families this year.
Jeff is now home safe, so I will sign off. Hope this message finds you healthy, well, and warm! :)
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Merry Christmas
Hey all! I have been trying to post this since around the 23rd.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
That is all.
Love,
Jeff, Heather, and Duncan
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
That is all.
Love,
Jeff, Heather, and Duncan
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Heather the Spider Slayer
Yes, that was a lame reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You'll never guess what I've been up to!
As we moved into this house at the end of September of last year, certain things were, erm.. um... "taken care of" by the previous owners. Loosely translated, this means that we had no idea our home would be overtaken by these nasty little critters often referred to as spiders. Sure, of course we expected some. I mean, this is a house with a dark basement, right?
However, let me share with you my experiences.
#1. When we first realized there may have been spiders, we put traps D-O-W-N. Exterminators would be impressed by the quickness in our response time. This did not comfort me when we had the water heater incident. A plumber had come to help us replace the dip tube in the water heater, and my part in this task was to turn on the hose leading from the water heater to an outflowing drain when I got home, and turn it off before bedtime. Easy enough, right? WRONG! After turning on the water, I decided to leisurely pass the time in our living room reading... Duncan came to me and began using the "Timmy-is-stuck-in-the-well" voice often reserved for emergencies. I went running downstairs and, upon hitting the linoleum, did the splits in a way that an olympic gymnast would be proud. As I was attempting to gain traction to stand up, I saw a group of dead spider bodies floating by me. This illustrates the image. I did what anyone in this situation would do: I screamed and clawed my way back up the stairs.
#2. Pulling weeds outside. I was pulling to my hearts content only to see beady eyes staring up at me. In my weed pulling gear (read: tank top, shorts, and flip flops), I did what any sane person would do: I screamed and ran away. After I halfway caught my breath, I described the spider to Jeff. He indicated it sounded like, from my description, a black widow spider that was big enough to have it's own SyFy show.
#3. I took Duncan outside to use the restroom. Little did I know, as I closed the door behind me, a spider would be waiting to eat my head. I screamed and called Jeff (who, thank goodness, was right inside the door). He quickly eliminated my problem and said I "MAY" have been over-exaggerating how big it was. Who, me?
#4. This one was in the basement. It was probably super close to being dead, but I swear to you, even in it's last throws of life, it was trying to kill me and suck all of my blood out. I screamed (to which Jeff was not amused... apparently 6:30 in the morning is a little too "early" to be frightened a spider will take my life), grabbed Jeff's shoes, and began whacking away.
***Here's a tip for all you would-be-spider-slayers. NEVER use your own shoes. What if it gets stuck, alive, to the bottom of them, and you don't know and they wake up and kill you and suck your blood out?!***
#5. I let Duncan out last week at 6:30. I noticed nothing unusual. I let him out again around 7:45 before I left. He immediately ran outside and began pulling at a spiderweb that can only be described as Charlotte's Web-worthy, except in the middle it was written: "I'm going to kill you and suck all your blood out! HAHA! With much love, but even more love after I kill you, The Nasty Ugly Spider." You can't make this stuff up. As the spider closed in on Duncan, I screamed and quickly ran to his aid. After getting Duncan out of the sticky (har har) situation, I ran inside to grab Jeff's shoe. The spider at this time had now attached itself to a top piece of wood on our deck... out of reach of the shoe. I ran inside and found the next best thing: a broom. While the shoe would not attach to the broom, I used it in poking, slashing, and finally stabbing actions when the spider fell to his doom. Jeff had a good laugh imagining what the neighbors saw.
#6. Yesterday, I found a BIG spider (Jeff even begrudgingly admitted it was big -- "not smallish" was the term he used, but any victory is a victory) on our outside patio table. I screamed and began using my MacGyver like skills to bring it to its demise. I began throwing Duncan's toys at it until 1 finally made contact. At this point, I moved in for the kill (read: about 3 feet away) and continued to throw bigger, heavier objects at it until it had to have been dead. Needless to say, when I was satisfied he was dead, the air strikes stopped. Jeff laughed as he sorted through the rubble (Duncan's toys, garden hose apparatuses, decorative stones from out back, you get the idea), but then agreed with me (at least in my head) that our lives were in danger and I had no other choice.
You know, it's hard saving the world from spiders, but someone's gotta do it. Hope all is well with you and yours. :)
As we moved into this house at the end of September of last year, certain things were, erm.. um... "taken care of" by the previous owners. Loosely translated, this means that we had no idea our home would be overtaken by these nasty little critters often referred to as spiders. Sure, of course we expected some. I mean, this is a house with a dark basement, right?
However, let me share with you my experiences.
#1. When we first realized there may have been spiders, we put traps D-O-W-N. Exterminators would be impressed by the quickness in our response time. This did not comfort me when we had the water heater incident. A plumber had come to help us replace the dip tube in the water heater, and my part in this task was to turn on the hose leading from the water heater to an outflowing drain when I got home, and turn it off before bedtime. Easy enough, right? WRONG! After turning on the water, I decided to leisurely pass the time in our living room reading... Duncan came to me and began using the "Timmy-is-stuck-in-the-well" voice often reserved for emergencies. I went running downstairs and, upon hitting the linoleum, did the splits in a way that an olympic gymnast would be proud. As I was attempting to gain traction to stand up, I saw a group of dead spider bodies floating by me. This illustrates the image. I did what anyone in this situation would do: I screamed and clawed my way back up the stairs.
#2. Pulling weeds outside. I was pulling to my hearts content only to see beady eyes staring up at me. In my weed pulling gear (read: tank top, shorts, and flip flops), I did what any sane person would do: I screamed and ran away. After I halfway caught my breath, I described the spider to Jeff. He indicated it sounded like, from my description, a black widow spider that was big enough to have it's own SyFy show.
#3. I took Duncan outside to use the restroom. Little did I know, as I closed the door behind me, a spider would be waiting to eat my head. I screamed and called Jeff (who, thank goodness, was right inside the door). He quickly eliminated my problem and said I "MAY" have been over-exaggerating how big it was. Who, me?
#4. This one was in the basement. It was probably super close to being dead, but I swear to you, even in it's last throws of life, it was trying to kill me and suck all of my blood out. I screamed (to which Jeff was not amused... apparently 6:30 in the morning is a little too "early" to be frightened a spider will take my life), grabbed Jeff's shoes, and began whacking away.
***Here's a tip for all you would-be-spider-slayers. NEVER use your own shoes. What if it gets stuck, alive, to the bottom of them, and you don't know and they wake up and kill you and suck your blood out?!***
#5. I let Duncan out last week at 6:30. I noticed nothing unusual. I let him out again around 7:45 before I left. He immediately ran outside and began pulling at a spiderweb that can only be described as Charlotte's Web-worthy, except in the middle it was written: "I'm going to kill you and suck all your blood out! HAHA! With much love, but even more love after I kill you, The Nasty Ugly Spider." You can't make this stuff up. As the spider closed in on Duncan, I screamed and quickly ran to his aid. After getting Duncan out of the sticky (har har) situation, I ran inside to grab Jeff's shoe. The spider at this time had now attached itself to a top piece of wood on our deck... out of reach of the shoe. I ran inside and found the next best thing: a broom. While the shoe would not attach to the broom, I used it in poking, slashing, and finally stabbing actions when the spider fell to his doom. Jeff had a good laugh imagining what the neighbors saw.
#6. Yesterday, I found a BIG spider (Jeff even begrudgingly admitted it was big -- "not smallish" was the term he used, but any victory is a victory) on our outside patio table. I screamed and began using my MacGyver like skills to bring it to its demise. I began throwing Duncan's toys at it until 1 finally made contact. At this point, I moved in for the kill (read: about 3 feet away) and continued to throw bigger, heavier objects at it until it had to have been dead. Needless to say, when I was satisfied he was dead, the air strikes stopped. Jeff laughed as he sorted through the rubble (Duncan's toys, garden hose apparatuses, decorative stones from out back, you get the idea), but then agreed with me (at least in my head) that our lives were in danger and I had no other choice.
You know, it's hard saving the world from spiders, but someone's gotta do it. Hope all is well with you and yours. :)
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