Joyful and Triumphant!

Well, Christmas is over and I thought I would just do a quick update.

Our move was totally insane! We ended up not fitting all of our stuff in the moving truck, so at the last minute Vaughn went and got another small trailer to pull behind his pickup. We stuffed that full, as well as the van (which was getting towed behind the moving truck) and every square nook and cranny in the Tacoma, which I drove with Rebekah and Rachel. Vaughn and I (and Andy and Rachel, too) spent different nights up until the wee hours, packing, painting and cleaning. We are so grateful to neighbors and friends who spent many hours helping us pack the truck, and paint and clean. I was panicking the last hour before our inspection, because we were still trying to empty the house of a few more things, and then sweep and do all the last minute stuff. I just kept praying that we would get it done, and people kept showing up to help! THANK YOU! We are truly blessed with good friends. We finally made it out of town and headed down to Oklahoma. We had one small glitch when we missed the turnpike and had to drive all the way to Salina and then down to Enid. It only added about an hour to our trip. :)

We pulled into Enid around 11:30 and went to weigh everything. I weighed the rig I was driving and then went to our friends' house to pick up some bedding so we didn't have to unpack anything. I grabbed the blankets, got back into the truck and headed down the street. I had to turn the truck around, which wouldn't have been a problem, except I HAD A TRAILER ON IT and I am terrible at backing up a trailer. Plus, it was freezing cold and icy. I acted out the Austin Powers 47 point turn for about 30 minutes. Then I gave up and waited for Vaughn to rescue me. He came and backed up the truck and trailer, and we all drove to our new house. It was only 1 am by this point! We all collapsed (okay, I collapsed, the girls ran around like crazy people for about an hour!) and went to bed. It was quite a feat. Luckily, unpacking only took several hours and we were able to return the truck and trailer by 6 pm that day.

That is the triumphant part of my story! The joyful part is that we got to spend Christmas in our new home! We are mostly unpacked, somewhat organized, and almost recovered from the aches and pains of last week. It is fun to see Christmas decorations that have been in storage since we went to Korea. It was exciting to learn that Santa was able to find us, even though we haven't been in the same place for the last 4 Christmases!

Now, on to more unpacking, organizing and enjoying of the season. At some point I hope to be able to find our camera, and share some pix of our new home. I have no idea when that will be. Hope you all are having a great holiday!

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Forty and Fabulous???

Happy Birthday to me! Unbelievably, I am forty years old today. I woke up feeling all stiff and achy. I am hoping that is due to all the moving stress and exhaustion, coupled with the unpacking and Christmas baking, rather than my advanced age! I am grateful for having had a pretty great life. I have a wonderful husband, beautiful children and the gospel. What else is there? Okay, I am also grateful for chocolate and fuzzy socks! Hope you are having a great day and enjoying the anticipation of the season!

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Catching up

So this week has been nuts! I started it off by driving down to our new house in Oklahoma. It is very exciting to think we own a house now! I went down to paint a little bit and try and organize utilities and schools and stuff. Of course, when I do a road trip, you know there is going to be some excitement. You won't be disappointed! I had a very interesting drive home! It started off with me trying to back out of our garage. I pushed the button to open the garage door, but realized it was already open, so I hit the button again. I thought the door had lifted all the way back up, but when I heard the crunching noise...I noticed I had knocked off one of the racks on the top of Vaughn's truck! Remembering my past experiences with things not being securely attached to the roof, I went to my friend Brenda's house and her husband kindly removed the rack all the way. (Apparently, it just popped off, it's not actually broken! Vaughn says he did the same thing in the car wash a little while ago, so I don't feel so stupid). So, I finished all my little errands, packed up, and headed out onto the highway. Now, it had snowed quite a bit the day before, and I had put the truck in 4-wheel drive. I wanted to see how clear the roads were, so I waited until I had driven on the highway for a few miles, before I pulled over to unlock the hubs. I was feeling so self-sufficient and competent as I turned the hubs on the driver's side, went around to the passenger's side, did the same and continued back to my door, only to find it LOCKED! Yes, I had locked myself out of the truck, while it was running, it was 10 degrees outside, and my coat and cell phone were on the seat. I think I stood there staring at the lock for a good 5 minutes, because I just could not believe what had happened. It took me about 10 minutes to get someone to stop and help me. These two wonderful gentlemen in a pickup pulled over and tried to call the police, who said they don't help in these situations. Then one of them noticed that the window in the back of the cab was unlocked and we could open it from the shell. Yay! However, none of us could fit through the window. They tried reaching the locks, and the door handles with no success. Then I had the brilliant idea of trying to use my flatiron to grab the locks. You haven't lived until you have seen a guy in his big coveralls and boots trying to use a flatiron as pincers to grab a door lock. Alas, it didn't work! They dug around in their truck and found some Gophers, the things you can pick up stuff of the floor with. Those also weren't strong enought to lift the lock, but finally, my rescuers hit on the idea of pulling the keys out of the ignition! Hallelujah! I am so grateful to them for stopping to help a crazy lady! How stupid do you have to be to lock yourself out of your running car in the middle of nowhere? Anyway, I made it home and we are madly packing. I had to take a time-out, though to make this yummy treat
Brownie candy cane lollipops! They are for the ladies I am teaching my lesson to tomorrow at church. And of course, we had to take a break from packing for Vaughn's graduation yesterday!

I am very proud of him, and though I don't love all men in uniform, I love THIS man in uniform! He is the bomb!

We are excited about a lot of things in our new house, but this is the best: our walk-in closet!

It's HUGE! The picture doesn't do it justice. I will take one with the kids in it so you have some idea of how big it really is! My friend Brenda thought it was another room!

This is one wall in my nice new BIG kitchen. Except I painted the walls, not the tile, candy apple red! It's going to be fun to have Christmas here!

Well, that's all for now. Back to the chaos that is my life, and hopefully, we will be moved in by the time I post again! Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas! I was going to wait until we were in our new house to get all of our Christmas stuff out, but I couldn't stand it! So we have a few yuletide objects around the house. This is one of my new favorites. I love to collect nativity sets, and this is the one I got this year. I love how all the animals are stacked up to see baby Jesus! I am sure they were just as excited to meet their Creator as all the humans. Probably more so, since they don't get caught up in all the other stuff that humans do. I like how the baby is looking right back at the animals, too.

And here are our brand new stockings from Pottery Barn Kids. I have been coveting these for the last 3-4 years, and finally decided I would get myself a nice housewarming present! I have a feeling there will be a lot of those.... Anyway, I know it's a horrible picture, but I think I am the only person on the planet left who doesn't have an SLR camera (what does that stand for anyway? Superb Lens Rigging? Shoot, Load, Rewind?) you will just have to put up with the poor quality!

We had a good Thanksgiving, and I went out and did a little shopping yesterday. I love this time of year. I think everyone tries to be a little kinder, a little more helpful, a little more polite. Okay, except for those crazy people in New York who trampled people to death! But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, ....

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the Christmas season! I promise to post more often, although, I noticed everyone else has posts sitting there from like three weeks ago! I guess we are all starting to get crazy busy.

It is snowing today, and the girls are trying to go out and play! I guess that means I am on hot chocolate duty! Have a great Saturday and enjoy the season!

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Grateful

This morning, or rather, in the middle of the night, I was awakened with a throbbing head. I could feel a migraine coming on, but I thought if I could sleep through it, it might not become full-blown. I tossed and turned and counted sheep and finally got up to take some Motrin, since I knew that my prescription for my migraine meds was refilled, but still waiting at the pharmacy! I was so grateful to find one little pill still in the box, and went back to bed. I was just hoping to stave off the pain for a couple of hours, and then finish my Relief Society lesson prep, put dinner in the crockpot, get the girls ready, you know--all the normal Sunday stuff. Well, I finally dozed off and woke up feeling quite a bit better at 11:30! Yikes! We had to leave for church in an hour! I hurried and showered and came downstairs expecting chaos. Instead, I found that my darling husband had fed everyone, put dinner in the crockpot, put the rolls in a pan to rise, and was even peeling potatoes so that when we got home, all we had to do was boil them! Wow! I felt very blessed, and relieved! I am so lucky that I have such a great partner! He really knows how to take care of me and cherish me! I decided that I want to try to post some things I am grateful for these next couple of weeks--and he is number one! Thanks, Vaughn for being such a great husband! You are my favorite!

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Recipes

Yes, I know I am really behind on this, but a couple of you asked for some recipes, so here they are!

Corn and Black Bean Salsa

1 can whole kernel corn, drained (15 3/4 oz)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained (15 oz)
4 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 c. minced fresh cilantro
4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
1/2 c. lime juice
1 T. kosher salt

Combine all ingredients in bowl. Adjust salt and lime juice to taste. Refrigerate until serving time.

***A couple of things about this recipe:
This is actually half of the original recipe, if you make the full amount it is a ton of salsa.
Microwave your limes for about 10 seconds before you juice them. They will release so much more juice this way!


Tami's Famous Korean Hot Wings

5 lbs chicken wings or drummettes
flour
salt
pepper
oil

Mix flour with salt and pepper. Coat wings with mixture. Fry until golden brown. Dip immediately into sauce.

Sauce
1 cup soy sauce (kikkoman is the best flavor--don't use lite!)
3/4 cup sugar
1T. minced garlic
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
1/2-1 T. crushed red pepper flakes--adjust heat to your preference

Whenever I make these for a party, fini flight, etc., they go like hotcakes. Make a double or triple batch if you are serving a lot of people. Especially young pilots or missionaries!



Outrageous Brownies (without coffee!)

1 lb. unsalted butter
1 lb. plus 1 package (12 oz) semisweet choc. chips/divided
6 oz unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 T. non-dairy creamer
2 T. vanilla
2 1/4 c. sugar
1 1/4 c. flour, divided
1 T. baking powder
1 t. kosher salt
1 1/2 c. diced walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 13x18x1 1/2 pan.

Melt butter, 1 lb. choc. chips, unsweetened chocolate. (I do this in the microwave in 1 minute increments). Cool slightly. Stir together eggs, creamer, vanilla and sugar. Add to warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temp.

Mix together 1 c. flour, baking powder and salt. Add to chocolate mixture. Toss walnuts and remaining 12 oz. chocolate chips with 1/4 c. flour. Add to batter. Spread in pan and bake for 30 minutes. Halfway through baking , lift pan slightly and drop to remove some air from batter.

Cool completely before serving.




Enjoy! Let me know if I forgot anything!

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The Holy Grail

Okay, for me, the Holy Grail is (if you haven't guessed it already) organization! I love things in stacks and rows, preferably sorted by color! Yes, I confess, I am Monkish in heart, but piggish in reality. Actually, it's just my kids who are pigs, or as Andy puts it, "we are aspiring pigs!" So, I just thought I would share with you one of my favorite websites: Organizedchristmas.com. Crazy as it sounds, I love to be organized for Christmas, too! Actually, I find it more doable to be organized for this one annual event than in every other aspect of my life. So, click and enjoy! It has tons of free printables and lots of great ideas! If you like to stack your canned soups by flavor, this is the site for you! Let me know if you find anything fabulous that I missed! (Okay, I am playing around with the text options, but I am still such a novice, you'll have to forgive me!)

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