Yummy combo

Last night I made Jen's Black Bean Soup and served it up with fajita-stuffed quesadillas a la this girl's method. It was tasty! I'm passing these recipes along with hearty recommendation.

And for my future convenience, I'm posting the details here too!

Black Bean Soup
from Real Simple

1 cup jarred tomato salsa
2 15 1/2-oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups chicken broth
sour cream, salsa, cilantro for garnish

Heat the salsa in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes. Stir in the beans and broth, then heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Cool slightly, then spoon half the soup into a food processor or blender and puree. Return the pureed soup to the saucepan and heat through. Serve with sour cream, salsa, chips, etc. Makes 4 generous servings.


Fajita-stuffed Quesadillas
My twist on a recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

1. Prepare fajita style beef or chicken and vegetables as directed on seasoning packet.
2. Grate at least 3 cups of your favorite cheese. I used a Jack and Cheddar marble blend.
3. Pan fry 10 tortillas in butter until lightly browned on both sides and remove to a plate. I recommend making at least 11 so you can eat one.
4. On cookie sheets, assemble quesadillas.
5. Bake in 375 degree oven for approx. 10 minutes- cheese should be bubbling.
6. Quarter the quesadillas using a pizza cutter.
7. Serve with salsa, sour cream, and fresh squeezed lime.

I really wanted to take a picture. I had gotten out some of our fun not-everyday-use dishes. But the evening didn't go as planned. We had the missionaries over at 6, and I had to send them to the church to wait until I could get a hold of Cori who had been trapped at work 1/2 hour away. So I ended up packing dinner up for the missionaries, loading up the kids (Gracie was mid-fajita) and meeting Cori at my visiting teaching appointment to swap cars and the chillins. Our camera sat peacefully on the counter. Unused. But you can view pictures on the linked websites. This stuff is seriously good.

Grant Attack

5 Months. Its hard to believe that we've had Grant and have lived in Michigan for nearly half a year. The little guy seems to grow and change every other day. Things I love about Grant at this stage:

• how portly his cheeks are becoming
• how he never seems to tire of me kissing said cheeks 1,000 times a day
• his expressive little face
• his willingness to sleep longer--occasionally

He's started on solid foods this month. We now think that half of Grants constant fussing was because he was starving for real food. Upon first introduction, he downed quite a bit of cereal. And he's liked everything he's tried since: oatmeal, squash, and peas. It took him no time flat to get the hang of the spoon. This wasn't really surprising to me. He came out ready to eat. Much to the amazement of myself and the nurse watching he latched on perfectly the first time I nursed him. Suffice it to say this was not the case with Gracie. Anyway, when I spoon feed him I don't have to make funny faces or coax him to open up. As soon as the spoon is in view, the hatch is open wide.

Another funny interesting feeding side note. When Grant working on a mouthful, he'll often make this savoring 'mmMMMmm' sound. Gracie did the same thing until she really started talking. Then her favorite thing to exclaim became "deeeeelissess!" But it cracks me up every time. Cori and I must really enjoy our food or something.

Wordless Wednesday: California Dreamin'

Graciedotes

Grant's Interpreter Gracie has started telling me what Grant is saying when he laughs or fusses. This morning, I caught her feeding Grant his cereal. Wow, thanks Grace. "Grant's hungry. He said, 'I's hungry, mom. Please feed me.'" I was really surprised to hear her say this. When I didn't reply very quickly, she said "That's what he said."

She's caught the map lovebug We came across the world map in her Book of Mormon Reader the other night. She casually pointed to the North American continent and informed me that it was America. Oh. Then she pointed to the Great Lakes. "This is Michigan. It's where we live." Right. Smarty pants.

Her Dad's double agent We had a conversation the other day that made my day. Actually, it made my life.

Me- How did you get so cute?

Grace- smiling... smiling... smiling

Me- How did you get so cute?

Grace- Because mommy is so cute!

Me- smiling

I'm pretty sure her dad put her up to that one.

Silly Goose Cori was rough housing around with Grace one night and he called her 'Gracie bug.' She kept insisting that her name wasn't Gracie bug, it was *****. We could not understand what she was saying. She kept repeating over and again, "I's not Gracie bug, I's ******." We kept guessing in vein. Poor Grace was reduced to tears. Finally, Cori figured it out. She was saying, "I'm not a Gracie bug. I'm a silly goose." You can say that again.

Myself! This is her favorite explative these days. She wants to do everything herself. The other day it was getting close to nap time and I gave her the usual 5 minute warning to put toys away and pick out books. I got busy doing things in the kitchen and looked up at the time. It had been nearly 20 minutes. So I went into her room and found her in bed! I was so proud of her. She was barely awake. I sat on her bed and she said "I's in bed all by myself." This was true to a point. Although she did get in bed by herself, she was most certainly not alone. She had 6 animals, 5 books, 2 babas, 1 sippy and an etch-a-sketch.

Dear Journal

A few weeks ago, Jen posted about this great site called Blurb. I was so excited to learn about it. I have never been the best journal keeper. But I have always wished to be. Suddenly, I have a way to turn the little record of our family I've been keeping on the blogosphere into a hard bound book. (By the way, I have tried the site and haven't gotten it to work yet. I have to figure out how to disable all my firewalls and antivirus something-or-others) This has added considerable fire to my blogging efforts. I love doing it, and I hope it will be something our family can enjoy later on. It is the best and most fun journal medium I've ever tried.

To that end, often I have a train of thought or an experience that I would record in a journal but I don't because I don't really have a current journal aside from the blog. Bad, I know. These journal entries might not make the best posts. But they'll be recorded and put in a good place. And my hope is that later on, Gracie and Grant will have not only a pretty good picture of what it was like when they were little, but also how much we love them and how blessed our family has been.

So, I'll be posting some journal entries from time to time. Like I mentioned before, they may not be the best posts to anyone but me and mine... maybe even just to me. But you'll know why I'm doing it.

Dear Journal
It's Monday. I miss Cori. The whole day feels different just knowing that he won't be home tonight. I had made a little schedule for us to follow today and was late getting out of the gates this morning. Grant actually slept through the night last night and we didn't roll out of bed until nearly 8 o'clock. (I'm not really complaining about that.) But before we had even begun the day, the whole plan had to be reworked. Hence, I'm on the computer instead of grocery shopping. We'll go this afternoon.

Schedules. Natalie posts these fun entries she calls A day in the life. As I love taking inspiration (AKA blatantly lifting: ideas for wordless wednesday, and my Sunday posts both inspired by la vie en rose) from her blog, I've tried a couple of times to complete a similar entry. The only things that happen at regular or predictable times around here are meals and naps. The rest of the day, despite my best efforts, is a constant quest to get things done amid a list of unpredictable needs that enevitably have to get taken care of right now. I would have an entry every 15 minutes or less of the next thing. My tasks are rarely begun and completed with out a large interruption. I've had to take two breaks in the writing of this paragraph alone. It won't always be like this. It's hard when there is a baby that is being fed and napped every three hours. Here's the beginning of one 'day in the life' post attempt:

• 6:45 am- Gracie sneaks into our room and over to Cori's side of the bed because he'll lift her in, which he does. Gracie and I snooze together while Cori gets ready.
• 7:00 am- Up and at 'em. I get out of bed and wake Grant to feed him. Cori and Gracie share breakfast before he leaves. Cori and I have a prayer.
• 7:30 am- Eat breakfast and post pictures to the blog while Gracie finishes her yogurt. We talk about the snow and the sunshine outside. Pick up the kitchen from breakfast.
• 8:15 am- Get Gracie dressed and fix her hair. We make her bed together and put away PJ's. Get Grant dressed.
• 8:40am- Chores all done. Gracie goes downstairs to watch Mickey Mouse Club House. Grant goes down for a nap.
• 9:00 am- Get ready for the day. Pack my purse for our little outing.
• 9:40 am- Feed Grant.
• 9:55 am- Load the kids to the car and head out.
• 10:00-10:30 am- Story and Song time with Mr. Ron at the library.
• 10:30-11:00 am- Pick out books for Grace. Find Boy Scout merit badge pamphlet for Cori's mutual activity. Head home.
• 11:20- Lunchtime with Gracie.
• 11:30- Grant down for a nap
• 11:37- Drop Gracie's hot chocolate as I'm pulling out of the microwave.
• 11:37-11:50- Clean up hot chocolate that has made its way onto 3 counter surfaces, 2 dining room chairs, 10 square feet of hardwood floors, and the entire cooktop.
• 12:00 pm- Gracie down for her nap
• 12:00- 1:00pm- The most sacred hour of my day. Both kids asleep! Look up some ideas for Relief Society stuff. Enjoy my afternoon call from Cori. Make some phone calls for Enrichment and for the upcoming temple trip.
• 1:00 pm- Feed Grant

I see why I stopped at 1 PM. Though, writing it all out does make the day seem more productive. And really, I love my daily life. It used to really stress me out. Before having kids I was used to schedules and lists and getting lots done. That changed so drastically when Grace came along. But after a while, there was a lot of predictability back in my life and she and I could have really productive days. Now with Grant, we're back at square one again. But it is great. I love that there are some days where the only thing that gets done around here is the kids. I don't mind it when at the end of the week I still have a task on the list that has been pushed forward from the beginning of the week. It helps that Cori gets it. I think he gets it a little more than I do a lot of the time. We have a happy pace.

Blessings

• Three sequential days of sunny, wind-free, cloudless albeit frozen weather. It has been glorious.
  
  
• 5+ months without work travel. Cori just left for Minneapolis. Its the first work travel he's had to do in nearly half a year. I had forgotten how much I hate saying good-bye to that man.
  
  
• Our sweet friends Matt, Stacie and Jacob D*. They not only hosted us Friday night, but they served us up a big breakfast Sat. morning, and watched Gracie and Grant while Cori and I went to the Temple with our branch. It was incomparably nice to break up the travel time. Its a 4+ hour trip downstate. (On the map, we are an hour above Traverse City around the tip of the ring finger on the mitt. You can see where Detroit is. That's quite a road trip.) We had secured Gracie's favorite sitter for the day and Cori and I were going to leave at some unspeakable hour in the morning, do the 10 o'clock session and then book it back so Betsy could go to another job at 5. Instead, we enjoyed a leisurely drive down as a family, stayed up late chatting with Matt and Stacie, and enjoyed a lunch out the next day before the drive upstate. We look forward to returning that favor. Thanks again, Stacie!

In our curio

Back in the (Victorian era) day, any house of note would have a large cabinet filled with all kinds of curiosities. The cabinets were designed for the express purpose of displaying their wares. Et, voila! The birth of the curio cabinet. I am very anti knick-knack. Yet through our travels we've gathered quite a collection of interesting and sentimental little things that we love to show off. The anti-knick-knack-display solution has come via our curio cabinet. Well, it is not really a genuine curio. Its the stately China hutch I inherited from my Grandma W* that is functioning as a curio. It feels like a little L* family museum display in our great room. I love it.


I want to show you all the treasures in our cabinet. (But not all in one post, bien sur!) The first item in our collection was this beautiful globe. Cori gave it to me the Christmas after our engagement. It's true, he gave me the world before we even got married. We spotted them at a little shop Virginia City. Each country is carved from a different kind of stone. At the time we loved imagining it in the library that would be part of our future dream home. We loved it because it was a tangible interpretation of all the conversations we had about traveling together someday. Now it is a lovely centerpiece in the display of all our traveling treasures.


Maybe someday, we'll have a library lined with bookshelves and nicely lit curios. The globe will have its own place of honor. And my Grandma's Korean China will reclaim its home. But for now, welcome to our curio!

Wordless Wednesday: Bed Time

Winter Carnival

This last weekend marked the 17th annual winter carnival held at the winter sports park in Petoskey. The day features an outdoor cook-off, youth hockey tournaments, figure skating, sledding and the cardboard challenge. We had spent most of the day browsing neighborhoods and houses but made it to the challenge. It was lots of fun. Everyone and anyone can enter a cardboard sled of their own making into the tournament. Each sled is judged on a few factors, speed being one. At 7:15 the official blew his whistle and everyone headed to the top of the sledding hill with his/her craft. Then the races began. In my opinion, the best part of the races was when the sleds would slow down or stop towards the bottom of the hill, and the sledders would get out and sprint to the finish line. Although there were a few very impressive wipe-outs. There were lots of cheers and jeers. We're definately going to have to get in on this action next year.

Visitors and other news

Happy Day! We welcomed our first post-basement-project-completion visitors this weekend. Cori's sister Brittany and her family came to stay with us for a few days while her husband, also named Cory, interviews for a job up here. We are so excited at the prospect of them moving up here, though there are around 30 people in UT who are not very happy about the idea. And rightly so, Michigan is a long way to go. Brit and Cory have an adorable little boy, Ashton who has become quite the fun little playmate for Grace and Grant.

We've made the most of our time together driving around looking at houses and neighborhoods, going out to dinner, taking in some local winter events (post to follow), and waiting out the weather. Church was cancelled for the second week in a row yesterday due to a freezing rain that left a 1/4 layer of ice on everything. It turned the snowy feild behind our house into an ice rink. Very cool. We had a little sacrament meeting here at home. (Gracie was the youth speaker. So cute.) We then passed the rest of the afternoon staying cozy by the fire in the basement, playing a rousing game of Settlers, eating yummy beef stew out of the crock pot, and visiting.

We still have them with us for one more day. It sure has been fun.

VDay Report

We had a lovely Valentine's Day. When I got out of the shower this morning, Cori and Gracie came in to tell me that breakfast was all ready. They were going to give it to me in bed, but I got up early and ruined their plans. There was a trail of Mickey Mouse Valentine cards with love notes from Cori and the kids going down the hall to the kitchen. So cute. I snuck a card into Cori's work bag, and he brought flowers home for his girls. We have a standing Thursday night dinner appointment with the missionaries. One of the many hats Cori wears in the branch, along with being in the presidency, being the YM president and scoutmaster is being the unofficial Branch mission leader. So we make an evening of their weekly meetings with Cori. Anyway, they made a fun addition to the evening as well. Once our dinner guests had left and the kids were in bed, we turned on the fire downstairs and cozied up for Lost.


We've spent a lot of money lately and decided not to spend much, if anything, on Valentine's. This really bummed us out, because there were things we both had in mind for each other. So we decided that we would give each other an unlimited imaginary budget to go shopping with, and then present pictures of what we would have gifted for Vday.


So, for Cori:

A North Face Denali Jacket except in green

A Snowmobile

A new Audi R8 in silver with black leather interior and suped audio system that he can plug his ipod into (That's right. The car would be an accessory for his ipod)

Some SCUBA lessons

So that we can go diving off St. Thomas Island

A weekend of skiing in the Alps. Doesn't that look amazing.

And Cori gave me this letter:

My Valentine,

Here’s what I would get you if $$ wasn’t an issue…

1- Fun for me and you…maybe the kids… a world cruise

2- Something for your everyday enjoyment… a ruby red Tahoe

3- Basically a $60,000 budget and a few weeks with this designer:

I LOVE YOU!

Cori

I thought it was especially sweet of him to not only find the exact cruise, but also to pick out all the packages he would include in my dream car. Thanks Babe! So now we've gotta start saving so we can turn these into reality!

Valentine's Day Meme

Thanks, Miss Millie, for the fun tag!

How long have you been married?4 Years in May

How long did you date? We had dated for three months when we first started talking marriage, 5 months when we got engaged, and 11 when we got married.

How old is he? About 2 1/2 years older than I.

Who eats more? Well, I've got a pretty ravenous appetite while I'm nursing. But he can put it away too. I guess it would depend on what's being eaten.

Who said "I love you" first? He did. He wrote it actually, inside of a Rachmaninoff piano book he gave me for my birthday a couple of months after we started dating.

Who is taller? Cori

Who is smarter? We each have our fields of specialty. He is very smart. He's got a great mind for numbers and technical analysis. He reads a little faster than I do to (which kinda bugs me :)) But I'm better at abstract/creative thinking, such as is useful in artistic analysis. We both have different kinds of people smarts too. He's really good at being a leader and pulling people together to get big things done. I'm really good at working the back stage.

Who does the laundry? Me mostly. But he helps whenever he can.

Who does the dishes? He does them when he doesn't have someplace to run after dinner. Wonderful man.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do. It is closer to the door and Grant.

Who pays the bills? I do the physical paying of most of them, but we put our heads together about that stuff every month.

Who mows the lawn? This question implies that we actually have a lawn. When we get one in this Spring, I'll bet he is the one on the mowing scene.

Who cooks dinner? Me. But Cori loves to cook when he gets a chance. He usually makes a big breakfast on Saturday mornings.

Who is more stubborn? Tricky. I bet if both he and I were standing next to each other when asked this question, our response would be to point at one another.

Who kissed who first? The answer to this one would be a little long in its entirety, and Cori would tell you a different story. But as I'm writing the answers here, I'll give you my version. It was taking him forever to kiss me (and this is where Cori would interject that I kept giving him mixed signals) and it was driving me nuts. Right before my birthday, I went to Portland for my mission buddy's wedding. Cori was having a hard time deciding on what to get me and consulted my sister for ideas. She, in classic Sara form, told him that he could go ahead and kiss me already. I think this cleared up any 'mixed signals' that were confusing him. We made plans to have lunch on my way home from the airport upon my return from OR. I remember calling him while I was waiting for my luggage. I told him I'd be on my way to his office as soon as I got my bags. "Hurry," he said. The rest was kisstory.

Who asked who out? He asked me. And I spent a whole minute and a half thinking he was the biggest jerk because I was under the impression that he was still in another relationship. I actually had to mention it because I was so confused, but he had broken up with her some 4 or 5 weeks before asking me out.

Who proposed? He did. We watched the sunrise in the mountains up Payson Canyon on a cold dewy morning. It was very Keira-Knightley-and-that-one-guy-in-Pride-and-Prejudice-esque.

Who is more sensitive? We are both sensitive. We are learning how to make this a good thing in our relationship though. Sensitivity can be great when it is centered on concern for one another.

Who has more friends? We both have circles of close friends and bigger networks of more loose-tie friends. All of our friends are dear to us.

Who has more siblings? He does. He's no. 2 of 6 and I'm no. 1 of 4

Around our house

These are some things I saw from our back porch and our driveway yesterday. It's hard to get sick of the snow and the cold when it is this beautiful outside. The last two pictures are of the big drifts that are currently flanking the house.