Miserable mosquito bites!

Okay, the quarter sized bites have now grown into half dollars. Even walking with the pants rubbing against them is so so so annoying. I took a Benadryl last night to alleviate the itching and put packing tape over them to prevent me from scratching them in my sleep and still woke up time and time again. I'm heading to the store to stock up on the best repellent money can buy. I would post some pictures but they are anything but flattering with my leg being swollen and as white as white can be, but I think you get the idea. Sometimes when people show me their bites they are so tiny and I wonder what that would be like. Mine are always huge. I'll make it a summer goal to get as few bites as possible starting today!

The Morial Day

That is what my primary kid calls it anyway. When asked what we celebrate this weekend he sweetly answered, "The Morial?" They always say funny things and it's hard not to laugh out loud. Anyway this has been a busy but fun holiday weekend. we started it off on Thursday by buying a car that we'd been looking at. We decided on a Honda Accord and we're very happy with it. We're hoping it lasts a long time as a Honda should. My car is about to go kaput so we are still wondering what to do with it. Anyhow we of course went to the Shakespeare play on Friday which seems like ages ago.

On Saturday we made a trip to Matt's house and had a big car wash in the 90 degree, plus humidity weather. Our cars were nice and shiny by the end and so were our faces. We did everything from waxing to leather conditioning. The cars were in tip top shape. We also watched The Da Vinci Code which was very thought provoking as I knew nothing about it. It was a nice day.

Sunday was also nice. We decided to have the fam over for a barbecue in the evening. We started grilling the kabobs and not long after the Turpins arrived the sky turned very gray. KC knew it was threatening but we tried anyway. We had already set up tables and chairs and then the wind and the rain took over. Our landlord is out of town so we decided to take advantage of using the patio without being in her way, and there is much more room outside than inside our apartment. Then this happened so we were forced to fit 9 people into our little apartment. We had much more food than we thought so kabobs and watermelon turned into that plus three different salads, and smores which we ended up making under the broiler since the grill was drowning outside. There was even a hail warning. Yikes! Anyway we ended up having quite a good time and the kids even seemed to enjoy themselves in the small amounts of play space they had.

We both had to work on Monday but decided to have some friend over in the evening again, only this time the weather was just perfect. KC churned some of his awesome pina colada strawberry ice cream. He inherits his ice cream skills from his dad who is the supplier of the recipes and is famous for it around his neighborhood. I'm am glad this is a family tradition. I made a lime pound cake to go with it and we had a lot of fun. Our back yard was full of cute, blond, blue eyed kids. My only complaint is the two quarter sized mosquito bites I got on my leg, with repellent, mind you. But I consider this a success since I usually end up with a dozen after any summer outdoor activity. It would've been more if KC hadn't put the citronella candle right by my feet while we were chatting. I'm loading up on the good stuff for girl's camp for sure. The friends with kids went home at bedtime while the rest of us ate more ice cream, went inside, and played Wacky Six for a while. I plan on making a lot more ice cream this summer. I can't wait.

Shakespeare free for all

Last night we were invited by Su Draper to go to a free Shakespeare performance. It was in an amphitheater downtown. It was a beautiful night, we packed some tuna sandwiches and watched a very funny, and clever Love's Labor's Lost by The Shakespeare Theatre Company. I was a modern take on this play working in a lot of rock 'n' roll, and jokes only this era would understand. Even the costumes were very early 70s. It was sort of all over the place, but very entertaining. I had to read the synopsis to really understand. I am not ashamed to say that Shakespeare is very difficult for me to understand. I feel like I have to read a line six times before I can really understand what their saying. However I got the gist of what was going on and really enjoyed myself. They didn't let us bring our camera into the theater so the only picture I got was KC eating before we went in.

Imogen Heap

KC and I were at Borders one time and he had me listen to the demo of Imogen Heap's cd and I needed to buy it. I love her music. It's a little different, and that's what I like that about it. In the cd cover she tells how she spent one year by herself in a studio to make the album. You need a lot of talent to arrange the music like she does. I could listen to her all day. I had this song, Hide and Seek, in my head all morning, and ironically it was on my ipod when I turned it on this morning. It's her kind of music that help through those tough days. Just turn up the volume really loud and all your problems seem to go away. Goodnight and Go is another one I really like. Enjoy.

Oh yes, I also bought The All-American Rejects CD for five bucks today at the hospital book sale. I only know a couple songs, but they seem pretty cool. I'm excited. Are you proud Lili?

Leader Camp

In preparation for girl's camp in July, the leaders went to the camp site where we will bring the girls to see what is had to offer and be able to plan a little better. We went to Elk Neck State Park which runs right along the Chesapeake Bay. It was beautiful. We could play at the beach, or in the trees. It was the best of both worlds. We can a groups of about 12 people and had a great time. We played in the sand, had great food, and actually slept quite well on air mattresses that most of us brought. For dinner we had a great cucumber, salad, and Spicy Curry and Rice. We had banana boats later that I was especially excited about. We planned some great activities for the girls and got to know each other a little better. Of course I was the first one awake and so I had to wait for anyone to wake up to get any matches to build a fire, but I did and it was pretty good if I do say so. I was pretty beat all day the next day, so I don't know what 6 days and five nights will be like in July, but let's just pray I make it through. And that is doesn't rain, because then I really won't make it. It will be weird going as a leader instead of a girl at camp. I think I'll like delegating. And it was my mistake to take so many pictures because the camp director is now making me be camp historian. I said I'd gladly take pictures, but there would be no scrapbook involved in my job description. I do not do scrapbooks. I think camp will be fun as long as KC comes up for one or two nights.

The first of many uses of the Grill

So our landlord bought a grill last summer and has asked us to help her get use out of it. So we took advantage yesterday and made some BBQ Turkey Burgers. The barbecue sauce was a recipe a friend gave me that she uses for her brisket. It had an extra kick. We had them bunless. Not because we are on some kind of low carb diet, but because we didn't have any. But I would've probably eaten it that way anyway. I made baked sweet and regular potatoes to go with it and it was quite a nice summer meal. I wanted the potatoes to have an Outack-esk crispy skin, so I slathered them with olive oil, and paprika before I microwaved for about 7 minutes, and them baked at 475 for about 30 minutes. They were perfect. The russet potatoes were loaded with all the fixins and the sweet were just butter and brown sugar. It was a great combo. While we were grilling I had a good time playing with our land-dog, Penny. She likes to play a game where she'll bring the frisbee to you and drop it at your feet. But the second you try to pick it up she grabs it and won't let go for anything. You have to be pretty tricky with old Penny. It was quite amusing. I should play with her more. It's good exercise for me.

I guess I can celebrate Mother's Day.

Well, since I will eventually be a mother, KC surprised me with some beautiful flowers that I can't stop looking at. They really brighten up the place. We had a nice time at church where we were all given a long stemmed rose, and then I went home to make the mother's day dessert I've been planning. It was a peach, blackberry, shortcake. This is definitely one of my favorite desserts to eat. And I was so inspired by all the pretty fruit this spring, I couldn've help but make something using them. We went to Matt's where beautiful salmon, salad and corn were prepared by Matt, and Cortnie and Cami brought homemade bread. Everything tasted so good. I hope all you hard working moms out there had a great day. I didn't get to talk to my mom since we were all trying to get a word into her conversation with Drew, so Happy Belated Mother's Day mom! I love you!

Spring cleaning and girls relaxing

Yesterday I was supposed to speak at a baptism, but found out a couple hours before that it has been postponed. So I had my whole day ahead of me. I couldn't help but start my spring cleaning. I only did once section of our apartment before I got too tired and needed a nap since we got to bed pretty late due to Guitar Hero at Cami's. I did the stove, fridge and the nooks and crannies of the kitchen. Then I did some dusting and mopping. I know, sounds pathetic for needing a nap, but oh well. I went ahead and took some pictures to document our first apartment so if you haven't seen it yet, here is our living quarters. I still am working on a couple photo projects for the walls, but it has come a long way. The other rooms weren't spring cleaned yet, so we'll wait on those.

Later that day I went to my friend Cortney's house for a girl's night we've been wanting to have for a while. Rebecca brought over lots of supplies for our manicures/pedicures, and I made a huge plate of nachos, (Notice, the platter is the one that was signed by the girls at my shower here in Maryland. It was perfect for the nachos.)which were devoured much more quickly than they should've been. We also had fresh salsa that Rebecca made, cupcakes by Christina, and ice cream. That is vinegar we were soaking our feet in, then we used a lot of different lotions, cuticle creams, buffers, polishes--she had everything. We played games and of course, there was never a dull moment and we were all beat by the end because of the mixture of extremely full stomachs and bending over our toenails all night. The boys made a spur of the moment gathering to play Risk. They could've played much longer than the 1:00 am finale of our party, but they called it quits so we could all go home and go to bed.

Never a worse musical number

We were asked a few days ago to sing at an annual ward function, that took place last night, where ward members (mostly kids) are encouraged to invite their teachers to an nice dinner to show how much they are appreciated. The theme this year was Heroes. So of course, they wanted us to sing Never a Better Hero, by Kenneth Cope. All I have to say about that song, and most other songs of his (sorry any of you Kenneth Cope die hard fans out there) is yuck. I don't like his style at all, and KC more than agrees with me (even though they do have the same initials). It's weird to sing in a duet as well since they tried to take a song that was sung by a man who clearly likes to stylize every line differently, and put it on paper with all kinds of weird syncopation, to recreate the way he sings it on the cd. KC sings like an engineer, right on the note, and right on the beat, so obviously this type of music isn't for him. I can adapt to this kind of music, except I woke up with a very itchy, coughy, and raspy voice. It got progressively worse throughout the day and I felt very blessed when I actually hit and held the 6 beats of the high D that was required of me(not hard for me normally but a stretch under the conditions). Today, I wouldn't even try. The whole thing was comical to us, from the choice of song, to KC trying to add three notes into one beat, and me praying to hit my notes by my sporadic loss of voice. We drove home saying "worst musical number ever!" We don't mind singing for a crowd, in fact we've been successful before, as long as we choose the song or it's one that suites us. I wonder when all those stereotypical Mormon music will go out of style once and for all. They have come out with better music in the last few years, so why do we always have to resort back to the songs from the 80s. Oh well, the message was there, and we were only there to serve. Our job was done. I'm probably making it sound worse than it really was, but we all know what are personal best was, and that was not ours. Now If I can just get rid of this annoying cough.

Spur of the Moment

A friend and I are planning to start is a little dessert demonstration business. It is very far from being ready to start but we have been trying to get together to do some practice rounds. I called her this morning after a very quick day at the hospital to see if she was up for it. She said she had made plans to meet up for lunch with a former co-worker of our's and invited me to come along. I agreed and we had a great time. We went to the shop where we all worked toether to see other co-workers, and them walked to this charming little cafe in Bethesda. It is called Lilit Cafe, and it happens to be run by a man who is a good friend of another co-worker from the Hyatt. She has her own business selling gluten free desserts called Sweet Sin. Lilit is also a gluten free restaurant, and had the most wonderful gelato that they gave to us on the house. The Ruben sandwhich I had was very extrememly good as well. It was so good, I'm going there again with KC one of these days even though it's pretty far away. We girlfriends had a great time catching up. It was nice to do something spur of the moment instead of planning it ahead of time.

I managed to take a couple pictures despite the camera woes I've been having lately. I left my camera at Cami's after Ethan's birthday, and I feel completely lost without it. I feel like a camera gives me power for some reason. But I remembered, after the initial panic of realizing that I had left it, that I do have a camera that I used before we started using KC's. It has a lot of problems (You need to hold down the battery lid thing really hard or else it will think there are no batteries, and even then it sounds broken with it turns on.) I didn't think it worked at all but found a way to make it work because I was so deperate. So I have managed. We will get it back now that Cami is back in town. So that was all to tell you why the pictures are not so great. The nice Indian man that took our picture was very good to hold down the battery lid the whole time. It's hard to worry about focusing and angles while you're simply trying to push the button to take the picture.

Hard at Work

Well, I am here at work waiting for my next customer to arrive. The one had scheduled for right now is delayed due to her baby being with the pediatrician. I never like to interfere with the doctor's business, but some days I find this stressful when I have a full day and there's no way to reschedule the mom who is leaving the hospital in an hour. But today is so slow that I was happy to tell the mom that she can come back in one hour if that is okay with her. So I have my computer here connected to the Internet definitely not complaining about the few extra moments I have to relax. Although, I did get here extra early since in the past people have been lined up before I even arrive. How unpredictable. I guess with a job based on how many babies being born each day, you really have to be flexible. I like the variety each day brings. I guess I should find something work related to do.

Happy Bithday Ethan!

Well as my gift for most birthdays, I make the cake unless other arrangements have been made for one. I like these opportunities to try something new, or make an old fave. I usually ask the birthday person what their favorite dessert is (a birthday treat doesn't always have to be cake) or in Ethan's case, where the child won't even partake of it, I make something I think the adults will appreciate. Don't worry, the kids got cupcakes that Cami made, which they thought were much more appealing. I was planning on making a peach, caramel pecan cheesecake (an idea I thought sounded good for some reason) and with two unsuccessful trips to the store to find any fresh peaches, I settled on the pineapple. So it was a pineapple, strawberry, cheesecake with a lime syrup to make the fruit flavors stand out a little more. Of course, I want to make it again right away to fix all the things that didn't go right (I always feel this way about anything I make. A curse of the culinary mind.) But I think we've had enough cheesecake, until the peaches come back in season or course. Ethan was patient to sit down again for us to sing "habby booday" as he says it, again even though I think he was much more excited about the initial singing. He was so cute, and I can't believe he's FOUR! These kids have really grown up since I moved here. Man, when I came, he was scooting on his bum with a big cast on his leg. We can't help but giggle at whatever he says, or even at all of his different expressions on his face in all the pictures we take of him. I can't wait to see how he make us laugh next. Maybe someday he'll be requesting a cheesecake for his birthday and actually eat it. I don't know if I'll be around here by then.