Instructions I can follow!

The other day Collin woke up with a red egg sized bump on his back. I was sure it was a bite, but I thought, "this will be the time I think it's no big deal and it will turn out to be Leukemia or something", so I called good ol' Dr. Jung. Collin couldn't even sit back against the seat on the way! I was very relieved that when he saw Collins back even HE was impressed with the size! He said he wasn't worried since it didn't look infected but left and came back with a marker. . . You know how they say, "if it gets redder or bigger, come back"? I don't know about you, but I get home and worry, does it look bigger? redder? How do I tell? WELL, Dr. Jung pulls up Collins shirt, uncorks his marker and outlines the bite. Then he draws a dotted line around it and says, "If the redness gets out to the dotted line, come back." !!! THIS is why we love Dr. Jung (OK, one of many!)! No need to wonder, no need to measure or fret. Just check if it's going out of the solid line! He even marked the time for us. . . although that part I'm not sure why . . . 

I wish you could see how swollen it really is! UnbeLIEVable!!

P.S. It never did get bigger and was gone it about 2 days!

Finger Lickin' Yummy

                                           

I could just write the recipe for this, but you KNOW I have a story to tell about it. :) Last night we had the missionaries over. I was going to fix fish since I knew they wouldn't appreciate a veg meal. I had a nagging feeling that it wasn't going to go over well, so we called to see if that would be ok. In the background one of them said, "I DON'T LIKE FISH". That's ok. I want them to eat what they like, and hey, when they came to dinner we found out the same guy had never had Italian dressing for salad. Never? He has a long mission ahead of him! I found a recipe for a rotisserie style roast chicken that got rave reviews so I decided to do that. Even though I almost threw up "dressing" it, it smelled so good and looked JUST like the picture that I tried it and it was soooooo good! Anyway, I always like a good new recipe so I thought I'd share. This recipe makes 2 chickens, but you can halve it too. 

4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. paprika

2 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. dried thyme

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 heaping tsp. garlic powder

2 onions quartered

2 (4 pound) whole chickens

In a small bowl, mix all the spices. Remove giblets from chicken. Rinse chicken (and cavity) and pat dry with paper towel. Rub with Olive Oil. Rub inside and out with spice mixture. Place one onion into the cavity of each chicken. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight or at least 4-6 hours. (SHA! I read this recipe about 7 hours before we were eating, so my birds got no such treatment.)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place chickens in roasting pan. (I added about a cup of broth to the bottom). Bake uncovered for 5 hours or till the temp. reaches 180. The drippings from this made a marvelous, delicious, tasty gravy.  

UPDATE!! I made this for the second pair of missionaries in our ward and added the zest of one lemon to the rub and substituted a lemon for one of the onions for inside the bird. SO GOOD!

NOT heavily dependent on electronic devices . . .

This week was our "spring break". We have had some unseasonably warm weather and I was looking forward to getting out and exploring some new places. Our plans got washed out by 45 degree weather and the first good rain (4 days and counting) we've had all year. In Collin's Art class at Co-Op one of his friends showed him how to make animals out of pipe cleaners and he's been begging for some ever since. I figured this would be a good time to get some. Because of the weather I wanted to light a fire and watch movies, but the kids were perfectly content making a plethora of animals. They didn't even ask to watch a movie! 

Number of Pipe Cleaners in the Jumbo size bag: 350

Number of animals made to date: Too many to count 

Size of mess 2 kids have made ALL over house: Ginormous

Number of kids it LOOKS like made the ginormous mess all over the house: 17 or 18

Hours of fun: Endless

Parents joy of such inexpensive entertainment: Priceless

(these were made in the first hour)

P.S. In reference to the title, I went to a Ward Welfare meeting right after Ike. One of the men there was irATE because the youth activities had been cancelled for a couple of weeks and his boys were home lighting bon fires in the street etc. He said that they were bored and didn't know what to do without electricity because, and I quote, "they were heavily dependent on electronic devices." This is now one of our favorite phrases. 

Stand Back!! He's MINE!!

Oh yeah . . . Disco King!

Totally RAD!!

(In case you couldn't tell, Jon is the one on the right in the middle with his 'board)

That is one HOT hubby I got!!

Texas Pride

We've had a very Texan couple of weeks. For our homeschool group, Collin and I went on a field trip to a local restaurant, Taste of Texas for some Texas history. The owner is a huge Texas history buff so after leading us through the restaurant she sat us down and told us a very lively version of Texas gaining her independence from the evil Santa Ana. The restaurant is also basically a small museum too. It was very interesting 

Collin entertaining the ladies and hanging with the homies. They served us some lunch after the Texas history. 

I had to get a picture of this while filling up my tank. The good ol' Texas Lotto. 

We have our homeschool Co-Op on Fridays. This Friday the group of riders riding the Spanish Trail stopped to have lunch at a parking lot right by where we meet on their way to open the Houston Rodeo. We decided to skip class and go see the horses etc. This is Grace telling the man all about how she loves horses (news to me) and how she wants her very own. 

This is Precious, with her owner wearing a Texas Flag shirt. About half the riders were wearing them. 

The kids were getting little rides on some of the horses and this guys says to me, "We need to see some adults on these horses!"and tells me to get on. Out of the 3 pictures Collin took of me, this is the best. Can you even tell I'm on a horse? :) Later I asked what her name was . . . Jenny! It was fate! 

Our favorite part though was this cowboy who had the best named horse there . . . Homer Jones.  The kids want to get a horse and name it EITHER Homer Jones or Grace. 

Roots Baby!

While we were in Hawaii Grace was complaining about her tooth hurting. When we got back we took her in to have a cavity filled only to go back that same afternoon after Grace announcing that it wasn't her tooth that hurt, but her "bump". I turned around to ask her what she meant and her cheek was swollen. I checked her "bump" which turned out to be a huge abscess. To make a long story short, she has a permanent tooth growing in sideways and causing problems. We had the tooth taken out and she is fine now.  The point of all of this (yes, I do have one), is that when she came home (after just a numbing shot, no stitches, and no pain meds) we asked to see her tooth. She pulls out this:

If you can't tell by clicking on the picture, this tooth has half inch long, quarter inch wide, razor sharp roots!! I was shocked!! I said, "I didn't know baby teeth had roots!" Collin proceeded to inform us that an acid dissolves the baby teeth roots to help them come out easier when it's time. I didn't know whether to believe him or not since I had never heard that. He kept telling everyone that though so we decided to look it up and yes, my 10 year old is right. You learn something new every day! 

The happy patient recovering with a couple of her animals. . . 

Does a Heart Good

When you have Grace as a "doder" (daughter - keep reading and you'll understand) you grow used to having comments like this made on a regular basis:

"I think you look cute with zits. I always know you're my mom because of all your zits. "

I try to be immune to them, but hey, the regular basis thing gets a little too . . . regular. So, when I get notes like this, all the comments go away . . . (only to appear in future blogs) . . .(by the way, if you click on the picture, it will blow up bigger).

Kid notes are the antidote for anything!

P.S. That is her origami dog that she made as Valentines. I'll have to post some of Collin's origami masterpieces soon. 

P.P.S. On another note, WHY can kids spell a word perfectly during "spelling time" and then not know how to spell it any other time?

Flash Forward?

While we were at the "pineapple smoothie beach" I saw this couple walking along and I joked to Jon that it was going to be us in 40 years. We had a chuckle over it and went on. But I keep thinking about it. I want to be strolling along a beach in Hawaii with my honey, having a nice conversation, not worrying anymore if I look my best, or worrying about what is going on around me, just focused on what we're talking about. They seemed peaceful, happy, content and in love. Not that I am not all of those right now, but I hope by then I am still all of those things but with a little more wisdom and understanding under my belt . . . or tucked into Jons speedo or something. 

Good Eats Oahu

Anyone who knows us knows that our trips are judged by the food as much as the adventures! After landing and getting our rental car we made a beeline for an Oahu must have - malasadas. They are kind of like a squishy doughnut without the hole, covered in sugar. As if they needed anymore reason to be eaten, they fill them with custard fillings: vanilla, chocolate, haupia (coconut) and this months flavor, pineapple. One of my favorite fruits. Sunshine-for-your-mouth pineapple. They were delish!! Jon was suppose to get 4 total and came out with 14. But if you're going to gain 20 pounds on vacation, this is a tasty way to do it!

In the last post I talked about Haleiwa Joes, which is one of our favorite places to eat. I had the best fish I have ever had there this time! And if the food isn't incentive enough, they have a gorgeous garden with a koi pond to look at while you eat. 

A few years ago, while on a Waikiki beach, we got thirsty and found this little smoothie booth that had pineapple smoothies and got hooked. It's more like a slush made with bizzed up pineapple than a typical smoothie. One of the many reasons I love my hubby is that he saves up about $50 for my pineapple smoothie fund and as soon as we get to that beach (we like to stick with tradition), he puts down the bag (before even unpacking the towels etc.) and says, "do you need a large or a medium?" and heads off. Every couple of hours he says, "You ready for another one?" That, my friends is true love.  The kids have now christened this beach "pineapple smoothie beach". (Like my beach hair?)

We took the kids to Ono's this time so they could experience traditional Hawaiian food. Our motto is When in Rome . . . They loved everything but the chicken lau lau (taro leaf wrapped chicken) because there was too much "spinach stuff" for their taste. 

One other place that we like to frequent is Kua 'Aina in Haleiwa. They have burgers etc. but they also have great salads. Unfortunately the kids were full of shave ice when we went so they didn't eat much. 

One of our "finds" this time was Genki sushi. Jon had been saying he wanted to go to a sushi place that had a conveyer belt. We happened to see a place that looked like a fast food joint complete with a drive through window but Jon was really wanting some sushi. He went in to check it out and came running back with little boy eagerness all over his face, "they have a conveyer belt!!". It ended up being really tasty! We all ate to fullness and it only cost $53! 

Another must for us is a Ted's Bakery pie. Collin chose the Chocolate macadamia nut pie and it was a winner! 

The Trip of a Lifetime . . .

Well, we're back and still not recovered from our amazing trip. We had so much fun that it's taken us a while to recuperate! It was SO  worth it! Every day the kids said, "Thank you so much for bringing us here!!" We did a lot of the touristy things on O'ahu since the kids don't remember doing them and we also did our favorite things too. We took a few hundred pictures so the 20(?) pictures here are a drop in the bucket. This is the only picture of all of us out of our hundreds!! Taken on Laie Point. 

The first morning after getting there, the kids and I woke up at 4am and couldn't go back to sleep. After what seemed like an eternity, the sun finally rose and the kids were there to greet it. 

Jons brother Dave and his family live in La'ie so we got to see them a few times. It's hard to believe that Grace and Dave's daughter Tevai share some of the same genes!!

They love good food as much as we do, so we went to one of our favorite places,  Haleiwa Joes for some GREAT seafood!

We had to hit the swap meet for some must-haves like Macadamia nuts etc. The kids got $20 to learn a budgeting lesson from Jon (yes, that's an oxymoron). Grace went to the first booth we started at, saw a Toki Doki bag and even after going all the way around Aloha Stadium, that's what she still wanted. She wasn't even tempted by anything else. 

Collin on the other hand . . . spent the whole time trying to figure out what he wanted most. He FINALLY ended up getting some cool shades and a bone carving necklace. 10 going on 17?

Actual documentation that Grace did indeed snorkel, even if it was only about 2 feet of water! 

The Snorkel Queen . . .
Collin takes after Jon and likes to do anything in the water, snorkel, skim board, swim, boogie board etc. and can't wait to dive with me and Jon.  I love his excitement and love of water. With Grace, you buy her a $5 beach toy set, and she is perfectly content all day. A little water time, a lot of sand time (yes, she takes after me) . . . 

A 28XXL Aloha shirt that Collin couldn't stop talking about. He keeps calling it the "Iz" shirt. As in Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. 

I am accepted there . . . at least at the ABC stores.

The sweet potatoes at Hanauma Bay. Their favorite place we went. 

Our favorite fish - humuhumunukunukuapua'a

They "had" to get shave ice from Matzumoto's in Haleiwa AND they had it "all the way", with ice cream and adzuki beans at the bottom. 

The Dole Plantation has this train that takes you all over their grounds and you see so many fruits and flowers and it is really interesting . . . 

The boys getting ready to snorkel in Sharks Cove . . . 

Did I mention we had almost too much fun? Grace slept the whole way home (it was a night flight), while Jon let Collin watch the in-flight movies all the way home. . .