Food and visitors

This will blow a couple peoples’ minds now that I posted on my blog so quickly…I am branching out a bit!

This past weekend we attended a Valentine’s progressive dessert event with some friends. It was delicious. The person that was organizing the event asked if I could make a chocolate dessert. I have learned how to make a good flourless chocolate cake recently…so I agreed to make it. To make it even richer I told her I would put chocolate mousse on top. Those that know me, know that I go to great lengths to make something good and from scratch. I have never made chocolate mousse from scratch before but thought this would be a great opportunity. The cakes turned out great. I made the chocolate mousse and IT WORKED! I was so surprised and tickled that it turned out.

I placed a small piece of cake in cups with a spoonful of mousse and whipped cream for presentation. I had many great comments on the taste and texture. We took the left-over cups to our neighbors and friends. It was a satisfying experience. Sometimes (I wish) that I could just cook for my vocation! I guess if I did that it may not be as satisfying….who knows. I heart cooking!!!

Rachel and I had a good weekend. We attended the chocolate night and then went out and had a great lunch together on Saturday (we chose lunch, because restaurants at night on V-Day would be horrific!). We exchanged small gifts, the kids were reasonable…do I need to knock on wood now!?

Rachel called her parents and spoke with her father. Each of the children took their turn to speak with their grandpa. I think the children enjoyed it? These are the grandparents they rarely get to see. They live in Idaho, we live in Kansas. They DO NOT travel. So the only way our children see Rachel’s side of the family is if we go to Idaho, unfortunately but true. It is so hard to get 8 people to Idaho often on a limited budget. Rachel’s family it very giving and loving, but they do not travel long distances often. Rachel desires for our children to know them better, we need to find a way for that to happen.

My family travels all over. We have someone stopping by our house every season. It helps that we are in a historical place where people come to visit for various reasons. Plus our children get to interact with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins from my side all the time. My parents stopped by for a brief visit a couple of weeks ago. I think when those type of visits happen, Rachel’s yearning for her parents heightens. We will see how we can remedy this need in the future.

High school interactions

I have 2 teenagers. Given that I go to high school/college planning sessions that the high school counselors provide. Every time I go to one of these sessions I expect to hear something quite outlandish regarding preparing/financing of college. Monday night was NO different. The high school counselor told students that they did not need to take certain classes (like foreign language) to get into college. He indicated that it would be nice but not required. I raised my hand immediately and shared with the mis-guided parents that in order to qualify for State scholarship, their students would need to take an additional language class. I had a few parents give me a "thumbs up" or a smile after my comment.

After the session was over I introduced myself to the high school counselor and told him I could help him in any way in the future to ensure accurate information was given out. He declined! We have a yearly training for these counselors to learn about the intricacies of financial aid....the school my children attend NEVER attend these training sessions! I would like to scream.

Maybe I expect too much from these individuals, but every time I attend one of their sessions I either correct the information or have to bite my tongue. I have contacted this school many times to offer my services and have consistently been rebuffed. One of these days when I am sitting down with the principal at a school activity, I will bend her ear. I hope her ear bounces back to its original shape once I am done.

I had to get this one off my chest…tirade over!

I know....

Here I am updating my blog (that really isn't a blog at all because I seldom write things). This HAS to become a more common occurrence or I really should not be doing this.

We are in the “idle hand” stage at work, this is the lull before the storm for most of my staff. This gives them opportunities to create some interesting situations and attend to trivial, menial things that, when busy, they do not attend to (idle hands are the devils workshop). I am a shameless non-delegator and could eliminate some of these games if I could just give up something. Alas, here I sit overwhelmed at the things on my plate (and manage to get done) but I would be in a happier place if I did not put myself through such torture.

I learned the other day that there is a Café’ on the top floor of Nordstrom’s (I do not shop there, I can’t even afford the air to breathe in there). I went there with some colleagues at work and had a delightful lunch. So I learn of a new place to dine and that it has some of the best tomato/basil soups around. This dog learned a new trick!

That is it for right now, so I do not overdue myself on my first entry since????

Teenagers…Oh My!

I think about my own teenage year and realize what a horrible person I was, to many people around me (family in particular). Now, I try to gauge my own experience against my own teenage children…and I cannot quite compute! There are many “Lost in Translation” situations. I grew up in rural Idaho. The only rural thing my children get exposed to the land not developed just down the street. My high school was full of rural people (Ye Haw) and was very small…no orchestra, marching band, swimming, AP classes, diversity, soccer, the list is endless. My children have multiple amounts of choices and experiences. Sometimes it is hard to mesh the two worlds and understand each others’ vantage points.

My oldest came home last night and said he is officially dating someone. I assumed he was dating this person for a couple of months…my bad! J Now I am on Facebook, in his business. I will try to tame my comments to this relationship in a public forum like this (but it is fun giving him crap). I asked my wife when she thought we were officially “dating” in high school? She said it was just assumed that we were dating, we never had to make a formal announcement…weird the differences. My daughter pulled out all of this paraphernalia from when Rachel and I were dating or exchanging correspondence…I asked her to put it away, I could not believe that I was soooooo sappy then. I guess I need to lighten up on my son and let him be this way (I was, even though I would deny it).

Now we have the special experience of taking a few days off for Thankfulness and I am not sure how our household will survive. There are too many needs going on in different stages and for different reasons. I hope we all get through this experience unscathed. Certain individuals will be extremely bored and expect entertainment! Can’t we just sit in silence for a good 3 hour block…I could get so much reading done. I will have to find time to re-energize while around my teenagers this week (and Isaac).