April update

April was a good month with lots of family time and the celebration of Easter. This year I was hosting Easter dinner and decided to go with a Greek theme since Easter is a very big holiday for their culture. I did some research about the Greek traditions and meanings and found it very interesting. What I found most fascinating was the description of their midnight service on Saturday night - beginning in darkness and silence and then as midnight arrives the bringing of light and passing it from candle to candle in celebration of Christ being risen. It made me want to experience it and so I found information about a local Greek Orthodox church in Riverside and their midnight service.

Josh, Kelly & I attended and found it to a very popular service and quite crowded. All the lights inside and outside the church were turned off and there was a man chanting in Greek from the Bible (we assumed). Beginning around 11:30pm, there was singing/chanting from both men and women from opposite sides of the sanctuary. It was pretty, but mostly in Greek so impossible to understand. At midnight, the priest came from behind a curtain with the "eternal flame" representing the risen Christ and he slowly lit the candles of those in the front of the church. One by one, the light was passed from candle to candle throughout the church and then the priest led everyone down the center aisle and out the front door of the church. We walked around the building slowly while people sang softly and then back to stand outside the front door. There was more talking in Greek and pounding on the front door before it was finally opened and the lights were all turned on and everyone went back inside. Although the service would continue, we chose to leave at this point since we were already outside and it would not be disruptive (others left at this time as well).

Ultimately, I am glad that we attended and the lighting of the candles and walk around the building were just as lovely as I imagined. It is amazing how much light comes simply from candles in a dark room and it was a poignant reminder of how we are to be a light to a dark world. We often think that our little light can't make much difference, but it truly can even when we never know how. How amazing God is. However, due to our inability to understand Greek and the very formal nature of the service we found it somewhat dry. It was a neat experience and I'm glad we attended part of it.

Easter dinner the next day was a feast of grilled lemon chicken, beef and vegetable kabobs, greek salad, roasted lemon potatoes, assorted hummus, tzadziki, pita, olives and lemonade to drink. Katelyn and I had made some Greek Easter cookies earlier in the week which were slightly sweet with a hint of orange flavor. They were a nice end to our delicious dinner which was shared by our family as well as a coworker of Josh's and her siblings. We also had a small Easter egg hunt for Katelyn & Jonathan and they had fun finding the eggs and then opening them for their treasures - bouncy balls, stickers, socks, and some candy as well. :)

Josh & I made plans to have a date with Katelyn & Jonathan this month. The Thursday before Easter, Katelyn & I had our date which included lunch at Weinerschnitzel, baking Easter cookies, dying Easter eggs (a first for both of us and lots of fun), and playing UNO. The following day, Josh had a date with Jonathan involving lunch at McDonalds and a visit to the lake where they played on the playground, tried to feed the ducks and walked around. We all had a lot of fun and hopefully in a few weeks we will do it again, this time Katelyn will go out with Josh and Jonathan will be with me.

I watched a lot of films this month: Age of Innocence (similar to the book and well cast), Hamlet - the Ethan Hawke modern version (dark, but things made a lot more sense in the modern setting), Scotland, PA - a modern version of MacBeth set in the 70's (a little dark but funny and also well cast), Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford was GORGEOUS and the story was really interesting. I wanted to see it because a new miniseries version with Kate Winslet just came out and I recorded it and hope to watch it soon), Temple Grandin (a wonderful true story about triumphing over challenges) and The Apostle (poignant picture of our sinful humanity but how God still loves us and can show such grace in spite of our weakness).

This month I had a cold and felt miserable for a week or so. Got over that and then had a weird dizzy/light-headed/weird day when I needed Josh to take off work to come pick me up from work. Thankfully it went away by the evening, but it was weird (and no I'm not pregnant). We had a super fun day with cousins playing at a playground near our house where we all had lots of fun and Kelly & I even joined the kids on the slides. We all attempted going down on our stomachs and I ended up with a huge plastic burn on my elbow - but it was fun! :) We went to the Farmer's Market three times this month and twice followed it with lunch at the Bella Trattoria at the Mission Inn - beautiful outdoor patio seating, delicious food and the second best vanilla bean creme brulee I've ever tasted! We had dinner with friends from church, our friend Robin (who we hadn't seen in way too long) and a lovely spontaneous dinner & conversation at IHOP with Josh's brother-in-law Jim who was in town from Louisiana (he's a truck driver).

The month ended with a trip to Las Vegas for the wedding of Josh's cousin Cassie. We had gotten a great deal on the room through Josh's work and ended up loving the MGM Signature which is a non-smoking, casino-free timeshare-like resort. The room was spacious and new with a huge bathtub and shower, kitchenette with stove-top, microwave, fridge and sink, comfy king-size bed and a great view of the pools part of the Strip. Friday night we went to see the new film Fast Five since it was opening day and we love these movies. It was a great film with an interesting plot and amazing surprise after the credits. We followed that with dinner at Outback (one of our all-time favorites) and a trip to the giant M&M store. We had fun making customized M&M's for our friends Danielle & Andy who are getting married in June and taking pictures. Saturday we relaxed in the room for most of the day before getting dressed up for the wedding. Transportation was provided to and from the event, so we ended up not driving our car all weekend which was nice. The wedding was lovely with lots of fun things we'd never seen at weddings before. Josh really enjoyed spending time with his cousins Scott, Kelly & Cassie and was inspired to keep in closer contact with them and make an effort to get together more often. Cassie was a beautiful bride and it was obvious that she & her husband Eric are very happy...we were glad to have the opportunity to be there to celebrate with them. Sunday we slept in before checking out and heading to the Ethel M chocolate factory for some delicious toffee and chocolates followed by lunch at Fatburger. On the way home, we stopped in Baker at the Alien Fresh Jerky store to look around, try some tasty jerky, and buy a variety of flavors as well as some cool root beers as a birthday gift for my brother-in-law David. It was a great weekend.

To end this long post, I read 7 books this month but my favorite was Love, Otto by Cara Wilson. It was a true story detailing the friendship through letters between a young girl (the author) and Anne Frank's father Otto. Their written friendship lasted decades and they were able to meet in person as well. It was a lovely book.

Time MARCHes on...

So my title might be a little silly, but I just didn't feel like making it March Update. :) This was a good month with lots of time spent with good friends, many new recipes and other than twinges of pain now and then from extended standing no sciatic pain. Praise the Lord! We did our taxes this month and while I still trust and believe that God is in control, we were a bit tested when we realized that not only would we not be getting any money back, we actually owe a quite significant sum. There was some crying and reorganizing of finances and rescheduling of plans. The biggest issue was that we just won't be able to have the finances or the time (due to all my time off for sciatica) to take our planned trip to see Josh's family. We were quite sad about this as it had been something we looked forward to, but it won't be able to happen at this point. However, Josh's brother was able to visit while in CA for a conference and we truly enjoyed the opportunity to spend an evening with him - eating at Claim Jumper and Cherry on Top and driving around town looking at houses. The conversation was really great and I know Josh especially loved seeing his brother even for the short amount of time. Hopefully, Josh will be able to take a trip out to visit his mom later this year, though it may not be possible for me to join him. We'll have to see what our finances and vacation time looks like this summer or later. We celebrated Josh's birthday with a few fun things. The family went to lunch at his favorite taco place Taco Bender and we all enjoyed the delicious tacos, spicy hot sauce and crushed ice! He was able to take his actual birthday off from work and chose to make his own birthday dinner which was full of family favorites - tacos, chili relleno casserole, ortega rice and banana split cake. He was happily surprised to find that our close friends had finished paying off a 20-volume series of history books he had been making payments on for several months. He also received an electric screwdriver which he's been wanting, several Disney films and an updated DC Comics encyclopedia and a Star Wars encyclopedia. This month also included my best friends's birthday and I was thrilled to finally be able to give her the present I had made in February - a photo book from Snapfish which included photos of us from the beginnings of our friendship to now, scanned pictures of old notes from high school, letters and cards through the years and many quotes and stories of our friendship. She loved the book and we had a wonderful evening celebrating that included a fun art project. I had read about the idea of making a vision board, like a collage, that has words and images that are meaningful to you torn out of magazines and pasted onto 16 x 20 stretched canvases. We spent several hours on this project and ended up with very personal artwork that was a lot of fun and inspirational for both of us. We had the opportunity to see what it would be like to add a dog to our home when my parents went out of town for a week and we decided to keep their dog Belle at our house instead of just checking on her twice a day at their house. Belle is about 11 years old, a Jack Russel terrier mix and very sweet. She's already used to cats since my parents also have 2 cats, so she wasn't very disturbed by our three cats. However, our cats HATED her! None of them ever really adjusted to her - Cyrano and Talia basically hid upstairs most of the week and would hiss and puff up anytime they ran into Belle. Marilyn mostly ignored Belle and even sat on my lap to sleep in the evenings even though Belle was usually sleeping next to me on the couch - I think her lack of hearing helped her to be less intimidated. Belle did great all week and though it was obvious she missed home, she seemed comfortable with us and never had any accidents or problems. I'm not sure we'd add a dog of our own anytime soon since the cats are still adjusting to her being gone but at least we know it would work out fairly well. :) I did a LOT of cooking this month and tried many new recipes. My cousin had posted a recipe for Jacques Torres' chocolate chip cookies that uses dark chocolate and adds a hit of sea salt on the top and I'd been wanting to try it for quite awhile, but you have to let the batter chill overnight and I wanted to get this special 5 salt set from Cost Plus that I've been eyeing for months. I mixed up the batch one Friday evening and made myself wait until the next afternoon before baking up 2 dozen - 1 tray with French Fleur de Sel and 1 tray with Australian Murray River pink sea salt. The cookies were amazing and surprisingly I loved the Ausstralian salt topped cookies better which I think was due to the light flaky nature of the salt. The remaining batter was baked up on Sunday using all pink salt and they were a big hit with Josh and some of my coworkers. For St. Patrick's Day I wanted to make something Irish-like and found a recipe for Guinness Onion Soup with Cheddar toasts by Michael Chiarello. While I followed the basic recipe for the soup, I decided to adjust the toasts by adding a smear of Irish herb butter and thinly sliced Corned beef along with the Irish cheddar before broiling them open-faced. It was a quite tasty dinner and something I'd probably make again. Melissa d'Arabian has quickly become one of my all-time favorite chefs on Food Network since her food is fairly simple, French-inspired and always delicious. I tried several of her recipes and almost all were a big hit. An super easy recipe was for Garlic Spaghetti and Josh and I both really loved this vegetarian and delicious dinner. When a former student worker came to visit for dinner, I made her Mustard Chicken with Noodles and it was so delicious and made plenty for our meal as well as leftovers for three. I also served her Roast Carrots and Radishes and while I found the carrots perfectly delicious, none of us were fans of the taste of roasted radish. But it was something to try, and now we know we just like them raw and salted on buttered bread! :) I've been trying to read more this month and read seven books including Pioneer Woman's new love story Black Heels to Tractor Wheels which was great, a Wuthering Heights inspired novel called Here on Earth which I liked a lot though I disagreed with the interpretation of Heathcliff's character, and I started reading Francine River's series called Lineage of Grace which tells the story of the five women listed in the the geneaology of Christ and it has been wonderful so far. I also was able to watch the film version of Phantom of the Opera and it was really great and the music is still in my head weeks after watching.

February update

Thankfully, February brought slow improvement and eventual healing from the awful sciatic pain in my left leg. Due to a great massage and continued physical therapy, by mid-month I had no more pain beyond occasional twinges when standing too long. Praise the Lord! My joy in feeling better was sadly overshadowed by getting sick for over a week with an upper respiratory infection, but with antibiotics and rest I was back to normal within a week.

I had the opportunity to cook quite a lot this month, including a cooking lesson with a dear friend and a baking day with my best friend. The cooking lesson included making a lunch of poached chicken and vegetables for lunch with molten chocolate cake for dessert, going over a few additional recipes and time to chat about spices, basic cooking skills and the proper peeling of a pommelo. She also brought me a huge bag of delicious oranges (made AMAZING fresh OJ!), pink lemons and pommelos from their backyard citrus trees. Baking day is a fun tradition with my best friend that usually occurs around Christmas time, but due to work issues and travel, happened this month. We made an absolutely yummy Pumpkin Walnut Cake with homemade whipped cream. For lunch I made quick crocque monsieur sandwiches based on a recipe from Melissa d'Arabian and they were sooooo good! It was a great opportunity for best friend time and I'm glad we could carry on our tradition of baking together at least once a year.

There were several other delicious new recipes this month as well - a delicious buffalo chicken dip for Super Bowl Sunday, a vegan chocolate cake with chocolate tangerine frosting that I made for some dear friends as a Valentine's day surprise, and an amazing recipe for Barefoot Contessa's Lemon Chicken with Croutons. It was a simple roast chicken with lemons over a bed of onions which carmelized deliciously - so deliciously that friends who came over loved them even though they HATE onions! :) The croutons are freshly made and served with the chicken with pan drippings over them to soften....yummy! That night I also made an Aarti Sequeira recipe - Moroccan Carrot Salad with Carmelized Lemon. Ultimately, I really did not like it at all (cinnamon/ginger flavor of the dressing is not my taste), but thankfully my friends LOVED it and had seconds and happily took home all the leftovers. :)

Artistically, I didn't do much myself, but I was finally able to give my painting of Cayucos to my good friend Jeff and he really liked it. I also had the opportunity to do school with my niece Katelyn and one of the things we did that day was her Art & the Bible lesson which involved drawing. With some direction from me, she was able to draw a camel, donkey, and goat surprisingly well. We also learned about the color wheel, warm and cool colors, and what happens when you mix colors together. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn with her and remind me how much I love art.

I'm currently in the middle of about 4 or 5 books, but am most obsessed with Pioneer Woman's Black heels to tractor wheels which details her falling in love with her husband Marlboro Man. I love her writing style and this book is great so far. So far this year, I've read 12 books and considering my goal of 100 books by the end of the year I need to start reading more! :) In February, I read 5 books and of those my favorite was a book called Split: a memoir of divorce by Suzanne Finnamore. It was sad, but very honest. In January, I read 6 books and my favorite was The Help by Kathryn Stockett which was amazing and I can't wait to see the film version.

I watched a lot of movies this month, both at home through rentals and at the theater. I was able to rent and watch the film version of the book The Virgin Suicides - it was a sad book and the film was a decent interpretation. It's not a film I would want to see again, or really recommend, but I'm glad to have seen it. We also rented the new version of Robin Hood which I was initially against seeing since I truly dislike Russell Crowe. But I had heard it was really good, and it was something we could agree on renting. I have to say that it was a wonderful film - a very different interpretation of the Robin Hood story, but it was very good and the relationship between Russell Crowe's Hood and Cate Blanchett's Marian is just lovely. I won't say that this changed my opinion of him, but he was great in this film. Josh & I celebrated our nine year anniversary of the day we met with a movie day. Using 3 gift cards, discounted movie tickets and one free ticket we were able to see 4 movies (Unknown, Hall Pass, Gnomeo & Juliet and No Strings Attached) for no money out of pocket. This month we also saw The King's Speech which was incredible and even though Josh initially thought it sounded boring and didn't want to see it, he ended up loving it and we both agreed that it definitely deserved all the Oscars it won.

January update

January was full of lots of time off due to increasingly worse sciatica pain. It started the first week with pain the the back of my left thigh, went away for a week or so, and then came back with a full fledged lower back all the way down the left leg vengeance. :( Thankfully rest, alternating heat & ice, physical therapy and prayer has done wonders. While I am not pain free yet, I seem to be on my way with less pain each day and more mobility as well.

For my books goals, I additionally decided to set a goal of reading 100 books this year. This was inspired by Goodreads.com and I figured since I had read 73 books last year that 100 was a reasonable goal. So far, I have finished reading Brave New World (very disturbing, but also amazingly modern considering it was written so long ago), I am beginning book 4 of the Anne of Green Gables series, and have started slowly reading Vanity Fair through DailyLit.com.

Due to cooking much less because of pain when standing, I haven't been able to try as many new recipes as I would have liked. I had intended to try my hand at Indian food last weekend, but made due with pizza. I will try again once better though. :) I did try a new recipe called Green Chile Roll-ups at my Princess House party - it's quite simple, but was a big hit.

4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, softened
2 Tbsp. chopped green chiles
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
4 whole wheat tortillas (6 inch)
1/2 cup finely chopped red peppers
1/2 cup KRAFT Mexican Style 2% Milk Finely Shredded Four Cheese

MIX Neufchatel, chiles and cumin; spread onto tortillas. Top with remaining ingredients.
ROLL up tortillas tightly. Cut each crosswise into 5 slices.

I also created a new recipe based on something Josh's grandma had made for us once that I loved. Simply chicken, potato and carrot poached in chicken broth in the oven - but in my mind it was the most delicious thing ever! I've wanted to recreate it for a long time and finally decided to a few weeks ago. Both Josh & I loved it so much we had it twice in one week! I added a few ingredients and it is yummy!

Poached Chicken & Veggies in Garlic Lemon Broth

2 frozen chicken breasts
4 medium potatoes, peeled & quartered
4 carrots, peeled & quartered
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 sticks salted butter, sliced
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 can chicken broth
Dash of pepper

Preheat oven to 375

Pour lemon juice and chicken broth into a 13x9 baking dish. Add chopped garlic and stir around. Add chicken, flipping over once so that liquid gets on both sides. Add veggies. Place slices of butter all over veggies and chicken and then add fresh ground pepper. Place in oven and cook for 25 minutes. Flip chicken breasts and cook another 25 minutes. Flip chicken breasts again and check veggies to see if tender. If not done, cook another 20 minutes. Serve in pasta bowls with liquid over chicken and veggies – DELICIOUS!


This month I also continued a tradition of watching the film version of classic literature I've finished reading. I read Anna Karenina last year and finally watched the Russian version this weekend. It covered the main drama and conveniently cut out all the boring (to me) descriptions of farming, Russian politics, etc. I did this last year after reading Wuthering Heights and rewatching my favorite interpretation of that film starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. Upon completing Vanity Fair I will likely watch the Reese Witherspoon version. This reminds me that I need to watch the Michelle Pfeiffer version of The Age of Innocence since I read that book last year as well.

I also decided to embark of a film studies class of sorts by watching some of the films that caught my eye from the Film Studies Reserve items in the library. In January I watched Lost in Translation (slow, but touching) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (weird and quirky but lovely - though it gave me super disturbing dreams).

2011 Goals

These are a few of the things that I would like to accomplish this year. I may not get to all of them, but I'm hopeful that it is not too daunting of a list.

1. Find time to paint and/or do art projects
2. Finish reading the Bible
3. Read the following books - Chronicles of Narnia series, The Catcher in the Rye, War & Peace, Brave New World, Vanity Fair and the Anne of Green Gables series
4. Unpack at least half the boxes in our garage
5. Organize & file all important papers and clean up desk
6. Try at least 3 new recipes each month
7. Visit Josh's family, and some of mine, on vacation in May/June
8. Hang curtains in our house to replace ratty metal blinds
9. Mail Christmas cards with letter & picture by beginning of December
10. Take a trip with my best friend
11. Write on my blog at least once a month

Goal completed!

It took me until December 31 in the late afternoon, but I was able to complete my goal of reading a book for each letter of the alphabet in 2010. I'm glad that I did this as it allowed me the opportunity to read some books that, while I did intend to read them eventually, were very thought-provoking and interesting.

Here's my list of books I've read this past year from A to Z. If you check out my Good Reads profile ( http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/107921?shelf=2010-books-a-z ) you can see how I rated them and if I wrote a review. In total I read 73 books in 2010 - most were really good, and some I absolutely loved.

A ~ Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

B ~ Burning the map by Laura Caldwell

C ~ Certain girls by Jennifer Weiner

D ~ The dirt on clean: an unsanitized history by Katherine Ashenburg

E ~ An embarrassment of mangoes: a Caribbean interlude by Ann Vanderhoof

F ~ The Frugal Gourmet keeps the feast: past, present & future by Jeff Smith

G ~ Grace under pressure: Grey's Anatomy uncovered by Hillary Robson

H ~ The host by Stephenie Meyer

I ~ Insatiable: tales from a life of delicious excess by Gael Greene

J ~ The joy of doing things badly: a girl's guide to love, life & foolish bravery by Veronica Chambers

K ~ Kings of Madison Avenue: the unofficial guide to Mad Men by Jesse McLean

L ~ Love and other impossible pursuits by Ayelet Waldman

M ~ The mermaids singing by Lisa Carey

N ~ The next thing on my list by Jill Smolinski

O ~ Orange is the new black: my year in a women's prison by Piper Kerman

P ~ Pretty in plaid: a life, a witch, and a wardrobe, or the wonder years before the condescending, egomanical, self-centered smart-ass phase by Jen Lancaster

Q ~ Queen of babble by Meg Cabot

R ~ Rachel's holiday by Marian Keyes

S ~ Serenity found: more unauthorized essays on Joss Whedon's Firefly universe by Jane Espenson

T ~ The time traveler's wife by Audrey Niffenegger

U ~ Unbearable lightness by Portia de Rossi

V ~ The virgin suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

W ~ What we eat when we eat alone by Deborah Madison

X ~ Exes and ohs by Beth Kendrick

Y ~ A year in the world: journeys of a passionate traveller by Frances Mayes

Z ~ The zookeeper's wife: a war story by Diane Ackerman

Books A to Z

I was referencing my GoodReads list the other day and was happy to see that finally my list of books I've read is bigger than the list of books I want to read. I really enjoy the ability to keep a growing list of books I have read, that I'm currently reading and that I want to read. But it always seems that for every book I read, there are at least 2 to 3 more books added to my to-read list. You should check out the website, and if you join - add me as a friend! :) www.goodreads.com

A new thing they offer is statistics measuring how many books you've read each year. So far this year I've read 61 books. I started to wonder if I'd read a book for each letter of the alphabet. And if not, how many more would I need to read in order to read books from A to Z. So, I made an Excel spreadsheet and found that I was missing 9 books - D, N, O, Q, U, V, X, Y, and Z. I looked through my to-read list and found books to correspond with each missing letter and my plan to is to read them before the end of the year.

I'll post my full list at the end of the year, or when I complete my goal, but for now here is the list of books I need to read in the next 2 months.

D - The dirt on clean by Katherine Ashenbury
N - The next thing on my list by Jill Smolinski
O - Orange is the new black by Piper Kerman
Q - Queen of babble by Meg Cabot
U - The unprejudiced palate by Angelo Pellegrini
V - The virgin suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
X - Exes and ohs by Beth Kendrick
Y - A year in the world by Frances Mayes
Z - The zookeeper's wife by Diane Ackerman

Hopefully I can make it...we'll see. :)