Birthday Fun

Probably my favorite thing about birthdays is having the chance to catch up with people - I always appreciate the phone calls and messages--just great opportunities to visit. :)

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This year for my birthday . . .

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I got beautiful flowers from a very good and dear friend--thank you!I thought that there wouldn't be a better way to spend it than with my two favorite people. Since Rob had school, Guy and I went down to Provo for lunch. We ate at Stan's, an old hamburger joint on 9th East. Lunch was good, though I did miss the fabulous limeaid I was hoping for (under their new-to-me management they now put one slice of lime in Sprite and call it good).
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Rob actually had a two and 1/2 hour break between his classes, so we had lots of time to just be together. It was a beautiful day (what might have been the last this year) and I thouroughly enjoyed our visit.

We left Guy at home with Eden (thanks, again!) in the evening and we enjoyed a dinner and dessert (of course) at The Cheescake Factory. Wow, do I love their Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake!

Oh, and birthdays were low-key on our starving student budget this year - but Rob did surprise me with two pairs of nice earrings that he picked out himself. :)

BYU game and lots of other random stuff

I'm glad that I take lots of photos - it helps me remember that we are up to things. I feel like I've been wracking my mind for something exciting (or at least readable) to post. I've kind of been working on a write up of the need many people have for cell phone etiquette, but we'll see if I can make it worth posting at some point. In the meantime . . .

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Yesterday we went to the football game, so I took some photos with the camera that's always in the diaper bag, and today I realized I do have some stuff to put up, so here goes.

Our first BYU game with Guy (and our last, for a long long time, sadly).

I thought he'd love seeing all the people and just soak it all in. Instead, he spent all 15 minutes that he spent in the stands like this - or actually worse (screaming). I wish I could say it was because he was teething or something like that, but he hated the noise and let us (and everybody else around us) know.Out by the gate he was happy.

This is from when we were heading to Delaware. Good thing he was so good on the way out, or maybe I would have been tempted to bring him home like this. Even though he doesn't like football games, he's a great traveler, and I'd take that any day, so no complaints here. If he can put it in his mouth, he will. Guy sure loves chewing on anything and everything. He does have one bottom tooth in and another will break through soon, probably. I'm glad he's taking his time with his teeth, from what I understand it makes nursing a lot less painful. With his great grandpa (where some of his Mexican blood comes from).

Guy feeding himself sweet potatoes

He loved them - and won, apparently
Nap time gone wrong.

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One kind of fussy teething day as a last resort I put Guy in his car seat, covered it with a blanket, and rocked him with my foot as I read. He fell asleep fast, but then after about 20 minutes he stirred a little. Without looking down I started rocking him. He stopped stirring and but I kept rocking for about 10 more minutes and finally looked down. Here's what I expected to see:

This is what I found.

At least he was happy.

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Lastly, here he is, just playing on the bed one day.

What Do YOU Think?

Way back in May of 1998 (yes, I'm dating myself--I'll be 31 at the end of this month!), I was a contestant on The Price is Right. Yeah, we're talking the old school one--with Bob Barker. Don't get too excited though, I didn't win the Showcase Showdown. In fact, it seems that my whole appearance was a little bit dissapointing to a certain someone we'll call "X," for now.

As we're waiting in line to get in the studio, my fellow BYU Writing Center employees talked strategy for when someone gets called down, and the only thing I picked up from that was to bid $1 higher than the last bid. So yes, I was that jerk. However, that strategy works - and gets you as far as the stage. But then I messed up big time (according to X)--I didn't kiss Bob Barker. Oops. What's one more set of lips on that heavily made up face?

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Then even worse, I didn't win my game. It was Barker's Bargain Game. There was a daybed and a scooter - both were priced low, and I had to guess which one was the better deal. I guessed wrong--as most people have if they've see the rerun (X admitted that he guessed wrong, too).

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Then there was the wheel . . . there, I spun for a grand total of 25 cents. Yep, that was a dime first, and 15 cents next. They don't give you that in your price winnings, but if I had a quarter for every time somebody asked about that or made fun of it, I would have at least $5 by now.

So, I bid $1 higher than one guy a couple times (and he never got on stage the whole game), I failed to kiss Bob, and I spun the wheel twice for a total of 25 cents. What was so great about being a contestant on The Price is Right, you ask?

I DID win these dishes!

Okay, okay, so I'll admit that they are are UGGG-LY, but if I mention that this five piece setting serves eight, and was accompanied by matching boating house canisters, a pitcher shaped as a bookshelf, a cookie jar that also belongs on the wharf, 5 serving dishes, and salt and pepper dispensers shaped as a trophy and a small sailboat, does it get any better?

It was all for the grand price of $565. My first thoughts? I can't believe somebody would pay for these. Later, I realized, nobody probably did--they were probably donated to the show because they'd been sitting on a store shelf for way to long.

I've used these dishes some . . . in college I pulled them out for big meals (we had nothing else that matched and served that many people). When I moved to Delaware, I didn't have any dishes but these, so I took them there (just the table settings--I didn't even haul it all out there), and used them all the time until I got married.

So now, after all these years, X wants to get rid of these dishes (I know, it's obvious who X is when you think about it). When I object, the next suggestion is to save one setting and trash the rest. I'm thinking no on that one too. They are kind of fun dishes, but only because of the story, I admit.

I'm thinking that someday I'll send these off with Guy to college, or something like that. Really, can you/do you blame me for wanting to keep them?

Park City Fun

Last night we met some friends up in Park City. After eating Mexican we had a unique and very fun opportunity--our friend Wendy is working at a museum in Park City. The museum is on Main Street, and since she's been working there it has been under rennovation. It's opening to the public again soon - and if you like museums at all, this is a fun one that I would recommend if you're up in Park City.

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I don't know what it looked like before, but I think it's pretty amazing now. It's all about the history of Park City (mining is a big part of the history, but there were a lot of other things covered in the museum, too). We went through it all pretty quickly, but I could have spent a lot more time there. Here are some fun parts that we caught photos of.This was an old ski lift--it actually traveled through a mining shaft to get to the top of the mountain--that was pretty interesting to me.The basement of the museum used to be the city jail. One honeymooning couple spent most of their first night being married there (while it was still a jail)?!?!?!

Guy's First Beach Trip

One of the last days that we were in Delaware we took the opportunity to go to the beach. Rob's not a big fan of sand, but I love being out there, hearing the waves and just relaxing. I thought it would be fun to take Guy. It wasn't until we got there that we realized what a new and different experience it would be for Guy. There were quite a few waves coming in that day (for an east coast beach), and the roaring water was pretty loud. The sand was something entirely new to him, too. So, it was not exactly the experience that we expected, but eventually Guy warmed up to it--so much so that he started eating sand.

More of Delaware

Guy and his cousin Owen - Owen's a natural as he speeds around in this fun little tractor.
Guy and his uncle Ed - a Delaware State Trooper

One Friday we went to the Franklin Institute. There was a small mirror maze in one of the areas. It was Guy's favorite part of the institute - I took him back through for a second run since he got such a kick out of it.After the Franklin Institute, we went to Dave & Busters.Amidst all the noise (it's a huge arcade . . . like an adult-sized Chuck E Cheese), Guy was able to sleep, thankfully - he REALLY needed that nap (he had had a very rough teething day).
Guy and Abuela-he loved spending time outside with her (in the evening, when it was cooler)

While we were visiting, we hit our 2 year anniversary. That evening Rob's parents were able to watch Guy while we went out to dinner at a pub in Dover. Dinner was good, and we had a nice view of this lake from our booth.

Just a few more

So, while playing with the super nice camera, I took many many photos - here are a few more of my favorites

Flashback Moment

While we were out in DE, Rob's mom took some time to go through some of Rob's old stuff, with the intent of finding some of the books he read as a kid. While she did find some books, she also found this little treasure

Rob LOVED Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so much growing up! He saved "turtle points" off the boxes of every TMNT toy he got, and got this jacket with the points.

More of the trip

Okay, maybe I'll never get it all up. But here's me, trying, at least.

Most of our three weeks out in Delaware we spent with Rob's family. We did a lot of hanging out, some cooking, and lots of playing with Rob's new birthday present from his family - Rock Band. It's fun - I like it more than I thought I would. And it should come in the mail today (hopefully), so we'll be playing much more of that again soon.

Aside from that family time, we took a little time to visit some of my friends. One weekend we went to DC and Wilmington/Newark and gracious friends of mine from college (thanks again Cindy & Bryan) put us up on Friday night, and Saturday we spent the evening with some friends from our old ward in DE. It was a great time catching up with people, introducing them all to Guy, and just visiting.

While we were in DC, after meeting other friends for breakfast on Saturday morning, we went to the Smithsonian for a few hours before heading North again.


Saturday morning at IHOP - Guy thinks he's so ready for "real" food that he tried to eat pictures of it.


Bryan & Cindy and their cute boys - they actually introduced us to teething tablets -- I actually just got some for Guy yesterday, and they are seeming to work pretty well - yea!

Guy's first time playing in the rain (with his cousin, Kori)- when it wasn't hot and muggy, it seemed to be raining. It was fun to watch Guy's reactions to the thunder and lightning


He had a great time, that is until he was down on the ground - I think that scared him a little

Some of our visit out East

Friday, August 7th, Rob, Guy, and I flew out to Philly, coming to visit Rob's family. We were there for about 3 weeks. Here are a few photos of our visit to start out my record keeping. Guy did really well on the airplane - both ways. He slept for the first 2.5 hours on the way, and on the way back, the best treat ever was that there were extra seats around, so the flight attendant invited the lady in our row to move and give us all more room. What a treat that was! Guy slept well on the way home, too.

One morning I borrowed my father-in-law's awesome camera and snapped some fun photos of Guy. Recently he's started sitting up on his own, and he's already got pretty good balance.

Calzone Recipe

Here's our recipe for calzones (or as much of one as we've got)

Pizza Dough (for 2-3 pizzas)

1 T yeast in 1/4 cup warm water (proof with a little bit of sugar, too)

Combine in your mixer:
1/4 c. olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 T sugar
1 c. very warm water

Add one cup of flour to above and mix.

Add the bubbling yeast and mix.

Add 3 cups of flour to make a good STIFF dough.

Knead well. If by hand - for about 10 min; by machine - about 8 (and really, it does take that long to mix it well).

Let dough rise in a warm spot in a greased bowl for an hour to 1.5 hours (or until the dough is doubled).

For the calzones . . . this dough recipe makes four very good sized calzones. A tip about rolling out the dough - make sure it's pretty thin. We tried it thick the first time, and thin the second time - we both thought it tasted better the second time.

For calzone stuffing . . . Rob and I like doing them so much because we like very different stuff. It's kind of fun to build your own, and everyone can put whatever then want in it.

We put in:
Ricotta cheese
Mozarella cheese
pepperoni
sausage
green peppers
onions
mushrooms
minced garlic
salt and pepper

In a small bowl (on the side), beat 1 egg and 1 T water together

There are two ways of putting it all together - Rob layered his like a pizza, I mixed mine in a bowl (wanted to make sure the garlic was spread evenly).

After you put the toppings on - use the egg and water mix around the edges of the calzone. Then fold the dough over and pinch the edges together (to keep the moisture inside). If you want to mark them on top (to identify who they go to), do so now.

Brush the entire top of the calzone with the egg/water mixture, too.

Bake at 425 for 10-15 min (until golden brown)

After baking - We topped ours with spaghetti sauce from a bottle (yeah, we cheated), and some parmesan cheese)

A tip - while putting them together - we rolled the dough, then put it 1/2 on the pan it was cooked on (with the other 1/2 flowing off the side) - this was so we didn't have to transfer it to the pan after it was made. And you can use a pizza pan or a cookie sheet for baking.

Enjoy!!!

. . . so it seems many of my recipes come from my sister, Bethany (the pizza dough on this one comes from her, too). Thanks!