Two years after my last post, we have a two-year-old, and we're looking for houses again! I post about Micah on Facebook, so in this blog entry I'll just focus on the house saga.
Grandma will eventually need to be moved into an assisted care facility, although we are not sure when, so we have been exploring housing options off and on. Last weekend we found a house. Actually, we found 3 houses. We had a terrible time deciding which one to put an offer on. Stephen loved this house, I loved that house, we both liked this house...
After asking for advice from various places, we ended up going with the one we both liked. It seemed to be the best compromise. We offered asking price if they paid closing costs. They counter-offered us $1000 over asking price and up to $3000 closing costs. After another tortuous decision-making time, we decided to take the offer.
Then we got the paperwork for the roof, and found out it's a 10-year roof that has been there for 17 years. (We were told it was a 25-year roof and had been on there for 5 years... >:-/ ) Stephen got cold feet and wanted to back out, but our realtor convinced him to do the inspections and find out what exactly we're dealing with. So we have two roof inspectors coming next week who can also quote us the cost of replacing it if necessary, in addition to the general house inspection later that week.
And that's where we're at.
The house is a 3-bedroom, 2 bath house built in the 70s with a great-sized, totally fenced, private back yard. The kitchen is really nice and the house has overall been kept in really good shape. The bedrooms are kind of small. The big detractor is that the roof is flat. Well, it slopes up a little and then is flat. Not a great choice for a place where it rains half the year. Those 60s/70s homebuilders... Sometimes I just wonder what was going on in their heads. BUT other than the roof, it's a nice house.
The other thing about the house is that it is a 40+ minute commute to Stephen's work. Right now he has a 25-minute commute. This is going to be a problem with any of the houses we are looking at; we got priced out of the big metropolitan hub. Stephen is looking for jobs closer, but we may just have to deal with the long commute.
Friday, July 29, 2016
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Living With Less
One thing living half-moved in to a house has taught me is that I CAN live with less. One area I have noticed this so far is linens. How many towels, washcloths, blankets, sheets and pillowcases does a couple actually need? Not as many as we have, obviously, because several of our towels are still out in our garage wrapped around framed photographs and have been for almost 2 months now. And still we manage to dry ourselves off every day after our showers. Most of our blankets we never use--not even in winter. Why do we have so many? And I don't even know where the rest of our pillowcases are. I know we have a couple dozen, mostly mine, but I only know where about 8 of them are! We'll need even less when this pregnancy is over and I don't pad myself on all sides with pillows every night.
Clothes is another area I've noticed I can live with less in, although partly that's because I don't really care how I look right now. What 9-months-pregnant woman does? What is fascinating, though, is that I am way more apt to throw my clothes in the hamper when they start smelling...less than prime...than I was when I had so many shirts to choose from. I think it's because I realize I have fewer options once things do get dirty. With my other clothes, I was like, "Oh, this probably needs a wash. Oh well. I have 2 dozen other shirts to choose from." And I'd throw the shirt back into the drawer. And now when the clothes are IN the hamper, I'm of course more likely to get the laundry done, because, good grief, I only have 3 shirts left! So it's been very interesting seeing how having less in general affects how I live day to day. It's a good change. I hope I can hang onto it and use it to motivate me to thin out my non-maternity clothes.
I can do a similar thinning out of the baby stuff I've received. I know they dirty things up a lot more, but I really like this extra motivation to do the laundry when something is dirty and I want to incorporate it into every area of life. I got so many crib sheets for my shower that I think I can at least start there.
I can't wait to apply this to other places. Maybe there is hope for someone like me after all. :)
-Stephanie
Clothes is another area I've noticed I can live with less in, although partly that's because I don't really care how I look right now. What 9-months-pregnant woman does? What is fascinating, though, is that I am way more apt to throw my clothes in the hamper when they start smelling...less than prime...than I was when I had so many shirts to choose from. I think it's because I realize I have fewer options once things do get dirty. With my other clothes, I was like, "Oh, this probably needs a wash. Oh well. I have 2 dozen other shirts to choose from." And I'd throw the shirt back into the drawer. And now when the clothes are IN the hamper, I'm of course more likely to get the laundry done, because, good grief, I only have 3 shirts left! So it's been very interesting seeing how having less in general affects how I live day to day. It's a good change. I hope I can hang onto it and use it to motivate me to thin out my non-maternity clothes.
I can do a similar thinning out of the baby stuff I've received. I know they dirty things up a lot more, but I really like this extra motivation to do the laundry when something is dirty and I want to incorporate it into every area of life. I got so many crib sheets for my shower that I think I can at least start there.
I can't wait to apply this to other places. Maybe there is hope for someone like me after all. :)
-Stephanie
Saturday, May 24, 2014
2013-2014: Year of New Things
The last year or so has meant a lot of new things for us.
Back in November 2012, I lost my job as a Saturday flower delivery driver thanks to new management at the shop I worked at. I decided it was a good time to pursue floral design at other shops. In January 2013, I offered myself as extra holiday help at a shop down the road from our apartment and let them know I was interested in a part-time job in design in general. They hired me for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, and after that hired me on part-time as a designer and driver. The first 6 months were hard as I tried to learn everything and become a better designer, and Christmas was utterly exhausting--my first 46 hour work week! But by 2014 I was feeling really comfortable there and incredibly overwhelmed with gratitude for a good job and good coworkers and good hours. It has been such a blessing and answer to prayer in so many ways.
Come June, though, I will be leaving, at least temporarily, to start a new phase of life: motherhood.
Stephen and I took a giant leap of faith and went off birth control back in September. We were still in a dingy, dirty two-bedroom apartment that was, for all intents and purposes, a 1-bedroom apartment with a storage room that could absolutely not be a baby room unless something major changed.
But the Lord had His say, and we got pregnant in October, with a baby boy. So we began another crazy journey: house-hunting for the first time in our lives. Our budget was ridiculously small, but we were bound and determined to find a new home for this baby to live. We searched the furthest ends of the suburbs around here for an affordable house that was also functional and safe. There were some possibilities, and we even made an offer on one house, but the owners countered our offer and in the short time we had to decide what to do, we came to the agreement that it just was not right.
Completely discouraged by the hunt, we stopped house hunting for a while and pursued other, better apartments. In the meantime, trying to be prepared for the worst, we bought a storage unit to move in all of our stuff from the second bedroom. It was amazing the freedom that afforded--our apartment would have been finally livable!
But the Lord had better plans. In March, Stephen's grandma came to us and offered up a suggestion for consideration. She had a large house with a large master bedroom in it that could be turned into an apartment suitable to her with the installation of a kitchenette. She would live there and we could have the rest of the house.
She left it open for us to decide, but the decision seemed pretty clear. This felt right. So after some talking about how it might work, we gave Grandma the go-ahead to begin constructing her back bedroom into an apartment.
Well, our lease at the apartment ended before everything could be perfected and ready, but we scooped out a place for our bed and Grandma's bed and started working together on readying the house. It is still rather chaotic, but we all make slow progress on getting settled every day. The baby at this point still does not have a room, but he does have a cradle in our room to stay in for the first few months, which would have been the plan anyway.
I absolutely love Grandma's neighborhood that we live in. It is exactly the kind of neighborhood a family can feel comfortable in. We have way, way more than we were ever hoping for while we were exploring other options. God is truly amazing and we are truly blessed, and our little boy will be, too.
Back in November 2012, I lost my job as a Saturday flower delivery driver thanks to new management at the shop I worked at. I decided it was a good time to pursue floral design at other shops. In January 2013, I offered myself as extra holiday help at a shop down the road from our apartment and let them know I was interested in a part-time job in design in general. They hired me for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, and after that hired me on part-time as a designer and driver. The first 6 months were hard as I tried to learn everything and become a better designer, and Christmas was utterly exhausting--my first 46 hour work week! But by 2014 I was feeling really comfortable there and incredibly overwhelmed with gratitude for a good job and good coworkers and good hours. It has been such a blessing and answer to prayer in so many ways.
Come June, though, I will be leaving, at least temporarily, to start a new phase of life: motherhood.
Stephen and I took a giant leap of faith and went off birth control back in September. We were still in a dingy, dirty two-bedroom apartment that was, for all intents and purposes, a 1-bedroom apartment with a storage room that could absolutely not be a baby room unless something major changed.
But the Lord had His say, and we got pregnant in October, with a baby boy. So we began another crazy journey: house-hunting for the first time in our lives. Our budget was ridiculously small, but we were bound and determined to find a new home for this baby to live. We searched the furthest ends of the suburbs around here for an affordable house that was also functional and safe. There were some possibilities, and we even made an offer on one house, but the owners countered our offer and in the short time we had to decide what to do, we came to the agreement that it just was not right.
Completely discouraged by the hunt, we stopped house hunting for a while and pursued other, better apartments. In the meantime, trying to be prepared for the worst, we bought a storage unit to move in all of our stuff from the second bedroom. It was amazing the freedom that afforded--our apartment would have been finally livable!
But the Lord had better plans. In March, Stephen's grandma came to us and offered up a suggestion for consideration. She had a large house with a large master bedroom in it that could be turned into an apartment suitable to her with the installation of a kitchenette. She would live there and we could have the rest of the house.
She left it open for us to decide, but the decision seemed pretty clear. This felt right. So after some talking about how it might work, we gave Grandma the go-ahead to begin constructing her back bedroom into an apartment.
Well, our lease at the apartment ended before everything could be perfected and ready, but we scooped out a place for our bed and Grandma's bed and started working together on readying the house. It is still rather chaotic, but we all make slow progress on getting settled every day. The baby at this point still does not have a room, but he does have a cradle in our room to stay in for the first few months, which would have been the plan anyway.
I absolutely love Grandma's neighborhood that we live in. It is exactly the kind of neighborhood a family can feel comfortable in. We have way, way more than we were ever hoping for while we were exploring other options. God is truly amazing and we are truly blessed, and our little boy will be, too.
Monday, May 12, 2014
Two Important Things Learned From Marriage
A long, LONG time ago, my sister-in-law Kaile wrote a blog about 6 things she had learned in her first 6 months of marriage: http://aspects-of-me.blogspot.com/2014/02/6-things-learned-from-6-months-of.html
I enjoyed reading it and was inspired to write a similar blog
reflecting on my 5 years of marriage and hoped to draw an equivalent 5
things out.
Well, I came up with two. Very hard ones. And had to stop there because it made me realize that there is a lot more hard learning that I still have to do. I'm not saying that marriage is only hard lessons, but in marriage there is an awful lot of self-sacrifice, which for Christians is simultaneously the most difficult and most necessary lesson we will have to learn.
The tough lesson of self-sacrifice comes even more into play when two become three, and marriage becomes not just marriage but parenting--which is the milestone Steve and I will be hitting in the next 5-6 weeks when our little guy enters the world.
So I figured I better post what I've got before Baby Boy arrives and I have a whole new phase of self-sacrifice to learn and it's even harder to finish things I've started. :)
So here are two of the most important lessons I've learned in my 5 years of marriage.
1. Communicate, even when it's hard. This was a hard one for me to learn. I grew up believing with all my heart that negative emotions should not be shared with others. And that conflicts were best handled by not handling them at all. To say that my husband did not grow up believing these things would be an understatement. Our worst, longest, most brutal nights in our first years consisted of a horrible cycle: I got upset, I shut my mouth, Stephen tried to pry everything out of me, and the harder he pried, the deeper I dove into anger, pain, silence, and resentment at him for prying.
To this day, when through a conversation my deepest negative emotions are brought to the surface for all to see, I'm still reminded of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when Aslan takes his claws to Eustace's scaly exterior and removes his layers upon layers of dragon skin. It is an extremely painful experience for Eustace. And so extremely necessary.
While it's hard to face my own ugliness, God has given Stephen an amazing capacity to forgive, fully and without any consequences. That forgiveness, I have learned, is SO much healthier in a relationship than simple conflict avoidance.
2. The difference between heat and thorns. This is one I first learned from a counselor (Steve Green from Impact Biblical Counseling), and marriage became my platform for putting it into practice. It is tied to Jesus' teaching from Mark 7:20-23, where he says, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” To paraphrase Steve Green in his article "The Gospel Makes a Difference": You aren't angry at your spouse because they "made" you angry. You are angry at them because deep down inside you have anger. In metaphorical terms, your spouse's words or action are the heat that was applied to you--but the thorns that came to the surface in you were already there. The heat just brought them out. And the solution is to turn to the Cross in repentance for your thorns, and let Christ do His work to heal you from them.
This is not to say that your spouse has no thorns of his or her own. For every fallen human being, thorns are a given! But what we've learned is that it is not your job to make your spouse repent of his or her thorns. That is the Holy Spirit's job. Our job is to continually turn back to Christ to heal us from our own thorns, and to pray and trust the Holy Spirit to work on each other's thorns.
Well, I came up with two. Very hard ones. And had to stop there because it made me realize that there is a lot more hard learning that I still have to do. I'm not saying that marriage is only hard lessons, but in marriage there is an awful lot of self-sacrifice, which for Christians is simultaneously the most difficult and most necessary lesson we will have to learn.
The tough lesson of self-sacrifice comes even more into play when two become three, and marriage becomes not just marriage but parenting--which is the milestone Steve and I will be hitting in the next 5-6 weeks when our little guy enters the world.
So I figured I better post what I've got before Baby Boy arrives and I have a whole new phase of self-sacrifice to learn and it's even harder to finish things I've started. :)
So here are two of the most important lessons I've learned in my 5 years of marriage.
1. Communicate, even when it's hard. This was a hard one for me to learn. I grew up believing with all my heart that negative emotions should not be shared with others. And that conflicts were best handled by not handling them at all. To say that my husband did not grow up believing these things would be an understatement. Our worst, longest, most brutal nights in our first years consisted of a horrible cycle: I got upset, I shut my mouth, Stephen tried to pry everything out of me, and the harder he pried, the deeper I dove into anger, pain, silence, and resentment at him for prying.
To this day, when through a conversation my deepest negative emotions are brought to the surface for all to see, I'm still reminded of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when Aslan takes his claws to Eustace's scaly exterior and removes his layers upon layers of dragon skin. It is an extremely painful experience for Eustace. And so extremely necessary.
While it's hard to face my own ugliness, God has given Stephen an amazing capacity to forgive, fully and without any consequences. That forgiveness, I have learned, is SO much healthier in a relationship than simple conflict avoidance.
2. The difference between heat and thorns. This is one I first learned from a counselor (Steve Green from Impact Biblical Counseling), and marriage became my platform for putting it into practice. It is tied to Jesus' teaching from Mark 7:20-23, where he says, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” To paraphrase Steve Green in his article "The Gospel Makes a Difference": You aren't angry at your spouse because they "made" you angry. You are angry at them because deep down inside you have anger. In metaphorical terms, your spouse's words or action are the heat that was applied to you--but the thorns that came to the surface in you were already there. The heat just brought them out. And the solution is to turn to the Cross in repentance for your thorns, and let Christ do His work to heal you from them.
This is not to say that your spouse has no thorns of his or her own. For every fallen human being, thorns are a given! But what we've learned is that it is not your job to make your spouse repent of his or her thorns. That is the Holy Spirit's job. Our job is to continually turn back to Christ to heal us from our own thorns, and to pray and trust the Holy Spirit to work on each other's thorns.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Summer 2012
Our summer has been surprisingly eventful, particularly toward the end. In July, we went on a vacation to the Washington coast with Stephen's parents and alllllll his siblings, including Mary and Tim and their two little ones, and also Cari's boyfriend, Eric. We just spent a week at a resort town in the process of development, walking on the beach, hanging out and playing games at the house, swimming in the pool and relaxing in the hot tub. We each took turns cooking dinner. We had some very tasty steak-and-veggie kabobs by Cari and Eric, a yummy Mexican meal by Tim and Mary, and Stephen and I made spaghetti. It was a very relaxing, laid-back vacation all together.
Shortly after the family vacation, Stephen shot his first paid wedding gig. There is a lot invested in wedding days, so he was under a lot of stress leading up to the wedding day, and also some in the photo editing phase as well. But he finished it, and the couple was very, very pleased with the photos, for which we are very thankful.
In August, one of my college friends got married, so I flew down to Idaho and stayed with my aunt, uncle, and cousin and attended Mindy's wedding, which was butterfly garden themed--very pretty! They put a lot of humorous personal touches to their ceremony and the reception was one big, fun party, complete with a photo booth and props. :) I got to catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones and had a really good weekend all together. I am really glad I got to go.
My car's A/C stopped working sometime earlier this year, and we finally took it to get checked out in August, and found out we had to get a new part and the whole thing had to be reassembled. God graciously provided the money for us, and we fixed it toward the end of August. In the same month, I had to get a new car key, because the buttons on my remote-entry car key didn't work anymore! And today I got into a rear-end car accident (I was rear-ended by a car who was rear-ended by a car), but I'm not hurt at all and the damage to my car is very minimal. The accident was not my fault at all, so insurance will be taking care of everything.
We've had an Indian summer this September, with temperatures in the high 80s and 90s. I think the weather is trying to make up for the very cold and dark beginning of summer we had! For now I am totally okay with sunshiny weather....I know those cold dark days are coming again!
Our church got a new music pastor, an answer to prayer after 3 years of searching for the right person. Our church is now able to do so much more music-wise than we were before, because our temporary worship leader was doing so much other work in his position as Communications Director. Now at our women's Bible study, Mark (the new worship pastor) comes and leads us in worship with a guitar, and we don't have to sing off a CD! I am especially thankful for that.
Another answer to prayer is that Stephen got a nice raise this year, and we are so grateful for God's provision there! Now it is actually a possibility for us to move into a bigger apartment, although we won't be taking advantage of that just yet. For now it does ease up our budget some, and we'll hopefully be able to start putting more money toward debt repayment.
Overall, I think this year has been an incredible year of growth for us and our marriage. I've grown in my faith in leaps and bounds, and as I've spiritually matured, I'm maturing in other ways. Praise God for His faithfulness! I sense good changes coming up for us. I'm hoping to find my niche in the church we attend, although I'm not sure what that is yet. And Stephen will be leading our regular small group Bible study again. This year we will probably be going through 1 Corinthians to go along with our pastor's sermon series. You can pray for us through that. We want to help our fellow brothers and sisters deepen their faith, as many of them are new Christians or just aren't sure how to grow deeper. So you can be praying especially for Stephen as he bears the responsibility of teacher, and for me as I try to figure out where I fit into the mix.
Those are the biggest pieces of news. Thank you for your prayers and your support! You don't know how much it helps. :)
Shortly after the family vacation, Stephen shot his first paid wedding gig. There is a lot invested in wedding days, so he was under a lot of stress leading up to the wedding day, and also some in the photo editing phase as well. But he finished it, and the couple was very, very pleased with the photos, for which we are very thankful.
In August, one of my college friends got married, so I flew down to Idaho and stayed with my aunt, uncle, and cousin and attended Mindy's wedding, which was butterfly garden themed--very pretty! They put a lot of humorous personal touches to their ceremony and the reception was one big, fun party, complete with a photo booth and props. :) I got to catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones and had a really good weekend all together. I am really glad I got to go.
My car's A/C stopped working sometime earlier this year, and we finally took it to get checked out in August, and found out we had to get a new part and the whole thing had to be reassembled. God graciously provided the money for us, and we fixed it toward the end of August. In the same month, I had to get a new car key, because the buttons on my remote-entry car key didn't work anymore! And today I got into a rear-end car accident (I was rear-ended by a car who was rear-ended by a car), but I'm not hurt at all and the damage to my car is very minimal. The accident was not my fault at all, so insurance will be taking care of everything.
We've had an Indian summer this September, with temperatures in the high 80s and 90s. I think the weather is trying to make up for the very cold and dark beginning of summer we had! For now I am totally okay with sunshiny weather....I know those cold dark days are coming again!
Our church got a new music pastor, an answer to prayer after 3 years of searching for the right person. Our church is now able to do so much more music-wise than we were before, because our temporary worship leader was doing so much other work in his position as Communications Director. Now at our women's Bible study, Mark (the new worship pastor) comes and leads us in worship with a guitar, and we don't have to sing off a CD! I am especially thankful for that.
Another answer to prayer is that Stephen got a nice raise this year, and we are so grateful for God's provision there! Now it is actually a possibility for us to move into a bigger apartment, although we won't be taking advantage of that just yet. For now it does ease up our budget some, and we'll hopefully be able to start putting more money toward debt repayment.
Overall, I think this year has been an incredible year of growth for us and our marriage. I've grown in my faith in leaps and bounds, and as I've spiritually matured, I'm maturing in other ways. Praise God for His faithfulness! I sense good changes coming up for us. I'm hoping to find my niche in the church we attend, although I'm not sure what that is yet. And Stephen will be leading our regular small group Bible study again. This year we will probably be going through 1 Corinthians to go along with our pastor's sermon series. You can pray for us through that. We want to help our fellow brothers and sisters deepen their faith, as many of them are new Christians or just aren't sure how to grow deeper. So you can be praying especially for Stephen as he bears the responsibility of teacher, and for me as I try to figure out where I fit into the mix.
Those are the biggest pieces of news. Thank you for your prayers and your support! You don't know how much it helps. :)
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Domestically Challenged
This is the story of me attempting a new quiche recipe tonight:
At the grocery store. What is WITH my cart?! It's making sounds like it is grinding rocks into sand!! HOW AWKWARD!! Stupid cart-grinder haunted me the entire 20 minutes I was in the store.
That's just the beginning.
Didn't know the difference between the creams. Recipe called for "light cream"; I picked up whipping cream? (My logic: Well, it doesn't say "light," but it doesn't say "heavy" like the one next to it!) Wasn't sure how much was required so I bought the pint just to be safe.
Bought fully-cooked bacon to save myself some trouble.
At home. Didn't double-check the amount of ingredients to add.
Heat up the oven to 425 degrees.
Minced an entire onion to DEATH, bound and determined to prove to myself that I can MINCE an onion! I still didn't do it to my satisfaction, nonetheless...
Started sprinkling it into the pie pan.
Realized that is WAY THE HECK too much onion!! Shook my head at the insanity of the onion-loving people who write these recipes.
Decided to use the second pie crust (WHY do they sell them only in twos??!?!!) and just make two quiches. I sure hope we like this recipe, because we're going to have a TON of it!
Tried to chop up already-cooked bacon, which was not nearly crisp enough to be chopped. Decided to just tear every piece by hand. Sprinkled half in one pie pan, half in the other. Knew it wasn't enough bacon per quiche, but decided it would just have to do.
Went back to the recipe.
Realized it only called for ONE THIRD OF AN ONION!!!! Not an entire onion!!!
Scooped out as much onion as I could without scooping out all the bacon. Realize the dough is getting way too soft because it's sitting on top of our oven, which is preheated by now.
Decided to start the filling part. Vaguely worry if we have enough eggs for two quiches. Find that we have exactly 8, which is exactly what is needed. Hallelujah! Cracked the eggs in a big bowl.
Went back to the recipe.
Realized it called for TWO CUPS of cream! That's all I had!
Frantic, stressed-out trying to figure out how to substitute because I'm already late and SO do not want to make another trip to Freddy's. Plus, now I had eight eggs not being refrigerated and two crusts threatening to melt on me!
And I wasn't even sure if I had the right cream!
Quick computer research to see if anything substitutes for light cream (thank You, God, for the Internet!). Decided that trying to melt butter was too much work. Quick computer research to see what light cream actually is. Half and half? Whoops! Oh well. I'm sure a little extra creaminess will do no harm to this quiche.
So I have to go back to the store. What to do about the partially-filled melting crusts and the perishing eggs?
Shove things aside in the fridge and put in the bowl of eggs.
Carefully balance two crusts in our over-full freezer. :S
Turn off oven. No fires for my apartment, thank you very much!
Back at the grocery store. Run in, grab a pint of half-and-half, use the self-check, run out.
Back at home. Turn oven back on. Pull out crusts (thank You, God, that they didn't fall out of the freezer onto the floor) and eggs. Pour cream and half and half into bowl of eggs. Add salt, sugar, cayenne pepper. Attempt to whisk. My arm!!
Take a knife to both cheeses, guesstimating how much of a chunk I'm going to need to make 1 c. of each kind. Grate, grate, grate, grate!! Dumped a chunk of swiss cheese on the floor. Used up the rest of the small pack of swiss--just barely enough for a cup!
Sprinkled in cheese.
Used a measuring cup to dole in cream mixture. Didn't use it all because they would've overflowed!!
Carefully. Carefully. Carefully. Place both quiches in oven.
PHEW!!!
Epic conclusion to the story:
I dropped one of the quiches SPLAT on the oven door as I was trying to pull it out.
Sigh.
It had to be coming, right?
At the grocery store. What is WITH my cart?! It's making sounds like it is grinding rocks into sand!! HOW AWKWARD!! Stupid cart-grinder haunted me the entire 20 minutes I was in the store.
That's just the beginning.
Didn't know the difference between the creams. Recipe called for "light cream"; I picked up whipping cream? (My logic: Well, it doesn't say "light," but it doesn't say "heavy" like the one next to it!) Wasn't sure how much was required so I bought the pint just to be safe.
Bought fully-cooked bacon to save myself some trouble.
At home. Didn't double-check the amount of ingredients to add.
Heat up the oven to 425 degrees.
Minced an entire onion to DEATH, bound and determined to prove to myself that I can MINCE an onion! I still didn't do it to my satisfaction, nonetheless...
Started sprinkling it into the pie pan.
Realized that is WAY THE HECK too much onion!! Shook my head at the insanity of the onion-loving people who write these recipes.
Decided to use the second pie crust (WHY do they sell them only in twos??!?!!) and just make two quiches. I sure hope we like this recipe, because we're going to have a TON of it!
Tried to chop up already-cooked bacon, which was not nearly crisp enough to be chopped. Decided to just tear every piece by hand. Sprinkled half in one pie pan, half in the other. Knew it wasn't enough bacon per quiche, but decided it would just have to do.
Went back to the recipe.
Realized it only called for ONE THIRD OF AN ONION!!!! Not an entire onion!!!
Scooped out as much onion as I could without scooping out all the bacon. Realize the dough is getting way too soft because it's sitting on top of our oven, which is preheated by now.
Decided to start the filling part. Vaguely worry if we have enough eggs for two quiches. Find that we have exactly 8, which is exactly what is needed. Hallelujah! Cracked the eggs in a big bowl.
Went back to the recipe.
Realized it called for TWO CUPS of cream! That's all I had!
Frantic, stressed-out trying to figure out how to substitute because I'm already late and SO do not want to make another trip to Freddy's. Plus, now I had eight eggs not being refrigerated and two crusts threatening to melt on me!
And I wasn't even sure if I had the right cream!
Quick computer research to see if anything substitutes for light cream (thank You, God, for the Internet!). Decided that trying to melt butter was too much work. Quick computer research to see what light cream actually is. Half and half? Whoops! Oh well. I'm sure a little extra creaminess will do no harm to this quiche.
So I have to go back to the store. What to do about the partially-filled melting crusts and the perishing eggs?
Shove things aside in the fridge and put in the bowl of eggs.
Carefully balance two crusts in our over-full freezer. :S
Turn off oven. No fires for my apartment, thank you very much!
Back at the grocery store. Run in, grab a pint of half-and-half, use the self-check, run out.
Back at home. Turn oven back on. Pull out crusts (thank You, God, that they didn't fall out of the freezer onto the floor) and eggs. Pour cream and half and half into bowl of eggs. Add salt, sugar, cayenne pepper. Attempt to whisk. My arm!!
Take a knife to both cheeses, guesstimating how much of a chunk I'm going to need to make 1 c. of each kind. Grate, grate, grate, grate!! Dumped a chunk of swiss cheese on the floor. Used up the rest of the small pack of swiss--just barely enough for a cup!
Sprinkled in cheese.
Used a measuring cup to dole in cream mixture. Didn't use it all because they would've overflowed!!
Carefully. Carefully. Carefully. Place both quiches in oven.
PHEW!!!
Epic conclusion to the story:
I dropped one of the quiches SPLAT on the oven door as I was trying to pull it out.
Sigh.
It had to be coming, right?
 | ||
| Perfect Quiche |
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| Unlucky Quiche |
Friday, June 24, 2011
Summer 2011 Update
Babies all around me! I have officially reached the stage of life where most of my friends are pregnant or new moms. Two of the couples in our small group had babies in the late winter, and the third couple is expecting in early to mid-September. We aren't entirely sure what is going to become of our group as the couples in it move to the next stage of life. My best friend is also expecting her first child in early October. I will hopefully get to see her in August when she has one of her baby showers!
Our own lives seem to be on hold until we reach a better financial position. We hear in August whether Stephen will be receiving a raise at his current job. I still work one day a week, Saturday, delivering flowers. I still love my job, but continue to look around for another part-time position that could fill my days and help with bills and saving up for a house.
Speaking of saving, I've begun saving up for an electric piano that regularly comes out toward the end of the year at CostCo. I took a fantastic piano workshop course that taught how to play the piano with chords instead of reading notes on a page--something I've been really anxious to learn since watching a college classmate play piano with a jazz band like it was nothing at all. I go up to my mom's to practice on her piano, but I can't wait until I have an electric piano of my own! I love to play the piano, even though I hate it when people listen...LOL. :)
My sister continues to serve the country on the east coast of the U.S., logging away airplane parts for the record books. She's also taking some dance classes. She's doing well, with the exception of some medical problems that keep surfacing. She's looking at deployment next year, which makes us nervous, of course...But we have to learn to trust God with our loved ones.
It's been a ridiculously cold and gray spring/summer on the west coast. We haven't had more than seven days above 70, and April and March were way wetter than normal. My husband keeps telling me summer never officially starts here until July 5th, but I sure am tired of the gray.
Stephen and I are part of the Marriage Ministry Team of our church, and we just put on a really fun murder mystery dessert theatre-- set in the wild, wild west! I got to play Annie Elmley, a sharpshooting cowgirl. I could almost have been the murderer, but it turned out to be the most seemingly innocuous character there! Isn't that always how it goes? :)
In the meantime, I continue to learn more and more about the Gospel. Did you know that the heart of the Gospel is simply Jesus' substitutionary sacrifice on the Cross? That that is how God dealt with His wrath against us for our sins? When I learned the truth of this, I was floored at the simplicity. I think I thought the Gospel was to be a good person to please God, and that Jesus somehow mysteriously enables us to do that. That is true, too, but it isn't the heart of the Gospel! Christianity is not about being a good person, but about the One who took our punishment.
I was part of a Women's Bible Study this winter/spring. I got to meet a lot of neat women at my church and am thankful to know more faces and names and personalities there. Countryside is a medium-big church and it's hard to get to know people unless you get involved. I'll be doing another women's Bible study this summer, led by our assistant pastor's wife in their home. We will be learning about a woman's identity in Christ and how it works out in her everyday life.
Stephen and I will also be official members of Countryside in the next month. We are thankful that we have found a good church to be a part of and get involved with.
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