A Belated Christmas Gift

Back in August when I did my super-long post about our family vacation, an old co-worker of mine (and a current co-worker of Adam's) saw this photo and decided to put his own spin on it. Enjoy.

Wishing You All A Wonderful Holiday Season

one for the record books

I just thought while I was going through my videos that I should really include this little gem from our family reunion. We have undiscovered talent here, people!

I got the vids, peeps

a

more vids

Hilarious!

Everyone loves cards! I love cards! Brent loves cards! Brent's family loves cards!

Everyone loves to give cards and to recieve cards! I love it! Brent loves it! And his family especially loves it!

So when Brent got this card from his sister Leslie - we thought it was particularly special. Inside it reads:

"Happy Birthday Brent! We thought we'de send you this cute pink card just in case you were wonderinhg what it was like to be a young girl, just turning 10 years old!"

I can't stop laughing!

Happy Birthday Nikki!

Woo Woo!

odd thoughts

I was looking through some gift catalogs yesterday and I came across a picture frame that said this on it "Friends are the family we choose for ourselves." Is that weird to anyone else? I thought, "Well, how do we know we didn't choose our family to begin with?" And "What's wrong with not being able to choose our family?" I guess it was meant positively, like we get to add our friends to "family" status and that's nice, but it just left me wondering. Then, this morning Ella pushed Alex and I gave her a big consequence. She started listing all the ways in which I was being unfair and selfish and how she can't wait to be a mom so that she can tell her kids what to do. I explained that I was sad to have a kid who pushed and that she had to have a consequence for making a bad decision. I said it's my job to teach her that it's not okay to push someone and she argued it was okay for kids to. I said, "What if I went and pushed my friend across the street? She wouldn't be my friend anymore. She probably wouldn't talk to me ever again." I then said how lucky she was that in her family she can make a mistake and her brothers will still want to play with her again and that they could forgive her. It made me think about that picture frame and feel pretty lucky that I'm stuck with a bunch of people I didn't "choose" to be my family and that they forgive me when I make mistakes and love me anyway (most of the time). ;)

Christmas Caroling

It's that time of year! I'd like to invite everyone to our annual Christmas Caroling party this Sunday at 6:00 at Jacque's house. You know the drill, bring a dessert and your singing voice!!

Opening in Honolulu

 Don and I had a great time in Honolulu, and the exhibit opening at The First Hawaiian Center was beautiful and lots of fun. Quite a few friends from Maui came plus 5 Vancouverites...Don called them the VonCougars. It felt really good to have all of that support in the midst of strangers and I remembered how good it felt when almost all of the Gilroy family was able to come to Maui for my show in 2008.

Don's daughter Jill was there with white lei and red bag

That's Aunt Lynne in a huddle with the VonCougars

A woman walking by asked us if we were on our honeymoon

Caldo De Pollo ... Oh so good!

I remember eating this soup in a little Mexican Restaurant in Chicago, I thought I died and went to heaven! (But initially wondered why they had chunks of corn on the cob in the soup!)  I made this for my family Monday night for dinner.  We all loved it! I thought I would share... There are many variations to the recipe in case you want to google it. (Its basically 'Chicken Soup'... but oh, so good!):

1 large onion, chopped (white onion)

1 garlic clove

2 carrots, chopped 1/2-inch thick

3 medium potatoes, chopped bite size
1 1/2 cups chopped celery, chopped 1/4 inch thick
1 corn on the cob (cut in quartered chunks)
6 -8 pieces chicken thighs or 6 -8 pieces chicken legs, skinless, bone-in
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
salt and pepper
1 -1 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
lemon wedges or lime wedge (to garnish) (and/or avocado)
You may also add: (If you want)
1 zuccini
1 sprig fresh parsley
1 bay leave
1/2 head of cabbage
1 can stewed tomatoes (warning: will add a 'Minestrone Soup' flavor!)

Place chicken in a 3 or 4 quart stockpot, with 2 quarts of water. (About 8 cups.) Add celery stalk, garlic clove, onion and cilantro to chicken. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt and ground 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. Cover stockpot, and bring chicken to a boil over high heat.
While the chicken is cooking, cut the veggies into large chunks.
Once the chicken has come to a boil, carefully add the vegetables. Season broth with additional salt, if necessary. (About 1/2 to 1 teaspoon.)
Let chicken and vegetables simmer in a covered stockpot, over low heat until chicken and vegetables are fully cooked. (About 60 to 90 minutes.)


This Recipe is about the same, only called "Caldo de Res" Or Beef Soup:

2 T. vegetable oil

2 1/2 lbs. beef chuck steak, cut into 1/2" cubes
1 medium white onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
6 c. beef broth
1 bay leaf
1 T. dried Mexican oregano
1 lb. red potatoes, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
2 ears corn, shucked and cut into 1-inch-thick rounds
1 zucchini, cut into thick matchsticks, 1 inch long
1/2 head green cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 c. chopped cilantro
salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat; add the meat and brown on all sides, about 5 minutes (I did this in several batches so as not to overcrowd the pan). Add the onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, broth, bay leaf, and oregano. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 1 1/2 hours, partially covered.
Stir in the potatoes, carrot, and corn; continue to cook for 30 minutes. Add the zucchini, cabbage, and cilantro; cook for 15 minutes. Discard the bay leaf and season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into warm bowls and pass the accompaniments at the table.
Recipe from the following blog:
http://thehungrydog.blogspot.com/2010/09/caldo-de-res.html

Ripple

The blog is silent and I am thinking of you...is there a way I can send a ripple into the reality being felt right now. And so one of Don's books of poetry fell into my hands and these fragments  -

Here between answer
and nothing, I stand, in the old shoes
flowed over by rainbows of hen-oil,
each shoe holding the bones
that ripple together in the communion
of the step
and that open out
in front into toes, the whole foot trying
to dissolve into the future.

and if you commit then, as we did, the error
of thinking
one day all this will only be memory,

learn to reach deeper
into the sorrows
to come - to touch
the almost imaginary bones
under the face, to hear under the laughter
the wind crying across the black stones. Kiss
the mouth
that tells you, here,
here is the world. This mouth. This laughter. These temple bones.

A New Selected Poems by Galway Kinnell

Travel Plans?

Kathy and I were wondering if any Gilroy Family members are planning to travel to Sunny Southern California between now and Lauren's delivery date?

Protean White

This is my pride and joy. Just painted it last week in one very long 5 hour session. It's 30"x30"x2" acrylic on polyester canvas (it's very smooth). The only pigment used is a black that I made up from mixing red, yellow and blue. BTW I like childrens drawings. All comments welcome!

This is a photo detail taken of the upper middle of the painting.

Loading the G-Van

Hi, everybody. Lynne just came up for air. All paintings from Maui are packed and ready to cross the water to Honolulu tonight. The exhibit opens November 4.

JUST FOR FUN

The challenge for the woodturners club this month was to make something out of a 4"x 4"x 4" cube of ash. A fellow named David Springett does some pretty neat tricks with wood turning. So, I followed the instructions in his book, "Woodturning Wizardry" and this is what I got. It is turned from a solid piece of Ash. The spiked star is turned while inside the sphere and is one solid piece. There are a few simple tricks to it, but really pretty basic turning. It takes some time, but it was lots of fun and a good learning experience. The pedestal was made from an unknown tree branch just laying around, but I like the color contrast. Wish me luck; the meeting is one week from tonight.

Where in the World are Jacque & Ian?

You will just have to ask them!

It all started with Bracelets

The last bracelet I made was Jacque's; it was the best ever. Looking at it I thought, I've got to make something bigger like this. It took 5 or 6 weeks with lots of frustration but I'm pretty happy with it. It stands 13" tall and is about 8" wide.

I Can Do It All By Myself!

Hi Y'all! I just thought I'de share an experience that happened to me yesterday... I have been spending weeks trying to get my workout up to an hour long. So far, so good. I usually last only 30-40 minutes at the most. So I have been feeling really good about myself, I am eating healthier, and making these 'green drinks' Lauren prescribed to me. So yesterday, I am standing in front of the blender, put in my home-made fresh-squeezed orange juice, my frozen strawberries and baby carrots, and mixed it altogether. I wait until these ingredients are blended well to not overload the machine.  As other ingredients are waiting on the counter, I keep a hold of the blender lid and take out the tiny middle insert so that I can drop in my banana.  I don't know exactly how well I thought those steps through, or how I was holding onto the lid, but the frozen banana hit the blades, immediately bounced back up, blew off the lid, and before you can finish saying "Rumple-stil-sk..." I was SHOWERED in fresh-squeezed orange juice,  frozen strawberry, baby carrots, (and not really a whole lot of banana because it didn't spend a lot of time being 'blended') and wash dripping head to foot.

Its moments like these when you stop to reflect your purpose in life... and how many hours its going to take to clean fresh-squeezed orange juice, chunks of strawberry and baby carrots, off the ceiling, the side of the fridge, the counter top, the stove, the blender and machine (and all its parts), my clothes, the cubboards, the rug on the floor, and the surrounding tile.  I think I stood there for a whole 5 seconds (arms still suspended in air) before I stopped wishing that what just happened really didn't happen.  And then my next thought... who in heaven is laughing right now because SOMEBODY better be laughing.  (Cuz I wasn't.) Btw, it took me about 20 minutes to clean it all up (and put on a new outfit).  Of course, I found bits of carrot in my hair hours later.  (Oh yes, I did actually finish making my drink.)

So heres, the whole recipe for this smoothie because I could never have had such an improvement in my energy without these little babies! (Lauren's variation may be a bit different.)

2 C orange juice (+ pulp and 1/4 of the orange peel) I need 2 C to minimize the green veggies' flavors
4-5 frozen strawberries
2-4 pieces of frozen pineapple (puts in a great refreshing flavor!)
1/2 to whole banana (fresh or frozen)
3-4 baby carrots
3-4 broccoli florets
1 branch of kale
2 handfuls of fresh spinach

(Lauren adds = pinch of sprouts, a quarter slice of a beet, and 1 tsp ground flaxseed). I haven't gotten that far. You can also add 1/8 tsp of Stevia, but I sometimes forget. (The pineapple helps with the flavor too!) At first the broccoli and sprouts were too strong a flavor, but with the 2 C orange juice (I used to add only 1 C), I don't taste the broccoli as much. As for the sprouts, I eat them on my salads, can't stand to add them to this drink). Drink up! Its good! And VERY HEALTHY FOR YOU!  (At least 1 a day!)

...Just be careful with your blender!

112 Degrees in Fullerton today. "That's Hot".

I took my walk this morning at 6:20; it was all ready 70 degrees.

READING

Have any of you read books by Stieg Larsson?

He's Back!

Go to my blog to check out all the photos!

24 Hours and Counting...

Tomorrow morning at 11am we will be anxiously awaiting the arrival of Elder Ryan Jenson as he rides down the long, crawling escalator from the airport's 2nd floor, to a family bounding to smother him with hugs! I am soooo stinkin' excited! I barely know this kid and I can't even wait! Tonight Kasey is coming home so we can decorate the house (in the appropriate yellow-garb)... and get ready to cook up a storm for a family feast tomorrow evening. (No, you're not invited!) Ha ha! BUT!... You are all invited to his Homecoming talk October 10th at 9am (yes! 9AM!) And yes, more food and fun will be provided afterwards... 10:30-ish. (Thats when you can eat!... Any volunteers to help me cook for 100?)

This photo posted above is the last one he sent us this week. Ryan had baptisms almost every single month of his mission. He worked really hard to help this last lady, Mary, stop drinking coffee just in the nick of time so that he could see her be baptized before he left Kentucky. He was so proud of her! I think people look great in white! Ryan served such a wonderful mission and we are so pleased with him and the sacrifices he's made these last 2 years. More photos... coming soon!

Bizarre Watermelon-Catapult Incident

I don't know if many of you are fans of the Amazing Race, but evidently one of their stunts went wrong the other day in an unexpected way.

Ogren's Birthday Party

Carl, Pat and Susan Ogren celebrated birthdays today (and anniversary for Pat & Carl). Janine Ogren (from Midvale, UT) sent us an invite. So we went and saw some friends from years ago; but mostly the Ogren clan. Steven will be 48 in November. His son is 22 and 6'4". Little Debbie Ogren is 5'11", has one child with another due in January. Carl tells me he'll soon to be 73. Chuck and Bambi Burnes were there - it was fun talking to them. Have any of you ever seen David dance - that boy is a dancin' fool (looks great). We had a great time.

Stat Tracking now on blogger!

You guys might notice a new "Stats" tab when you log in to blogger.  It shows you information on the people who look at your blog: where they are located, what search terms they used to find your blog, what pages they are viewing, and a few other things.  It's awesome.  This was available before, but not through Blogger, so it's nice that they've added it.  But not nice that they did it the same day that I teach the stat tracker class at the library.  I didn't even have time to update my handouts before class started.  Bad Blogger!

A Boy and His Dog

I've been afraid that our hour long walks with Maggie in the morning are not enough. So I have been running her with me as I bike for an hour. That seems to do the trick!... and it knocks her out for a good part of the morning too! I thought this was the cutest picture of her and Kai.

She is completely passed out and Kai is just chillin' with his Nintendo DS. Cute kids!

7 Years Ago Today

Kathy and Grandpa Ross spent their 7th anniversary in Idyllwild, CA. We arrived on Saturday, did a little sightseeing, and had a delicious dinner. Then we took a hike in the cool evening hours. Sunday was more of the same with emphasis on gallery exploring. This morning we had a yummy breakfast and asked the waitress to take a picture of the happy couple. Now we're home and it's HOT!

Caramel Popcorn Recipe!

You're wondering why a picture of our speedometer is under the title "Caramel Popcorn Recipe", well because I felt like being random today! How often to you get so many 6's in a row? This was in Brent's car... I took this picture on the way to our vacation in Island Park a couple weeks ago. I was navigating the exit at Idaho Falls to turn towards Rexburg... it was a very tricky photo opp! You can still see I managed to go 60mph through it all! (My husband AND dad are going to kill me!)

Moving on... Here's my FAMOUS CARAMEL POPCORN RECIPE!

(Write it down people! And quit calling me for it! Hee hee hee!)

1/4 to 1/2 C Popcorn Seeds (you need to pop those btw... in a hot air popper!) 1/4 C at a time!

1 C butter

1 C brown sugar

1/4 C Karo light corn syrup

Mix those ingredients all together in a sauce pan till boiling, then turn down heat and keep it bubbling for 5 minutes. Take off the heat and add 1 tsp baking soda. Caramel should turn a lighter color and poof up. Don't keep it in the pan or it will start to burn, poor immediately onto POPPED popcorn. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Mom!

New Blogger editor

I'm updating the handouts for my blogging class, and I discovered that the current editor for Blogger will be gone soon.  The editor I'm referring to is what you see when you are creating/typing up a post - all of the options in the toolbar at the top.  You can actually start using the new editor right now, and it has some really great improvements, especially when trying to add images to your blog.

There are three things that are much improved with the new editor:

1. It adds images wherever your cursor was, instead of at the top of the post.
2. You can click and drag on the photo to move it around the post.
3. You can re-size it without having to upload it again, you just click on the picture and you can choose what size you want.

One other nice thing is that if you delete or remove an image from your post, you can add it back again without having to upload it, you just click on the "add image" button again and you'll see the thumbnail for it right there.  But the thumbnails don't stay if you publish or close the window.

Anyway, there's more information on the new editor here: http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?answer=156829

You can turn on the new editor by going to Settings and scrolling to the bottom where it says "Select Post Editor" and choose "Updated Editor."

New Car for Me!

Doug's been talking about going back to work in a couple of weeks, and my Fall classes start in a couple of weeks, too, and we didn't think we would be able to be a 1 truck family for much longer. So today we bought a car for me. It's a 2003 Toyota Camry, and it only has 86K miles on it. It's nice and clean and spacious inside, and Matti can sit in the back seat without breaking her knees. But the outside has four dents--one on each corner of the car. Apparently, the old guy who had it before me had problems with the columned underground parking lot of the grocery store he shopped at. Anyhow, I think that makes it perfect for me (I have problems with columns, myself.) We're real excited, and I feel a bit of relief about not having to drive that huge truck anymore! =)

We're Home! Hooray!

Well, we're very happy to be home. We had a fantastic time in The Black Hills of South Dakota - and that on the heels of a fantastic time, with you all, in Island Park, Idaho. This photo was taken in Deadwood, SD. In the background you can see a small sign that says, "this is the site where Wild Bill Hickok" was gunned down (shot from behind). We'll tell more later. Best regards to all.

Why do I keep thinking a mouse is going to jump out of my cabinets or run across the floor at any second???

Moments Like These and Others

It's moments like these and others which I cherish at the Gilroy Family Reunion. They come unexpectedly and sometimes fleetingly with and between everyone. The camera was doing some strange things for awhile...but these weird pictures captured a feeling and some times that were very fine.

 Who knows what caused it?

 Maybe it was the atmosphere...

At first everything seemed perfectly normal...

But then what happened...?

I think some of these images are really cool so please click on them and hopefully they will be bigger and more will be revealed.

And gradually things became even more odd and wry.

There were also of course more normal times...

A 'Proposal'...'K.I.S.S.'

I don't mean 'kiss' the word, I mean "keep it simple silly"! ...In the spirit of 'keeping it simple'... after careful observation, I am suggesting we keep next year's family vacation even closer to home. I know many of you may not care in the slightest to have this conversation, but after noticing our family dynamics this year as opposed to the last, I think it might be better for us if we keep next years vacation even simpler. By this I am suggestion we go to Park City, or Heber, or Midway. So here are all the things we can do in the Heber/Midway area... Balloon flights, Biking, Boating, Fishing, Golfing, Hiking, Horseback Riding, ATV-ing, Scenic-Driving, Movies, and plenty of Sight-seeing.

So whats prompted this post you ask? Well... I enjoyed our whole vacation this year but really missed out on the 'family-altogether-time'. I don't know if its because people arrived late in the week, or we were too tired every night, or we were not as organized. But I loved our karaoke/game night, but was bummed Lynne and Don couldn't be there. I thought our family nights were the highlight of our vacation last year and was disappointed we didn't have more this year. Brent even mentioned we should have all come to the campfire together (that he worked so hard on!) and sang songs at least for 20 minutes instead of all lingering out at different times.

So the reason I thought to keep things more simple next year is so that the babies can all have naps, the parents can be rested more, and hopefully the cousins will all have a place where they can continue to run around together. I think it would be nice if we found a place where we can lounge around comfortably, read a book all day if we want, or chit chat with each other, and not feel so pressured to pack every day with big activities and then come home exhausted every night. I think the times that we all spend together in the evening are the most memorable of the whole vacation, irregardless of what sight-seeing we do, and I would love if we had more energy and opportunity for that the next time around.

But this was still a great trip, don't get me wrong! .... I would also even love to spend a vacation on the "Jackson Hole" side of Yellowstone and adventure around the Teton area more. Maybe that would be a good idea for one year. I love these vacations... I don't want them to ever end... 'Party on Wayne, Party on Garth!"