Road trip

Baths happened this morning, although that feels like a million years ago. We are in L.A. now with Auntie Geri, and this morning feels far, far away.

IMG_0047Then we took our road trip!

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The girls were exceptionally loving at dinner in Chipotle. They even held an impromptu dance party with Abe in the middle of the restaurant. I'm still not sure if onlookers were amused or annoyed.
The girls were exceptionally loving at dinner in Chipotle. They even held an impromptu dance party with Abe in the middle of the restaurant. IMG_0053 

waste of time

It’s midnight, we’re leaving for L.A. tomorrow morning, and Abe and I haven’t packed. Oops.

So this will be short. I came home after shopping for all of our funeral attire and discovered the three of them on the couch watching Angelina Ballerina.

IMG_0044That was about today’s speed. Mary took a six hour nap, and both Lydia and I were asleep for half of that time. For the other half, Lydia and watched a ton of trailers on Amazon Prime before deciding to just watch Ella Enchanted because it was free. That was, quite possibly, the dumbest movie I have ever seen. On that note, perhaps I should get some sleep and make better choices with my time tomorrow.

census bright spots

Tonight went better in class. I mean, how could things get much worse than the past two days? However, I did find out that I am front of the house for the next three weeks, and that’s depressing. My final will therefore depend on how well I waitress…and I’ve never done that before. Yikes.

A happy story though! My MSU adviser from almost a decade ago contacted me this week because she remembered I’d offered to help her with her family history. It has been pretty easy to help her because so much of her family’s documents are uploaded onto Family Search. Thank goodness for the indexing projects. I have located several generation of census records and some death certificates for her. Our next project is finding a marriage certificate. But anyway, it has been a really happy, uplifting, and fun experience. I found some more records today, so that was a bright spot.

While I was at class, Abe was home crafting with the girls. I’m really glad he did that, because I’ve been really letting it go on the mothering/homemaking front lately.

IMG_1109Here are the pictures of tonight’s food:

My cucumber bowls. This one was wilted because it was for pictures, and by the time I took a picture, a loooong time had passed.
My cucumber bowls. This one was wilted because it was for pictures, and by the time I took a picture, a loooong time had passed.
Moroccan carrot soup with lentils, gelled yogurt, and some sort of green vinaigrette. (Soups are always poured table side, but the bowls go out garnished.)
Moroccan carrot soup with lentils, gelled yogurt, and some sort of green vinaigrette. (Soups are always poured table side, but the bowls go out garnished.)
Beef chuck that was sous vide until utterly transformed.
Beef chuck that was sous vide until utterly transformed.
The best dessert ever! Deconstructed German chocolate cake with a dehydrated chocolate mousse.
The best dessert ever! Deconstructed German chocolate cake with a dehydrated chocolate mousse.
Bon bons.
Bon bons.

Pizzeria 712 saves my day

I didn’t blog last night because I was too tired and discouraged. After being bawled out continually for two straight days for being slow, behind and unmotivated, I finished my dish (the customer favorite again) half an hour early yesterday. The chef made no comments on either score, but he did bawl me out at the end of the night for not taking apart the meat slicer and cleaning it properly. (I didn’t know how, and the chefs aren’t the most approachable people when it comes to asking questions like that.)

tabbouleh in cucumber bowl with arugula salad and meyer lemon vinaigrette.
tabbouleh in cucumber bowl with arugula salad and meyer lemon vinaigrette.

I was so upset. Abe gave me the best pep talk and a massage, after which I fell asleep right away and dreamed I was in a literal boot camp.

I did talk to the head of the culinary program, and because Pizzeria 712 (owned by the guy who owns Communal) is going to let me stage (cooking lingo for internship), she is going to let me challenge my next class. That means after this semester I am done. I am so happy. I don’t think I can take the toxicity of this school much longer.

Cucumbers were not my friends tonight.

Have you ever tried and tried and tried and tried to be good at something, and no matter what you do, you just aren’t that great at it? That’s how I feel about cooking–at cooking school, especially. Tonight was the pits. Chef Tom wanted me to cut down 8 cucumbers to the size of couscous, and when my pieces were larger and more uneven, he yelled at me, told me to try harder, and then took off points. He has never done that to anyone before. It was humiliating.

To make matters worse, with all of my absences (Cancun, one night of babysitting woes, and upcoming funeral in LA), I am barely scraping by with a D. I have no idea how I am going to pass this class if I get additional points taken off because I can’t cut down stupid, slippery cucumbers to the size of perfectly even couscous pieces.

As if that weren’t enough, my partner cut off part of his finger. I felt so bad for him, especially when I discovered his fingertip lying on his cutting board after he left the room. But the chef bawled me out for being slow and behind when my partner was basically out of commission for half of the class, and I had to mince SIX BUNCHES of parsley by myself–not even counting everything else I had to do to get our dish done. To properly mince parsley, you wash and dry each bunch, and then you pull off each individual leaf from each individual stem. I’m sorry, but it took me over an hour to do that to six bunches of parsley alone. It was a minor miracle our dish even got completed.

By the time I finished my dish, I had blisters on my hand from cutting. Not to mention I was nauseous the whole time because I am pregnant, and nausea is my pregnancy status-quo.

Done complaining yet? Actually, I would love to vent about arcane pedagogical methods that are accepted without challenge in my culinary program and arbitrary instructions that are impossible to follow , but I figure those can wait for another day. I think I might make an appointment with the head of the culinary program and voice some of these concerns there, but in the meantime, I have to figure out how to pass this class. If I don’t, I am toast. There’s no way I’m going to graduate from culinary school if I don’t. Prayers please!

When I came home and asked Abe if he had ever been in this type of situation, he sympathetically reminded me that he felt this way his entire college career, and that it was so terrible he ended up on medication. If I weren’t pregnant, I might be tempted to pop some Prozac before each upcoming class just as an anticipatory antidote to the misery/humiliation that’s sure to follow.

On that depressing note, I have some pictures Abe took of the girls. He spent the evening cleaning our storage room because one of our water jugs leaked and molded the baseboards. Afterward, he made up for neglecting the girls by having a dance party with them. Mary literally skipped across the room repeating, “This is fun! This is fun!” and when it was over, both girls cried.

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reverence, irony included

We bathed our odorous little ones this morning.

Unfortunately, we procrastinated this process until the last minute, and six hours later I realized with horror that we were supposed to be early to church today. (We were ten minutes late.) Lydia was scheduled to be the reverent child in Sacrament meeting. That means we were supposed to get to church ten minutes early so she could stand by the pulpit, fold her arms and set a good example for the incoming congregation.

When Lydia heard me exclaiming this evening to Abe that we completely forgot about her reverent child role, she threw the biggest tantrum. In a moment of high irony, she screamed for thirty minutes straight that she wanted to go back to church right then and be the reverent child. Abe and I threw each other helpless glances until suddenly Abe realized there was a stake fireside with Jon Bytheway in half an hour. He immediately packed Lydia in the car and drove to church. She immediately calmed down.

When they got to church, Abe talked to whoever was in charge of the meeting, and they let Lydia stand by the pulpit for twenty-five minutes and be the reverent child. In stark contrast to her home behavior, she was perfectly still and reverent the entire time. We were really proud of her.

Demonstrating at home how she had been reverent at church. She is holding a string cheese from an admirer.
Demonstrating at home how she had been reverent at church. She is holding a string cheese from an admirer.

In the meantime, Mary and I were at home snuggling, playing games and reading the whole time. It felt precious.

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Abe once again headed us up for FHE. Thank goodness. If it were up to me, I am not sure we would ever remember to have it! We filled out Lydia’s Primary spotlight form and made one up for Mary too. Abe taught a great lesson on reverence (timely) and quoted Psalm 89:7 to the girls. We talked about what it meant to fear God.

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Then we played a game of Hiss! and, our family favorite, “Reverent-Crazy.” In that game, I call out either “reverent” or “crazy” and Abe and the girls act accordingly. I love it because I get to sit on the couch, and the girls and Abe love it because they think it’s really fun.

Abe also took a picture of the shirts he and the girls picked out yesterday. Mom, he wanted you to see them and know he’s grateful for your birthday gift!

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An Eventful Day

This is Abe blogging.  Lily just got home from helping her culinary school cater a donor event for the Salt Lake Arts festival.  Here are some pictures of what they served.  Apparently the gumbo was really really good and people kept coming back for it:

IMG_0028 IMG_0027 IMG_0026 IMG_0024 IMG_0023 IMG_0022 IMG_0014 I had a lot of fun with the girls today.  I’m still sick, but my 2 hour nap really gave me the energy I needed to have some fun with them today.  The fun actually started before my nap when Mary was totally melting down for no clear reason.  At the same time, Lydia really wanted to craft.  So while Lily pacified Mary, I went downstairs with Lydia to our crafting room.  Lydia and I decided to make a book that would help Mary feel better.  When we were finished, we showed it to her and she loved it!  She asked us to read it over and over.  It made both me and Lydia super happy that we could cheer up Mary with something we made.  Here is the book below:

A happy happy book for Mary
A happy happy book for Mary

 

Hi Mary, this is Daddy and Lydia.  We noticed you have been feeling sad.
Hi Mary, this is Daddy and Lydia. We noticed you have been feeling sad.
We want to help you feel happy.  So this book has happy things to help cheer you up.
We want to help you feel happy. So we have happy things in this book to help cheer you up. Here is a toy! It’s a cat piano. Cute nose!

jhjj
Here is sunshine.  Lydia made the sun rays! Here is a rainbow. So many colors!
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Here is a cat. You love cats! Here is a duck. She’s swimming!

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We hope these pictures helped you feel happy! We love you! From Daddy and Lydia.

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