I can't believe it! My sister-in-law, Mary was here with her daughter Jennifer and Jennifer's husband Josh and the grandkids, Hailee and Conner. Well, that is not what I can't believe, what is so unbelievable is that I didn't get one shot of them! We had our cameras out and took tons of pictures...of flowers and water drops and 'stuff', but I didn't get one with any of us in it. Here is the closest I got to a picture of anybody...a baby grasshopper that landed on Josh. We had a really nice visit. They stopped in on their way to the beach, stayed the night and then Mary and Hailee came back and stayed a couple more nights on their way back to Idaho. It is always so good to catch up. It is amazing how we can go so long without talking, but just pick up where we left off on the last visit, as if time didn't even pass by.

They are ready! Finally, the strawberries are ready to eat! This is the best they have been since I planted them. Last summer, I was thinking that I would pull them all and replant, but they are beautiful this year. I'm glad I waited. So guess what I am having for breakfast? Yep...strawberry shortcake!

This is such an amazing discovery to me! I went to a baby shower on Sunday night. They served cupcakes, tons of colors and flavors. I love cake and it was so hard to decide which to try. But here is what is so amazing. They were made without eggs or oil. All she does is take any flavor cake mix and add a can of diet soda. You can make all kinds of flavors...chocolate and cherry coke...white with orange soda...or lemon...you name it. She got pretty creative with them. Then she put on nonfat whip and a fruit or just a simple glaze or powdered sugar. They are so good, you can not tell the difference. Of course, I had to try quite a few of the flavors. They were all so good!

Her recipe is a Weight Watcher recipe and each cupcake was only 3 points. Great if you are into Weight Watchers. And for those on a low cholesterol type diet, awesome too, no eggs or oil. Not so good for a diabetic, since it still has the sugar. I'm not any of these, but I made some yesterday.

Anyway, just thought I would pass it on.

I am not sure why I have not mentioned it here, but last October, after returning from the Dominican Republic knowing that we would be headed back a few months later for a wedding, I decided that I would get a part time job to earn a little extra spending money. The first and only place I applied was Ann Taylor Loft. I was in the ‘still thinking about it’ stage of getting a job, when I found myself in Ann Taylor just wandering around killing time before I met up with my family for lunch next door at Red Robin. I thought, 'I think this might be a good place to work.' So I asked for an application and went home and filled it out and brought it right back. I was given a place online to go and fill out a questionnaire. John says WINCO has one too, they call it the HONESTY TEST. I waited a week and no answer. I figured I must have flunked the honesty test. Another week later I got a call to come in THAT DAY for an interview and was hired. My plan was to work a few months, earn some extra money and then once we got back I would quit. Maybe that is why I never mentioned it here, since I just planned on quitting soon. Well, my ‘few months’ are over and I’m still working. I really enjoy it there! It is only part time. At first, it was only about 8-12 hours a week…really not much in the way of spending money really…especially given the fact that they give an unbelievable employee discount…so you can just make a guess at where my ‘spending money’ went…yep, right back into their pockets. But I liked it, they are excellent at giving you any time off you request, so it has not cramped my style at all, I am still able to do Red Cross, see my grandkids, meet up with friends and family for lunches, you name it. I even took those days off and went to see Dennis and Abby a couple of weeks ago. Well, now to top it off…just before I left for D&A’s place, I was asked if I wanted to move up to be a shift manager. My first reaction was “No way!” But they kept working at me. I know there were others there working who were way more trained for it than me, but they were not available to take it on. So after a while of thinking it over, I went ahead and said yes, I would give it a try. I’ve made it through the training and am now officially a shift manager now. We get 20 hours a week. I know it is still new, but I come home every day thinking how glad I am that I decided to do it.
I would never have thought that a salesclerk job would have so many awesome moments. But almost every day something happens there that just makes me so happy that I was given the opportunity to work there. It is not like we just put stuff on the racks and the ring it up for them. Over half of the time, when I ask a client if they are looking for something, instead of the expected “no, just browsing”, I get a real request from them. I can’t tell you how many funerals I have helped dress women for and so many other things, weddings, job interviews, graduations, parties, vacations. I get to console them when they are feeling fat and the clothes don't fit and also cheer them on when they are so happy with a weight loss. I get to translate to Spanish speaking clients . I've helped women with tubes find clothes to disguise the tubes and shirts to not show that they have had a masectomy. I have had to help drunk women in and out of clothes and keep a watch on certain suspected shop lifters when they walk in. And then there all the men who want help finding something for their women. It is so fun! Actually really rewarding. It is pretty cool to have a woman come up to you on her way out the door and tell you thanks for all the help. I had one woman come in and give me a hug the day after I had helped her with an outfit. She said she has never had so many compliments on anything she has worn before. It is so funny to me to think that now people think because I work there, I am an expert on dressing them. I am asked how colors look, how it fits, will it shrink much, what jewelry would work with it.
But, my favorite experience so far was the time two blind girls with seeing eye dogs came in. (They were in their late 20’s, not really girls I guess) I was sure that they were in the wrong store. They just were standing there at the door with their thick parkas and hoods on. They just did not seem to be in the right place. I asked them if I could help them and immediately one of them said she was looking for a dress to wear to a concert. I thought "OK…now what do I do?"…well, I just started in…”OK, do you want a formal one or casual,” “what color” (oh man! do you ask a blind girl what color??!!!)…”well follow me.” Those dogs just lead them in. I took them all over the store and held up each dress and described it from top to bottom as they felt each part I was describing. One dress I was describing as, teal and black and white print. “Her friend said “I remember what teal looks like!” I had an off white one and the girl said “I’ve been told I don’t look good in white” I held it up to her and said I didn’t think white was very good on her either. She was so happy and thanked me for confirming that for her. (my word is official, right?) So we narrowed it down to about 10 dresses and headed to the wardrobe for them to try on. One was trying on, the other was there for moral support and zipping. I stood outside while she was dressing and then she would come out and ask me what it looked like on her. I asked her just how much vision she had and she said zero. The other girl could see a tiny bit of light. I explained that we had some really well lit mirrors, and they just laughed saying that they would have to be on the sun to be able to see in a mirror. They were so easy to be around. They were so accepting of their blindness, as if they were talking about their hair color. I was with them for a couple of hours, they felt the jewelry I brought in for them to match up and wanted a sweater to go with the dress, ends up she bought two dresses, since she could not make up her mind and a sweater and the other girl found a sweater she wanted also. Then the dogs lead them out of the wardrobe, past the maze of mannequins to the checkout counter to pay, then on out the door to the concert. They said that they would be back soon! I sure hope so!

It is SO FUN! All those years of playing with my Barbies have paid off!!! (thanks Mom!)

I had a great time at Dennis and Abby's place!

I got there on Thursday afternoon and stayed until Sunday night. I have not been down since they bought their condo, so it was nice to finally get to see where they live now. Thursday we went out to dinner at an Italian place and then just hung out at their place and played with Midas and Dagny. Friday we went to C.A.R.D.(Center for Autism and Related Disorders), where he works and he showed me around and I met some of the people he works with. Then we went to Huntington Gardens. http://www.huntington.org/ Abby did a project there for her work and so she was able to get us free passes in!

I had a blast taking pictures! It is acres and acres of gardens, one garden is acres of just cactus. Every kind, I had no idea there were so many and tons of them were in bloom. There is a Chinese Garden, Japanese Garden, English Rose Garden, Australian Garden, a Botanical Garden, Herb Garden, Jungle Garden, Lily Ponds and water falls, and a Conservatory. I took 447 pictures just at the gardens! Dennis and Abby were so patient with me...here are some shots of the gardens and then some of them waiting around for me to continue. Along with the gardens, there are museums and a library. They have an amazing collection of books and letters in there! One of them was the first book ever printed on a press, the Gutenberg Bible. They did a BBQ for dinner that night. Dennis made burgers and pomegranate margaritas and Abby made salsa...good stuff!! Then on Saturday, we drove to Oxnard and went out to lunch with Uncle Jimmy. It is always fun to spend time with him. Saturday night, Abby's Mom and Dad, (Lanie and Terry), came up and we had another BBQ with them, including churros for dessert. Sunday we went to their new church and then out to lunch and back to their place to hang out some more before I had to catch my plane. The last time I stayed with them, I experienced my first earthquake,right in the middle of the night we woke up to the whole place shaking. Quite a thing to wake up to, especially having never gone through one! Well, I almost made it out of town before another such experience. An hour or so after they dropped me off, the whole airport was shaking! I've read that it was between a 4.7 or 5.

It is just so amazing to see your kids as adults, to be in their home, see them cooking, cleaning and living life on their own. Like it is pretty weird to have HIM making ME breakfast and out there on the patio, is an arbor they built with grapes that they are growing. Take a look at the planter he built for his tomatoes...they grow upside down! That plant is full of green tomatoes already!

I know it's kinda weird, but I love to paint (I love to iron, too). There is just something I enjoy about seeing something go from messy to pristine, dirty to clean, wrinkled to pressed...you get the picture. Our front porch needed a new coat, so I painted it yesterday. It was so beautiful. I say WAS...I got it all done, stood back to admire my work, and noticed something dropping on my head...those awesome Oregon raindrops!!! Good thing I love painting...I can now redo the steps. So far that looks like they were the only part damaged from it. I swear, I checked the weather reports...no rain until LATE night...and I checked a couple of sources for more than one opinion. Oh well, I will do it next week. I'M OUT OF HERE!!! I head to Los Angeles to visit Dennis and Abby today! My first trip to see their new place. I'm really looking forward to it...I have not seen him in a year and a half. He had an airline ticket that was about to expire and no time to use it...and it could be used by anyone with Dixon for the last name...that qualified ME!!!!

p.s. after 3 weeks...my eye is pretty much back to normal. I can't believe how long it took the bruise to go away.

Spring petal forecast: After a beautiful flowering season, expect heavy accumulation of petals in any flowering area.

I am amazed at the amount of petals this year. Not sure if I even noticed it before.

I can't believe how fast the years go by! Last Saturday, I went to Salem for Emily's first offical track meet. It was at the same stadium that we sat in for so many of her Father's track meets. It was just so strange to be sitting there, as if the years had never passed. I felt like it could have been one of John's meets instead of hers. WHERE did those years go? When I got home, I dug out the albums and here is one of John when he was the same age as she was. Sorry, they just don't scan that well after all this time. And then here is one of Emily before the race with her Dad making sure her shoes are tied correctly. He should know about shoe tying. When he was her age, he ran in a cross country race. At the start of the race, they had to go through a huge mud puddle on their way into the woods. We didn't realize it until he came back out of the woods and only had one shoe on that he had lost his shoe in that puddle! He ran the whole race with only one shoe on! After it was done, we went to retrieve it from the mud, he knew exactly where to dig around for it. If I remember correctly, it was one of his best races too! We still laugh and laugh about that one...here comes John from the woods yelling to us..."I lost my shoe in the mud!"

OUCH! Well, now, let me tell you about my last run...and possibly I really do mean my LAST! Of course I know I don't really run, I jog...after the first mile of walking that is almost as fast as my jog, I jog, then walk fast up the hills and jog the rest of the way home. A little over 4 miles all together of fast walk, jogging. So as I was headed down the hill...I really headed down...like head on the pavement down. Oh man! It happened so fast that I can not really remember how I got there, I can remember falling and thinking..."I'm falling" and then there I was. Sprawled out right there on the road! I didn't trip on anything, I think my foot came down on the side instead of the bottom and that caused it all. I've become kinda clumsy lately, sometimes just standing still, I will just fall off my shoe. Anyhow, I hit the road with my knees first, tearing right through my sweats and bloodied up my knees, then my palms, but they didn't get bloody and next to hit was my cheekbone. I can't remember hitting there, but behind my ear is a split and a bump bigger than the bump on my cheekbone. I think that I hit my cheek and then turned my head to keep it from scrapping as I slid down to the road fully (did I have time to even think of something like that?) and so I ended up with the most damage behind the ear. I remember just laying there hearing the ringing sound in my head. Kinda like that sound you hear when you dive under water. I got up out of the road and moved to the ditch to take inventory and figure out if I should call for John to come and get me. He had the day off and was out burning. I just did not want to resort to that, so after I figured out that I didn't have anything broken and there was only a tiny bit of blood and nothing gushing, I got up and finished up the workout...only really slowly. My head was pounding, there were spots in front of my eyes, but I was actually glad to make it home on my own. It made for way more sympathy that way. I could hardly wait to see the damages. The lump on my face was huge! I could see it out the corner of my eye. There was a little blood dripping off my earlobe onto my collar and so that was my other little badge. Blood always makes for more drama. After deciding I deserved to have some more pity, I called Dennis at work. (what good is it to have a doctor in the family if you can't call him, right?) I wanted to know if it was bad to take anything for the headache that was getting worse and worse. After he went down his mental checklist to make sure I was OK, (I could not believe that was my son actually) he decided it would be alright for me to take some Advil, since it is good for swelling. I followed up with a call to Jessi, my little nurse, but she was out of phone range, so I left a message for John to call me when he got off work and then I knew I would get the full range of sympathy I wanted. Oh right, I also put in a call to my Mom, you GOTTA call your Mom,...and she made sure and passed on the latest info to my Dad and sisters. So there I am...fully sympathized. Here is a picture that was taken tonight. I washed off the makeup so you could see it all...and now it looks like both eyes are bruised! I'm getting old! Gotta put that makeup back on asap! The swelling is down, but as each day passes, the eye is getting more purple, but not nearly as bad as the ear. I'm glad it is covered with hair, I'm done with the sympathy need for now. Well, maybe not...I put it all here for you to read, huh? p.s. I am sure glad I decided not to take my camera on my workout this time!!!

happy birthday to me!!!

It was a great birthday. Abby was here for a conference in Portland all week, so we started out my birthday celebrations with a pedicure from the two of them on Wednesday. I have the prettiest toes! sparkly red polish with white flowers with silver sparkly centers. On Saturday, I invited everyone over to say goodbye to Abby and also celebrate my birthday. I made my recipe for ribs...mmm...and a few salads and hobo potatoes. I had two recipes for a cakes that I have been wanting to try, and could not decide which to make, so I made them both. Along with the cake, I made homemade chocolate, banana, coconut, almond ice cream. Good thing I made the ice cream, because the cakes were a disappointment.

The next morning since Abby had to get up early to head to the airport, I took off and met up with Bonnie and we then drove to Woodburn and met up with Rachel and Emily and the 4 of us headed to the tulip fields for early morning shots. We had hoped to make it there in time for the balloon launch, but didn't quite make it. We saw one there, but the others were off in the horizon as we drove up. Oh well, the tulips made up for it 100%! I took over 300 pictures! Once I got home, I got myself ready and went to Spanish church, then came home, found the last of the champagne from the night before and topped it off with some orange juice and sat in the amazing 80 degree sunshine to enjoy it. When John got home, we mowed the yard and went to Tad's for dinner. As we parked, I was so surprised to see that there stood Mom and Dad. I thought "What a coincidence!" but discovered John had called them to meet us there. It was a good birthday. I am pretty spoiled.

HAVE A BLESSED EASTER

"If you confess with your mouth 'Jesus Is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." Romans 10:9

DAT week is over now. It was a really busy week for us. For some reason, our team does not get as many calls as the other teams. Some weeks we don’t even get called out at all. Which is a good thing for us and those who are NOT having a fire! Fires are not the only thing we help out with, we also have flooding issues or trees on houses, we help with anything that is emergency disaster related. When I first joined the team, my first week of calls, I was so excited to get out there. I slept in my clothes! When that first call came through, I jumped right up and beat the captains to the fire! It was an extra busy week for our team that year and I got the required 3 calls that made me an official DAT (Disaster Action Team) member all that first week. Before that we are called MITs (Member in Training). The week started out with a fire on Friday night at 2 am. I am relief leader on our team. The team lead gets the call from the Red Cross dispatch or directly from the Fire Dept or client seeking assistance. Then he calls me after he verifies the information with the Fire Dept . I then make all the calls to get a team out there. (I just hate waking people up!) Either he or I will usually meet the team out there, depending on which of us lives closest to the fire. Then the other will wait home to take the call in case another fire call comes in. So on Friday, I met up with a new MIT to our team and took care of the first fire. He was so excited to get out on his first call. (he actually got his 3 calls in too and is official DAT now) Saturday, we had another fire, but the captain went out on it and I stayed home to be ready to take calls. Nothing on Sunday and then there were two daytime calls that were handled by daytime people at the office, two fires outside the Portland area which their teams took care of and we didn’t get anymore night calls until 3am Thursday. It was a big one. A 4 unit apartment fire. Three families were there, and one was at work when it happened. We assisted the 3 and just as we finished up, the 4th got home. Can you imagine coming home to that? Here is a middle of the night look at what we see when we arrive. I normally don't take pictures, but I thought it would be a good thing to show participants in the classes I teach about what they will see when they get out there. We are not allowed to take pictures with clients in them and also don't like to look like tourists out there enjoying their suffering, so I was really careful to take them when no clients were present. I have a picture here of the apartment when I first arrived and then one later on when it got light out. There is the burnt door, and the upper deck, always there is a huge pile of debris that the firemen remove to assure the fire won't reignite, usually it includes the remains of a bed. One of these pictures you can see the sky through the burnt boards. That is taken from the ground level looking up through then burnt deck...the sky is coming through the roof of the second floor. The holes were cut by the firemen to allow the fire to escape and help put it out without losing the whole building. The second floor apartment lost everything.

Hi. My name is Vicki and I'm an addict.

I am addicted to taking pictures! I come by my addiction easily, since both of my Grandmothers enjoyed their photos and kept them all labeled and tucked away in albums. Of course, then my Mother also carried on with an album for every occasion. For me, my own picture taking began when I was a little girl and got my first camera from my Grandma Harman. (Here is a picture of the camera, Lindy got one too, it looks like I let Cyndi use mine that day. Can you believe it? What a nice sister I was.)My first camera was a little box type one that I had to flip open the top and look down into it and then click the side switch. Black and white film only. I had it forever, and treasured it, but somehow, through the years, I lost track of it, which I can not believe. It is not like me to have let it go without remembering where it went. But I am sure that as soon as it was replaced by a newer model, it was just forgotten. The trouble was, it was so expensive to have the pictures developed that I didn't get to take very many. It didn't even have a flash. My next camera did. Remember those cube flash cubes? I've been through my share of Kodak cameras. So through the years of being a newlywed, new mommy, vacations, and holidays, I have marked it all with photos. I can not imagine not having a camera in my hand for any of those events. And so it was. Eventually I was upgraded to a really nice Pentax as a Christmas gift from my parents. It was stolen, we replaced it, etc, etc. I was happy with my pictures....and then...just before John sent me off to Guatemala for my 50th birthday, he borrowed a little digital camera from a friend at work. Nothing fancy, it had a teeny tiny screen to view your pictures, but he wanted to see if I would move on into digital. I am sure that he was thinking about how much money he would save not buying film and developing. I was determined no way, I loved my Pentax and the lens it had for getting things close up and far away. I love my albums. I was not going to give up my albums and only have my photos on a computer. I was just not going to switch. But I gave it a try just to please him. By the time I got home from Guatemala 6 weeks later, I was kinda liking it, but not better. Pretty nice to see your shot right away, put it on the computer and send it off. You only had to pay to make copies of the ones you wanted. John went ahead and bought it from his friend. Pretty sneaky, huh? Little by little, I realized I was using my digital more than the film. And then one day, I realized I had not taken a real photo in a long long time. Then just before Christmas last year, John handed me a wad of money with orders to buy myself a good digital. I had been sneaking peaks at one online. A Pentax that would take my favorite lens from my film camera. I knew just what one I wanted. So I wasted no time and bought it before I chickened out. Every since, I don't think I have gone a whole day without taking a picture. It is amazing. With my little memory card in it, I can take way over 1,000 pictures!!! maybe even 2,000, I have not needed to find out. I load them onto my computer almost as soon as I take them and then clear off the card and go out and fill it up again. I have begun taking it with me when I go out for my jog. (my workouts are way not what they should be, but they are way more fun now!) I still have my albums, I don't think I will ever give them up, but they are a whole lot smaller than they used to be. Now, I only pick my favorite pictures to have printed. Just a few to mark the times. It is so much nicer handing over a small album to somebody after a vacation and they can just flip quickly through and see a few of the best stuff. I can still see the faces of some of the people as I have handed over those past albums, 6 inches thick, weighing 30pounds...their mouths dropping open and eyes popping...I'm sure they were thinking "you gotta be kidding!"

Blame my Grandmas for the picture taking, but it was Bonnie who got me into Flickr. Another picture addiction. It is a really fun way to show off your pictures. And only those who really want to see them go there. I really enjoy it. I load up a couple of pictures and people find them and make comments, sometimes you get invited to post your photo on a group's photostream and you can win little awards. I look over other people's pictures and see all kinds of things I want to do, and learn a lot about taking a better picture. It has gotten to be all I think about when I am out driving, or whatever else I do, it is "Oh, I need to take that for Flickr" So on Monday, I went with Bonnie to the Waterfront downtown and took pictures of the cherry trees in bloom. Now how many pictures can a person take of a cherry blossom? Well, I'll tell you. I came home with 249!!! OK, so some of them are not of blossoms. I found a seagull and some ducks and a pigeon. And you can't miss out on those fancy old fashioned lamp posts...and how about the water fountain...gotta get a few of it too...

ALBERT

This is Albert. He is from Barcelona, Spain. He stayed in our home as an exchange student when he was 16. We saw him again when we went to visit him in Spain when he was 18. Through the years, we have exchanged photos at Christmas, had an occasional phone call and made tons of promises to see each other again soon. Well, FINALLY, 20 years later, Albert was able to work in a trip to see us before a business trip to Las Vegas. He was here for 4 days. The time went so fast. We enjoyed it so much getting to know him as an adult.

I made a recipe from Molly's blog this week. A bundt cake that is not in her book that I saw on her blog a while back. Sweet Potato Pound Cake. It sounded really good and hey, if it has sweet potatoes, it must be healthy, right? Well, it is so good! So good that I can't resist it. I keep shaving off little slivers of it, just for one more taste and couldn't believe how much those little slivers add up to until I went to take a picture of it to post here. After looking at how much I had single-handedly eaten, I decided I was too embarrassed to take the cover off for a picture to post. Here is the link to the blog to get the recipe. http://orangette.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-mean-it.html It really is worth the effort to give it a try. I recommend the glaze on top too. It has helped keep it moist for days now. I made it on Friday and by today, it is even better than Friday! (of course, it is way more eaten up by now too!) Just in case you really want to see how it looks, here it is.

I really did eat all that by myself in just one day! YIKES! I should be ashamed of myself...but NO, I'm ready for another piece. (it is called POUND cake for a reason)

I spent all day Saturday at the Red Cross instructing a class. Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. It is a class to learn how to fill out all of the forms we use when we give out assistance to somebody in a disaster, either in a local fire or on a larger national disaster. The Red Cross has so many forms that have to be filled out to account for the money and they require them to be filled out the uniformly across the nation, so we have a standard guide we follow to teach everyone exactly how the form should be done. It is kind of an overwhelming class to be in. There is so much information to process. But I kept telling them over and over to not worry, once they are actually out on a call, it will all make sense and not seem so confusing when you realize how to put it all to use.

I still can't believe that I teach now. When I first began with the Red Cross, at one of the orientation classes I took, we were told all the ways we can be involved. One of them was teaching and I sat there thinking to myself, "there is no way that I would get up in front of a group and teach!" Now here I am. But it is so easy! Client Casework is what I love to do and it is just a simple thing to pass on the information that I have learned over the time I have volunteered there.

But I still need to get up the nerve to donate blood. Last time I did that was at a blood drive in high school...when it was over and I stood up, I nearly fainted and had to lay down.

I got to have Emily and Joshua for the weekend! We had a really fun time. Saturday we went up the gorge to take pictures some of the falls with my friend Bonnie. Bonnie is a friend of mine from from the thrid grade when our family moved from Portland out to Boring. Our Moms became friends being room mothers at Cottrell Grade School and we hung out together a lot. We lost touch after school and then met up again a few years ago at out high school class reunion. We found out that we both like taking pictures and meet up and go take pictures now and then. So anyway, Emily and Joshua like to hike and they like to take pictures so we took them along with us. It was a chilly day, but we had fun and didn't get rained on. We even were able to have a picnic lunch. Emily and I went clothes shopping in the evening while Grandpa stayed home and played Mario on the DS and Age of Empires on the computer with Joshua. We had Chinese take out for dinner. Then on Sunday, we went to the Hood Theater and saw 'Bolt'. I like how they make animated shows interesting for kids and adults. It was pouring rain when we left the theater, so that is why Emily is making a run for the car in the picture. Later in the afternoon, we went to Great Grandma and Grandpa McCool's and had pizza with them at their place. It is always so much fun to have them around, deciding which one is going to sleep with me, what we are going to have to eat for every meal, what shape their pancakes are going to be in, and just where Joshua is going to stick his new toothbrush. (check out the picture again) (double click on it to make it bigger)

I've been going through the recipes from Molly's cookbook and decided that I should try one of her bundt cakes. The way she describes them makes them even more enticing...like it is not only a bundt cake, no, it is topped with a fresh orange topping you make up and serve while it is all warm. It just makes you want to sink your teeth in right now! The one I thought I should try first was one with blue berries and raspberries. Since I have a freezer full of berries from the garden last summer, I figured it would work out perfectly, even though I was not sure if frozen would work in the recipe, I think it was written for fresh ones. But then I looked over the recipe once more before I started and wouldn't you know it...I'm fresh out of Kirsch (well, we did have a bottle once when our friends from Switzerland brought us one when they visited)...and the liquor store is closed on Sunday. OK, so I decided to make the Buttermilk Vanilla Bundt..oh, no...I don't have a vanilla bean. So I decided to go to the store and get one...also, take a look and see if there is any kirsch in the wine section...(there was not)...BUT! Did you know that ONE vanilla bean is $14.99??? No way! For one cake? I have to find a better place to buy them. Since they grow them in the Dominican Republic, I am going to see if Jessi can get them for me and send them here...even with international postage, I am sure that it is not going to cost $15 dollars to make a cake. So I came home and remembered that magneted to the fridge is a recipe for a bundt cake that I ripped out of the Oregonian last week. Tiger Cake is what it is called. Chocolate and vanilla swirl. It sounded kinda different...well, REALLY different...it has you use olive oil instead of the regular oil and of all things...WHITE PEPPER. Pepper in a cake? Well, I do have white pepper (and it did not cost anything near $15), so why not? I gave it a try. It is fantastic! I can taste the pepper, but it is not like it tastes like pepper but it is sweet like a cake should be, kinda hard to describe what I mean, but it is GOOD. It was such a surprise when I sliced off a piece and there were all those swirls. When I layered it into the pan, I really didn't expect it to swirl the way the recipe said it would. But it really does just do its own thing in the oven like it said it would.

Orangette It was accidental that I found her blog. John was on his computer playing 'the game' and I was on mine. I was bored, and decided to have a look at some other people's blogs, so I pressed that little 'next blog' button on the top of my blog and began going through some other blogs. You randomly find all kinds of blogs...you find them in every language, you find things you really don't want to look at at all, some even have music to listen to while you read. I was just hopping through them, when I landed on 'Orangette'. Her writing was so nice to read, humorous and captivating. Along with each entry, she included a recipe and picture that tied in with what she wrote. Well, I love to read and I love to cook and you know I love to take pictures, so I marked it as a favorite and kept going back to see what she put on each week. Not only did I like her style of writing, I liked her recipes. One of the first ones I tried was for granola. It is easy and really good and healthy, made with applesauce to stick it together. I make it all the time now. Another one that stands out is a cheesy tomato pasta that I can't stop eating when I make it. Just tonight I made her tomato soup, which includes of all things, chopped cilantro stems and jalapeno. It is fantastic! Well, a few months back she announced on her blog that she was writing a book, and later on we could pre-order one. Then that she was going to have a book signing. I looked over the list of places she was signing and sure enough, she was on the list for Portland, at Powell's Bookstore. So last night after we had our little birthday dinner for Lindy, I drug Lindy and Cyndi with me to get my book signed. Just what Lindy wanted to do for her birthday. I have never been to a book signing before. It was really fun. Molly Wizenberg is her real name. The name of her book is 'A Homemade Life'. She read the first chapter of her book (her chapters are really short), then she answered questions and began signing. I know she has quite the following on her blog, but was amazed to discover that there are about 8-10 THOUSAND who go to her blog EACH DAY! Amazing! Next thing I plan on doing is going to Seattle where her husband is going to be opening up a restaurant named 'Delancey'. They hope to open sometime in May if all goes as planned. Just in case you want to take a look at a REAL blog, here is the link. http://orangette.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday, Lindy!
Last night we went to the Old Country Kitchen and had happy hour food for dinner to celebrate Lindy's birthday. After that we went to Powell's Bookstore in Portland for a book signing. (which had NOTHING at all to do with Lindy's birthday)