Living A Simple Renaissance

And they just took her to the sea for the first time. Now they're under, under, underneath a big umbrella...

2012-02-08T13:01:00.000-08:00

Family outings are a some of my favorite days. Sure, I love kicking back on a Friday afternoon when Ben gets home from work and looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home with no events going on, but there is nothing like getting up at a crazy hour and hitting the road for a getaway...and a getaway with the love of my life and my sweet Shapirti.

This past weekend was such a weekend. We had already planned on being on the western side of the state for a tea party and staying with some good friends, but when Ben got home from work and checked the weather reports he asked if I wanted to hit the beach...

HA!!!

Would I like to hit the beach?!?!?

Oh, would I ever!!!

So, we had a dress rehearsal to make sure we had all of the pieces belonging to our Regencey era outfits, went to the grocery store (all dressed up...you should've seen the looks we got!!! The "I'm staring at you and taking pictures of you on my phone while acting like I'm not looking at you" people are my favorite.), came home for a quick dinner, packed our suitcases and went to bed.

4:30 am rolled around and phone vibrated.

Ugh.

I don't like early mornings that come after late nights.

4:35 was shower time.

Ben, my wonderful, thoughtful, amazing, sweet, kind, knight in shining armor husband made me some tea.

Nothing like hot tea on an early morning.

5:11 we were in the car all bundled up and heading for the coast.

After the car tires rolled for a while 7:30 rolled around and this was our view:

Shapirti was hungry, so I fed her and then we went to Trader Joe's for some food stuff (and my wonderful, thoughtful, amazing, sweet, kind, knight in shining armor husband bought me another SD card for my camera since I forgot it at home) and then we drove for a few more minutes until we made it to Wilder Ranch...a state park on the beach!

We tumbled out of the car, grabbed the stroller and jam-packed it with stuff and went for a beautiful stroll.

Shapirti loves to take walks. She's getting so big and she looooves to sit up and take in God's beautiful creation with her big blue eyes.

She also gets a ton of attention from passerby's...sometimes they offer to take a family picture for us!

Just around the corner from the train tracks. Ahhh...I love the ocean.

I've been to the coast several times since Ben and I were married...we took our mini-moon up the California coast...Hwy 1 is one of the most beautiful roads in the country.

And no matter how many times I've been to the coast, I am still amazed at this incredible creation... The crashing sound of the waves on the rocks, the way the curl as they head towards the shore, the power, the majesty, the fear they invoke, the calming effects of the smell, feel and sound...the way the water moves as one...it's just all so overwhelmingly amazing.

We stood on the cliff for quite a while watching as the waves would build and come crashing upon the rocks where we stood.

On the edge looking down...and it's quite a way down there! We never got sprayed, but there were some seagulls near us that kept getting showered by the waves coming up to the cliff. It was most amusing.

There he is...the man I love so much.

Shapirti had been sleeping, but when we stopped she woke up. We put her gauze blanket over the stroller to keep the sun out of her face, but when she woke up she found a way out.

She wanted to see the ocean, too!

More water. Sorry for all of the water shots. :P

Ben ran back to the car to grab the sunscreen. I remembered to pack it, but I didn't get it in the swim bag.

I ditched the coat shortly after this picture was taken...it was that warm!!

Do you see the sandy beach over to the left? Yeah, right below the green grass? That was our little beach. A pretty, quiet, deserted beach.

We climbed down, bringing the stroller with us. Honest, we did! See the stroller marks on the sand?

*sigh* Lovely view, isn't it?

Oh, and do you see the cliff off in the distant? That's where we were standing when I took all of the water pictures above.

Wuv.

No passerby's to take a picture, so we used the self timer. Oh, it was sooo beautiful out there!

Homeschooling on the beach.

"Daddy!!!! There's something attacking my feet!!!!!"

Baby feet in the sand.

Okay, that was pretty self-explanatory...

Baby loves the beach. Look at that cute face!

Ben had so much fun with her this trip. Last time we were at the beach, she didn't do much...she just kind of sat around. This time she was very interested in everything!

"Daddy, that's the stuff that was sticking to me!"

I just love her expression in this picture. She loved it when Ben would bury her feet. She'd get sooo excited when she pulled them out.

My cutie-pies.

Daddy love is good...daddy love on the beach is very good!

On the hunt for trouble.

While baby and I played with the sand, Ben was off to explore. He loves the coast, too. The animals fascinate him.

"Okay, seriously...enough pictures yet?"

Our time quickly escaped us and around 2:00 we were back on the road to visit our good friends, the Buciaks. Once we arrived at their lovely home, we got our things set up, I finished sewing buttons on Ben's waistcoat, and we freshened up for the party.

Here's my dapper looking husband just sitting down for tea.

Across the table (on the right) was our dear friend, Morgen and a new acquaintance, Meg.

Our good friends and our host and hostess, Joe and Mary Fatula of Lumenaris. This is the only picture I got of them. :( They hosted a loverly party, and we so look forward to more!

Yes it's very possible to look goofy when you're all dressed up.

The game of the night. Morgen and I were dead set on making Knox win...

...especially since he was Kitty Bennet and was hoping to lose.

Joe was kind enough to lend a hand.

What do you mean no shots?!?!

Oh, come, Knox! The public in very interested!

He's got a pretty nice scar underneath that bandage.

Later on in the game he needed some help from Ben.

We were successful. Knox won. *grin*

Our little party. There were more people at the event, but this was our table, minus our lovely hostess, Mary.

Okay....you didn't see this one.....

The next morning, Lilyana was soaking up all of the attention that Chandler and BJ lavished on her. Food, friends, cozy outfit...yeah, it's a good life.

BJ was so funny with that phone...he took so many pictures of Lilyana!

We hit the road again, this time heading South. It was a beeeeautiful drive! Such a view!

No tripod means self portraits taken with long arms.

We pulled off to take a quick picture and Lilyana decided that she was hungry. So grabbed our blanket, some snacky things and sat down on the cliff to eat with this view. Yeah, it would be a nasty fall down there.

A BLIMP?

Yeah, that's what we said. We didn't think that the pilot knew what he was doing...he kept getting closer and closer to the ocean and going in circles. Once we got pretty close to him, though, he moved on.

I want a Blimp.

So, if you feel the need to donate to my Blimp fund, please let me know.

I'll give you a ride in it!

We finally found a beach! Once you get South of Big Sur, there aren't very many beaches until you reach San Simeon. But we found a nice place where we ate some lunch and went beachcombing.

I snapped this picture, and then my battery died. :( And, being me, I left my spare battery at home. :(

The tide was coming in, but we had fun walking, finding shells, seeing the HUGE Elephant Seal (which I didn't get a picture of because my camera was dead and I couldn't get a good shot on my phone), and strolling back to the car. I did get one more shot on my phone, though:

My sweet Shapirti is finally getting some teeth. She hasn't been in too much pain...a little discomfort and some achy ears, but she's been an angel about it! I seriously love this girl.

Okay, that was pretty long, wasn't it?

Have a loverly afternoon...and thanks for stopping by!

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

Tiffany for BLT

Be prepared...

2012-02-02T10:28:00.000-08:00

Being prepared is always a good thing...one never knows what is just around the corner, so it's always best to be prepared for the unexpected....how one is to go about doing that is beyond me, but it sounds like good advice, eh?

In this post, however, be prepared for lots of pictures of Lilyana. She is just too cute, and wherever she is, the camera is there also. *grin* Since getting back into our own little lives with our crazy big schedule, I haven't had the camera as handy as it should've been. I even missed a HUGE rainbow the other day because, as I said before, it was napping in the nursery along with the napping baby in the nursery.

However, I do hope that pictures of our very late Christmas (we celebrated on Saturday...I know...Christmas was last month...but when you have three different Christmases every year, it's hard to fit them all on the same day, same week, or even same month!) and of Lilyana just being cute!

Ben decided to bake bread one afternoon....and yes, I said afternoon. He looked so cute sitting in front of the oven watching and waiting.

Time to brush the loaf with some water to get that puuuuuuuuuuuufect crust!

He used Julia Child's recipe and misread the instructions...we were up until 1am finishing the loaf.

But it was a very good loaf of French Bread...and I mean, reeeeeally good!

Lilyana is so pleased with herself...now that she knows she can get ALL over the house and into EVERYTHING she's always on the lookout for trouble...with a capital T. (Had to fit a musical reference in here...)

She loves to army crawl to her toy basked under the coffee table and pull out some goodies. One of her very favorite toys is her wooden Pooh Bear box. Full of our favorite characters, it provides many an hour of enjoyment for her!

Lilyana looking inside for the next victim...

Oh! How about this one?

Mmmmm! Tasty!

Okay...ready to move on....

Which one, which one?

Hum-dee-dum...they're all gone...

Pondering the deep things in life.

She loves to feel things. She's always feeling the floor when she crawls around, or my sweater... Her newest discovery is dragging her finger along the wood floor and making it squeak. That just cracks her up!

We finally got around to celebrating our Christmas! One of the gifts hadn't arrived, so we decided to wait until it came in...which meant that we listened to Christmas music ALL MONTH!!!

Lilyana feeling the sparkles on her present. I can't believe that we didn't get a picture of her "Baby's 1st Christmas" ornament! We bought her an antique silver baby spoon made in 1911...100 years before she was born. We thought it was pretty cool! Now we need to get it engraved!

We had appetizers for dinner on Christmas Eve...lots of yummy, delicious food!

Christmas morning came bright and early! I was up making cinnamon rolls for breakfast and once Lilyana woke up we sat down with some nice hot tea and opened gifts while the cinnamon rolls were rising. As you can see, Lilyana is fascinated by the bow on her gift. What could be better than a paper bow?!?

Her sheepskin, of course! Once she got it out, she had completely forgotten about the bow.

Good advertisement picture? *grin*

Ben opened his gift from "His Girls' and it was wrapped in the Wall Street Journal...so he started reading the paper...upside-down...

Judging by the look on his face I say: SCORE!!!!!!!! An old book that he'd never heard of! Once we're done reading The Frozen Pirate we're moving onto this one...Khaloola by William Starbuck. It looks sooooooo good!

What could be better than a hand-made beeeeautiful leather journal?

Okay, Filet Mignon, Carrot Souffle and Reduced Spinach in a white wine/cream sauce...yeah, I guess that is better... :)

Our Christmas dinner. Lilyana was exhausted after a long and fun day...and she wanted to try out her sheepskin...so just like old times, it was just the two of us at the dinner table.

Now...we're off to a Regency tea party/game night on Saturday, so check back for pictures of that! :)

Tiffany for BLT

On the move...

2012-01-21T19:06:00.000-08:00

The inevitable has finally happened. Ending an illustrious career as a professional paperweight, the child is now exploring potential jobs in the floor polishing field. Her stomach makes for a perfect cleaning surface, as is shown by the dingy fronts her clothes are all sporting.

Having a hardwood floor has proved quite mentally invigorating for the little munchkin. Like a miniature Mars Rover, she slowly claws her way across the inhospitable surface of the floor, stopping only to examine each and every minute discoloration or ripple that crosses her path, soon losing interest, and moving on to the next fascinating discovery.

Moving backwards has proved more difficult, as was shown by her getting stuck beneath a chair, with no way of escape. It was rather amusing, despite her obvious distress. She was quickly rescued, and returned to her wanderings.

We uploaded a video of her scooting for her teething tablets (or "happy pills", as we call them), which you can enjoy here:

All that scooting has her working up quite an appetite, so we thought we would include a couple of our favorite mealtime pictures.

Slimy, but satisfying.

"Give me the food, and nobody has to get hurt!!!!"

Later,

BFH

Today is the LAST day!!!

2012-01-20T09:28:00.000-08:00

If you haven't entered yet, be sure to submit your poem before midnight tonight to be in the contest!

Three essential oils and a set of roll-on fitments will go to our winner!

For more details, click here!

A Valentine's Day Giveaway at Simple Scents!

2012-01-16T10:31:00.000-08:00

Over on our Simple Scents site, we're hosting a giveaway for a three-pack of essential oils and a package of 10 roller-fitments (use these to convert your bottles of YL oils into roll-on applicators!)!

We use these three blends all winter long! Purification to cleanse the air from sick germs, R.C. to clear congestion, and Thieves almost daily to ward off sick-bugs! Wherever we go, these oils go, too! A must have set for the winter season...especially in large families! Keep the sick-bugs at bay with what we like to call our "Stay Sick-Free" set!

All you have to do is write a Valentine's Day poem and submit it here. The deadline to enter is FRIDAY the 20th. The poems will be numbered and posted on our Simple Scents website next MONDAY the 23rd and you will have until FRIDAY the 27th to get your loved ones and friends to vote passionately for YOU to win! The winner will be announced on SATURDAY the 28th!

Poems MUST begin with:

Roses are red....

Are you up for the challenge?!?! If so, click here to enter!!

Lilyana hopes that YOU win!!!

Life moves on and so must we...

2012-01-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

When we go back east and visit my family, there is usually never a quiet or dull moment. The house is full of children and their various noises; the pitter-patter of little feet (Ben: Stomping of a herd of elephants is more like it!), their hysterical laughs, the silly jokes...it keeps us going from the moment we get up until they go to bed. Our last few days seemed to fly by really fast and before we knew it, the suitcases were packed and waiting to be loaded. Looking over these pictures brought back many good memories, and I hope you enjoy sharing in them as much as I did remembering the many happy moments...

Grandmommy loves little girls...she has many of her own, but granddaughters are different.

The sticker says it all.

Uncle Bubba sharing some special time with his little niece.

Jessica and Lilyana share a love for frilly clothes...and Jessica loves stuffing her niece into very frilly (and obnoxiously bright) outfits...thankfully she thought that this little dress was cute enough for the day.

We were nice this year and bought Abigail a present that she had to assemble. Keep reading to find out what it was!

Grandma Vogel was tickled pink to see the baby again. In May she will be much bigger!

There is lots of goofing off in the house...and there is never a short of horse rides for babies.

Awwwww!

Look into my eyes...so deep, so blue.

Grandpa knows how to get his girls smiling.

This picture just cracks me up! She really does like William!

BIG smile!

We had soooo much fun when the Riggenbach's came over to visit and play games. Lilyana was loving the extra attention!

Jessica has this thing for cardboard celebraties...

The headless Hector boys at Express...in age order (left to right):

Ben, Thomas, Matthew, Nic and Anton...the only one missing is Jonathan!

I'm gonna eat you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good food at Chicago Hut...see, the sign says so!

We say so, too! We looooove their Gyros!

The two little ones waiting for food.

Ahhh!!! This little one is still waiting for that food! Now, if it had been pear sauce, she would be chowing down!

Okay...just because I have chubby cheeks doesn't mean that you get to squeeze them all of the time...

When we showed Lilyana the Rat Pack, she really took to Frank.

Huh...Elvis is following Jess!

Hiya Tink!

Late nights mean late mornings. Ahhh, it's just like being back home!

The green overhead lights tickled her fancy. She's easily amused...

Frozen yogurt is a big California thing...so when we saw a new frozen yogurt shop open, we loaded the kiddos up and took them out for a treat!

The poster child...they should seriously consider using this shot for their ad campaign...

Mmmmm...William couldn't stop eating long enough to get a picture. :)

Sharing some special moments with the baby on the last night. It would be soooo wonderful to have the family close by...

Jessica bringing out the good stuff. (Haagen-daz is better!)

Mom made the really good stuff....Bananas Foster is a McDonald family tradition! (You just can't beat lighting food on fire!)

Lost in thought.

Abigial's finished sewing book!

We bought it from Lumenaris and she really had a blast embroidering it and assembling her book.

On our way to the airport, we stopped by Toyota Park so that Ben could meet with the Chicago Fire soccer team. He does some work for them, so face time is always a good thing...

....and so are tours of the stadium!!!

Though we don't know much about soccer, we all had sooo much fun getting the grand tour!

Ahh!!! Girls in the locker room!

No caption needed.

Lilyana and the head coach...Frank Klopas. I guess she likes the name Frank...

All of us in the home team locker room.

After lunch at Panera Bread, we said our teary farewells to the family, rushed through the airport and headed back to the west coast.

Lilyana was tired and actually slept for some of this flight. When she wasn't sleeping, she was a chipper fun little girl...a travelling angel!

She's getting back into her regular routine and adjusting to life without a bunch of baby-sitters to entertain her all day. Oh, and she celebrated her 9 month birthday on the 11th!!! Can you believe it's been that long? I can't....

Follow the setting sun and it will lead you here....home where it is warm.

Check back very soon for details on our Valentine's Day giveaway!!!

Ben for President!!!

2012-01-06T12:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, so maybe not for president...or at least, not yet! *grin* He's still a little young, and I don't want him to go grey too early!!

BUT, you can go here and vote for him to win a free tie for having the best bow tie fashion! Isn't he nicely dressed? I bought him the bow-tie for his Christmas present...cute, eh?

Oh, and baby is just darling, isn't she?!?!

SO!!! Go vote for Ben!!!!

...And all through the house

2011-12-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

Because of the popular demand of the masses, I, Benjamin Francis Hector the First (and only, if I have my way with the naming of future male progeny...), will descend from the ivory bastions of intellectualism and dirty my fingers with the pleasant task of writing a blog post. Be merry, dear readers, in the style of the season.

Christmas Day did dawn in a highly pleasant manner. Far different from the "Glorious Morn" in California, which seems to start at an ungodly hour (especially distressing considering it's status as a supremely godly day), in this house the children stay in bed until summoned. Due to that supremely wise dictum, I pleasantly slept until 0830hrs. This rule is likely to be incorporated into the Ben Hector family law-book.

After that, rules go out the window, and chaos does ensue. One can almost see the wrapped packages cringe when the rabid eyed hounds are released, but "not such hounds as mortal eyes have seen!" One of them could be best described in the words of the great Arthur Conan Doyle: "Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smoldering glare, its muzzle and hackles were outlined in flickering flame."

Terrifying, is he not?

The baby looks highly distressed.

Merry Christmas toes, and Aunt Jill's socks. Why is it girls can get away putting up pictures like this?

Before any presents are opened, the Christmas Story is read. The baby found her Grandpa's reading quite engrossing.

Or maybe it was his thumb?

The irreconcilable difference between these faces makes me wonder what they are looking at....

Oh, now we know. James is jealous. He wants a cigar too!

This is an actual quote from Emma: "I got Elephant Perfume!" Say what?!!?!?

Time for the baby to unwrap her own present.

Notice the similarity in grip. Such poise, such talent!

Rip it!

Break for a quick snack.

What is it, what is it?

"You got me clothes, seriously?!?!"

"Well, I guess this is cute."

Stiff upper lip, and all that.

Jessica likes this advice.

Dad got a bow tie. Bow Ties are cool!

Hats, they are very useful for holding in your brains, in the event of a skull failure.....

A foodie baby contemplates the fabric crawdad, obviously wishing it were eatable.

Cordially yours.....

The aunties have been teaching Lilyana how to blow kisses. Blowing, check, kissing....still trying.

I suspect McMom, in the living room, with the candlestick.

Oooh, pretty tree!

One specially made headband. (My wife makes these, if you want to buy one!)

Bubble wrap hats, just in case!

The McDonald family has an odd tradition of giving the menfolk boxers on Christmas. This year they made the mistake of giving a pair to "Superman"!

Yep, I'm a trendsetter.....

James doesn't quite have the fashion sense of Caleb and I.

Dad showing off his new bowtie.

Two very snazzy looking people.

Real baby, meet fake baby.

Ha! I'm definitely cuter than you!

Taking a break for some food!

Two girls, all dressed up for dinner!

Ok, I need to get some teeth!

Now you have a look into the inner sanctum of Christmas morn.

Later,

BFH

'Twas the night before Christmas....

2011-12-27T12:46:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve usually means relaxing, talking, goofing off, eating hors'devoures for dinner, lighting the great candelabra and playing games until the candles go out... This year was just that...a wonderful evening with just the family. We played Abstractables (a game developed by some friends of ours) instead of the usual Cranium and I think that everybody enjoyed it. Since I was only able to choose 60 of my favorites from the favorite picture list, I decided to break the Christmas posts up. The next installment should be up tomorrow!

Our "Christmas Eve" started with going to church in the morning. Lilyana was enjoying her Aunt Lily before she saw me...then she decided that she was hungry.

We headed home soon after service to begin the Christmas Eve festivities...

Since goofing off is on the list of things to do, Melissa decided that wearing a ballerina duck was fitting.

Lilyana chose to be the one to relax. She deemed chillin' in daddy's lap while munching on fingers quite appropriate.

The girls weren't interested in talking, so they ate lemons instead.

Joshua wanted to help make the hours'de'vours, so he was given the juicing job.

Phew! That is hard work!!!

One more Advent reading until we were able to light the Christ candle. Lilyana loves sitting with Grandpa while he reads.

The boys were pretending to be the magi...

Mmmm, Grandpa's thumb is taaaaaaasty!

Food!!!! Glorious food!!! When there are a bunch of girls in the house, hors'de'voures make a very good dinner.

Goofing off with Aunt Jill is always fun.

Dad working on something...

...and the guys guessed it!

Melissa had to build E.T. and surprisingly Jill guessed it!

So! Check back tomorrow for the next installment! Ben is trying to talk me out of posting "an obscene amount of pictures" so we'll see how many we end up with.... If you want to see them my selection, then leave a comment telling Ben that! *grin*

Tiffany for BLT

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T17:36:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

We hope that you have a very blessed Christmas season!

With love,

Tiffany for BLT

Walking in a winter wonderland...

2011-12-21T14:56:00.000-08:00

...but not a snow filled one, this year. The grass is still greenish and the lake still isn't frozen...Ben is bummed since he finally remembered his ice skates this trip! :( Oh well....I'm kind of enjoying being able to run errands without feeling like I'm always muddy, cold and wet!

Before leaving home on Tuesday morning, Ben and I made Christmas cookies for friends, family and our neighbors. His grandmother started this tradition long ago, and this year Ben carried on that tradition. We had a grand time baking together and frosting all of the cookies. We even got to eat a few! See:

Ben tests our finished Christmas cookies before we went out to give them to our neighbors. If you didn't see the other camera in this picture, he is getting his first bite on video. Have I mentioned that he likes his new toy?

Our little "snow angel". This was Lilyana's first time to be all bundled up, and we hadn't even left California, yet! She was quite the charmer and brought a little bit of her own Christmas cheer to the neighbors that night. Next year, she'll be running around!

"Smiling is hard work...can't we just look cute and tired?"

The next morning, at 3:30, we were up and showering and putting the last minute luggage into the car. We made it to the Bay Area in plenty of time...arriving at 5:30. We took a nap in the car before heading over to the airport. Lilyana was a little ball of energy all day.

See? I told you so! She was stopped by lots of people in the airport...it's so fun to see her throw a small ray of sunshine into the lives of people we've never met.

After our nap, we rushed over the airport, and in the hurry, we forgot to grab her toys from her carseat. :( So what do you do with an 8 month old on an airplane? Give her a spoon, of course! We also had some baby food, which made her very happy.

We arrived without any problems and Lilyana was tickled pink that she didn't have to be quiet, or stuck on a lap, or in a seat. She gets more expressive everyday!

I brought our new favorite family game with me, so that my family could enjoy it, too. We bought it from some friends of ours and usually describe it as Pictionary with little wood pieces that you can play with. Here you see Jessica's version of "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere"...and nope, we didn't get it either...

My poor baby caught another cold, only this one is also tummy related. :( As I'm writing this, she's napping on her father's lap...but thankfully, she hasn't thrown up in about an hour! We put some Di-Gize oils on her tummy, and life has looked better!

Now for some other excitement:

'Twas a week before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring....

EEEEEEEK!!!! Except for a MOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jill was sitting in the chair telling us a story when she quietly (quietly so as not to get screams for a reaction) said, "Ummmm, there's something in your kitchen...." Can you guess what happened next?

Yup....

Screams.

Oh well...she tried!

After things calmed down a bit (and the mouse got away), Aunt Jill spent some time with Lilyana reading spiiiiiiiider books to her.

Because smiling is too easy.

Jessica introduces Lilyana to the Happy Hockey Family...a very fun family for those of you who haven't met them, yet.

Tutu-cute!!!! When you grow up in a house of mostly girls, tutus are high on the priority list. When you grow up in a house of mostly boys, things like guns and camo come first.

William likes to get himself caught in very interesting positions. Stuck is usually where he ends up.

Girls who are as pretty as a picture! Oh, and pretty in a picture, too!

Lilyana brings more holiday cheer as she sports Aunt Jessica's Santa hat.

And to close this post, I'll leave you with a picture of my little sickie and her daddy.

Grandpa prayed with her and now we're just waiting for her little perky self to come back.

As we continue to enjoy our visit, we'll try to post more pictures! :)

With love and a hearty "Merry Christmas" (just in case we don't make it back before then),

enjoy your Christmas season!

Oh, where to start?

2011-12-17T07:04:00.000-08:00

Ben is joining me today!!!! I know, I know...it's been a loooooooooooooong time since you've seen him around these here parts, but as he says, "Hey! I've got to make the money for the family and pay for all of your outlandish blogging..." Which I guess is true...especially since he forgot to call AT&T this month....

Ben, baby and I flew out to see my family on Tuesday, so we're writing this from the great, albeit snow-less midwest. My parents have some really comfy couches...all we need to complete the cozy picture are Ben's very famous chocolate milkshakes and the roaring fireplace...only it doesn't roar...or crackle...but it's warm and that is all that matters, right? Of course right.

Ben says, "Thank you, Yente." From here on out, Ben's comments will be in italics.

As I stated in a previous post, these pictures were from Thanksgiving...sorry for the lateness of the post. Enjoy!

Because we love food, we thought we should post this of our dinner one night before Thanksgiving. This was a last minute "We whipped it up in 30 minutes" meal. Alfredo pasta with reduced spinach and sausage.

Lilyana loves food, too. She's our foodie baby. I need to find a bib that says that.

Someday she will get better food than mashed veggies.

My new toy...we love having camera wars...I always win.

I beg to differ...

I mean, who's finished products do you usually see?!?!?

*grin*

Humph!

I love carrot juice.

Do you love carrot juice?

I love carrot juice.

Boys and their........oysters.

Yum?

Okay, so oysters are good in the Oyster Dressing!

Is that a pirate ship?

What do May-flowers bring??? Pilgrims!!!

I have no idea what Ben was making here...but as we all know, he's a fantabulous chef, so it must have been something tasty! I don't remember either, so no comment.

PIE!!!!!!!!!!!

Someday, baby...someday.

Lilyana was being entertaining, as usual, and when we looked up from our seat, we saw the three wise men.

Not even a year old, and already hounded by the paparazzi!

Baby: You messa with me, you messa with my papa....

Ben: You betta listen to the kid, if you don't wanna get hurt. (said in his best Italian mob voice)

April Fools!!!!

Yeah, it's a little late....

Baby: Dad...you're strange...

Say cheeeeeese!!!!

Ben: Baby, you're weird...

You read too much into facial expressions, Tiff.

Next to Oyster Dressing, pies are the best part of the Thanksgiving dinner. (I think the pies are best!) This year we only had a few different pies...apple, pumpkin, apricot...

...and a first for me, this year...Cherry Pie!! Definitely a hit... It was probably the port that did it.

Great. Now that I've seen the pictures I'm craving it now...

I'm not a huge fan of apple pie, but it's an American tradition that must be kept. I love apple pie!

Ben's famous apricot pie. Ain't it purty?
All art is autobiographical. When you figure out what that means, let me know.

Lilyana is still too young for pie, so she got smushed pumpkin! Yay? Ugh, small consolation...

Uncle Thomas thinks so.

I think it was good training for him...he'll be doing this with his own baby next year!

Lilyana was teaching Aunt Lindsey that resting time with babies usually means getting whacked in the face...or scratched...or another something violent along those lines.

Upon arriving home, Ben and baby got really sick. The only thing worse than being sick is being sick at the same time as your child. 30 minutes of sleep at a time is almost deadly. We had our diffuser running 24/7 with different essential oils and applied Frankincense and the Thieves blend regularly. I called my mom for other suggestions and placed a quick order through Young Living. I'll be writing a review for the Raven and R.C. blend pretty soon...those are oils that I definitely cannot live without!

As is our tradition, the Christmas tree up right after Thanksgiving. Since we won't be in our home for Christmas day, we don't have a real tree...but it's still cute! Lots of stories behind our ornaments!

Lilyana enjoyed watching her daddy put the angel on the tree...one day she'll be "helping" him.

See? Isn't it cute? There are presents under it now!

It's still fake.

One of the perks to living in the Golden State is that when the citrus is in season, we drink LOTS of FRESH squeezed orange juice! Okay, now I'm craving that....

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" or "All the leaves are brown"? California dreaming.....

Our yard...well, before it was raked. We didn't have a rake! We now have a rake. It is a cool rake.....

And so that brings y'all up to date with our doings...stay tuned for vacation pictures!!! Bye everyone. Don't forget to floss!

Pumpkin Scone Recipe...and a WINNER!!

2011-11-29T12:46:00.001-08:00

We didn't hear back from our first winner, so we put all of the names back into a hat and drew another name:

*drumroll*

Katie Hebert

is our NEW WINNER!!!

Katie, please contact us at theophania at gmail dot com to claim your prize!

With the cooler seasons upon us, I'm sure that many of you are enjoying pumpkin dishes galore! We bought some pie pumpkins earlier this year and cooked them up recently. Toasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pies, pumpkin soup, etc... BUT, one of our new favorite breakfast dishes are pumpkin scones! Since we enjoy them, I thought I'd share my recipe:

Pumpkin Scones

Serves 8

2 cups whole wheat flour (or mix half of wheat with half of all-purpose)
2 tablespoons evaporated cane juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold butter
1 C pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 tablespoons buttermilk (add more if the dough is too dry)
1 tsp Vanilla

Stir the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. With a pastry cutter, cut in the cold butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Mix the pumpkin, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla together. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients and gently stir with a spatula until partially combined and then turn out onto the counter. Knead until the dough just holds together. (Over mixing will make the scones tough.)

Pat the dough into a 3/4-inch thick circle. Score the dough into eight pieces.
Bake at 425 for 13-15 minutes or until the scones begin to brown.

Allow scones to cool slightly. Serve with our favorite

"Honey Butter"
1/2 C Softened Butter
1/3 C Honey
2 oz Cream Cheese

Beat all ingredients until smooth.

Thanksgiving pictures up next!

Enjoy...and if you try them, please let us know how you liked them!

And the winner is.....oh, and be sure to look at the fish!

2011-11-21T14:57:00.001-08:00

Ben just ran all of the names through his random selection generator...and the winner is....*drumroll please*

LEAH!!!

Congratulations, Leah! Please email me by the 21st at this address: theophania at gmail dot com to claim your bottle of valor. I'll ship it out to you so that you can enjoy this wonderful blend of oils. If I don't hear from you, we'll pull another name from our "hat"! :)

Thank you all so much for participating in our first giveaway! I have a few more bottles of this blend to giveaway, and we'll be hosting another giveaway soon, so come back to enter for that one!

As promised, I have the pictures from our day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium up and ready for your viewing pleasure! Be forewarned, though, this post contains LOTS of pictures of Lilyana...and jellyfish. :)

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Lilyana loves spending time with her daddy...especially when he reads to her! Since he had to work while we went to play with the fishes, they spent quite a bit of time together before we left.

Before we left the valley, however, we had to stop by and pick pomegranates! Ben is getting some refreshment after picking lots of pomegranates.

Even Lilyana was excited about the pomegranates! She likes them, too!

After munching a few seeds, Ben went back to work. I was in charge of taking pictures and "bucketing" the picked fruit. The boys braved the thorny trees to get the goods.

Our crew minus Grandad, who is standing behind the camera. Four of those tubs are sitting in my house waiting for me to peel them. Once we finished up with the fruit, Ben went back home, Matthew went back up the hill for class, and the rest of us loaded up for the long trek to the Bay Area.

Linds is waiting for something to swim by...but what can it be?

Ahh! It's the otter! Lilyana thought they were pretty cool, but she didn't realize what else she was going to meet!

Uncle Nic introducing her to some fish.

Grandmum and Aunt Sara are petting the sea cucumber. I like the sea cucumber..I want a pet one.

Out on the bird deck, Lilyana sits watching the little birds freeze. We snapped a quick picture and ran back inside where it was warm.

Lilyana visiting with more fish. She loved just sitting there watching them. I wonder what they thought of her.

Out on the big porch, we had a gorgeous view of the ocean and the purty sail boats. Isn't my baby just the cutest little thing ever?

Uncle Thomas, Aunt Lindsey and ?...the happy threesome.

The great octopus was calm and graceful. After hanging out on the glass for a while, he decided to move.

The ground looks a little more comfortable to me. I want a pet octopus, too.

Lilyana talking to some more fish. They had a lot of fish....

THE JELLYFISH ROOM!!! This is one of Ben's favorite parts at the aquarium, and now that I've been there, I know why. Aren't they pretty?

Grandmum and Grandad showing Lilyana the jellyfish.

When she first saw the fish (any kind), she got a bit scared. But as soon as she touched the glass, she was okay with the fish and had a great time watching them!

Didn't I say that there were a lot of pictures of Lilyana and Jellyfish?

They are very interesting creatures, aren't they?

After spending quite a bit of time with them, I want a pet jellyfish, too.

Now...which kind do I want?

Showing my bebe the shark.

She was okay with the flat walls, but when it came to the bubble window that we sat her in, she was much happier out of it.

Oh! And then there are the seahorses!! What amazing animals! So many different kinds, and all so elegant and beautiful!

This one almost looks more like a bug than a seahorse!

And I loooooooove this one! I'll add this to my collection, too!

Oh, and I'll take a sand dollar, too. *grin*

Ben and I are looking forward to taking Lilyana back when she's a bit older. I think she'll enjoy it even more than she did this time!

Oh, and before I go, I want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! Check back tomorrow for a recipe for the holidays! And enjoy this video of my two favoritest people:

Polls are closed....

2011-11-18T08:55:00.001-08:00

The names are in and being counted for the drawing!

Check back on Monday to find out if YOU are the happy winner of Valor!

Until then, check back for pictures of our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium!

The Beginning of The End

2011-11-17T09:51:00.001-08:00

Today is the last day to enter our giveaway for the essential oil blend, Valor! The comment section will be closed at midnight tonight, so if you haven't entered yet, CLICK HERE!

If you would like more information on how you can enjoy these oils, visit our Essential Oil page for all of the details!

Oh, and my Mom just made a video showing how to make your own deodorant with essential oils, so if you're interested in that, click here!

Yes, there are several links today...pictures are coming, soon!

We're so busy, busy, dreadfully busy...more than an octopus, more than an ant!

2011-11-15T12:01:00.001-08:00

Well, I suppose I have no excuse, and yet, I feel obligated to give one. Life has been crazy busy of late, and I mean more than usual. Ben and I were not in charge of running Reformation Day this year, but we were in the play, and that seemed to take up more time than we had originally planned. Outfits had to be made, lines had to be memorized, practices had to be attended, and somewhere in the middle of all that craziness, we had to live as well.

But, Reformation Day is over and life is beginning to get back to normal...once I get my pomegranates peeled and processed, as well as my 80 pounds of apples and my pie pumpkins, that is. *grin* Is there anybody out there who is interested in coming to help? This is mostly a "let me bring you up to date" blog post...I have a ton of pictures to download and was hoping to include a few in this post, but my camera is in my room, and my sleeping baby is in my room too...my sleeping baby happens to really need her sleep right now, so those pictures will have to come later!

For those of you who haven't seen our current giveaway, CLICK HERE for more information on how you can be part of it! It ends on Thursday, so sign up today!

And now...the pictures...

With a hectic schedule, time to research exotic foods had to take a backseat. Ben also has a fractured tooth, so soft foods have been on the menu lately. This was from our Hawaiian week...Chicken Coconut Curry over rice...YUM!

We bought a 1914 era Phonograph recently, and after that acquisition, we've been on the lookout for records! Somebody gave us a HUGE box of records, but most of them were the wrong kinds... Lilyana thought they were great toys, though!

We were really happy to have my sister and her family up for one more visit before they moved back to the Lone Star State. Joshua loves his sunglasses!

"The Boys" have graduated and are moving on to higher education and internships. We had a lovely ceremony up at the Ranch and it was fun to see them surrounded by family and friends as they move on in life.

Craig: Why do I need a papoose?
The Doctor: Alfie wants you attached to him. You are far too slow when he summons you.

Some good friends of ours had these geese who needed to make their new homes in the freezer. Ben has had experience with chickens, so he welcomed the idea of learning to...um...kill...geese. It was....interesting.

As I said above, my baby loves to sleep...and when she doesn't get her naps, she is miserable...so we don't interrupt her when she sleeps.

Reformation Day last year...3 1/2 months pregnant...

Reformation Day this year...complete with our sweet bundle of joy.

And a few more pictures from Reformation Day. A Dragoon and a lady.

The evil Intendent and his men...

Okay, so they are really nice guys!

The scaaaaaary people in the play.

This is only a small group of the "actors"...the rest were out dancing. Joel (two people to the right of Ben) was a great director and we couldn't have done it without him!

And that's all for now...check back soon for more pictures of our latest excursions.

Remember to check out the Essential Oil giveaway for your chance to WIN an bottle of Valor! The contest ENDS on Thursday, so sign up today!

A Renaissance GIVEAWAY!!!!

2011-11-03T15:17:00.001-07:00

Well, today is the beginning of our Young Living essential oil giveaway!

While we were on our recent vacation, I found out that I was allergic to the yellow weeds that were growing along side of the road. I spent a day or two itching and sneezing like crazy...with eyes red and swollen. When Ben saw the sign for the Young Living farm, he knew that I'd be thrilled to pieces to stop in, but he also knew that they would probably have something to help my allergies.

I went into the gift shop and the lady behind the counter was so helpful! She explained that my whole system was out of whack due to my reaction to the weeds and to get me back on the right track, there were two blends that would help me out: Valor and Harmony. After applying Harmony to my sternum and Valor to the bottom of my feet, I began to "normal" again...the sneezing and itching subsided and I could actually enjoy the trip!

So, for our giveaway today, we will be awarding our winner with ONE 15ml bottle of the Young Living Valor blend! Contest Rules are at the end of this post!

I actually use this blend for several things. It was a huge blessing during labor, but I discovered it's many benefits before Lilyana was born. If you massage it into your shoulders before drifting off to sleep, it will help you rest and sleep soundly. After a long day at work (and especially after a long day that was preceded by a long night with baby-o), my husband asks for the Valor massage.

This blend is also called "Chiropractor in a bottle" for it's natural ability to balance and align the body. It's healing properties may reduce trauma to the area if applied to a bruise.

I like to diffuse it around the house on gloomy days since the smell also promotes a balanced, confident mood.

There are a few stories behind the blends at Young Living, and this one is no different. The "recipe" for this blend actually dates back to Ancient Rome. This oil was diffused throughout the barracks and was used one soldiers before going into battle. So, mothers, how many of you needs this each morning?! *grin*

Since we enjoyed our trip to the Young Living farm, we thought we would bring our trip to you!

We weren't sure what to expect when we pulled off of the freeway to get to the Young Living Farm, but after driving a few miles out into the country, we came across this delightful little house set on a beautiful farm, nestled against the mountains in Utah.

The front of the house is dedicated to the process of growing the plants, harvesting and eventually distilling the oils. This was one of Ben's favorite parts of the farm.

Both of us fell in love with this wooden box FULL of herbal collections. I wouldn't mind having a case like that for my sewing tools, or jewelry, or spices.....

The back of the store is full of oils, diffusers, vitamins, blankets, hoodies...cute little place and it smells SOOOO good in there! This was my favorite part... *grin*

We love taking walks and it was so fun to walk the grounds at the farm. Ben and la bebe under the Young Living gate.

Love...true love.

Our little love under the Weeping Willow. She loved taking a stroll.

The pond. They have paddle boats that you can take out on the pond, too! A beautiful place for an outdoor wedding...and yes, they do host lots of weddings in the summer!

I make him pose for lots of pictures, but he's just so cute!! :)

Fields of lavender.

The YL farm is very family friendly, too!

They have this cute little "Western" town with miniature buildings. I don't know when they have programs going on, but this place would make for some cute pictures of children!

Okay, okay...so, yes, I did call the mothers to brag about our stop at the farm!

Two of my favorite colors...green and blue.

After we walked around and spent some money buying oils (gotta love the wholesale discounts you get when you're a member!!!), Ben was interested in seeing where they actually make the oils. I asked the lady in the gift shop and she was more than happy to take us down to the processing area.

We were a few weeks late, though...they had JUST harvested their lavender and distilled the oils! Ben would've been in hog heaven if we had been there during that time! She explained to us that those HUGE pot things (actually called "Cookers" are where they put the harvested plants.

The plants have to be harvested at just the right moment to ensure that the therapeutic constituents are highest. Once the plant realizes that it's coming to the end of the growing season, it stops sending it's nutrients down to the roots and sends it shooting up to the top of the plant to produce seeds for next year. The farmers are out in the field every day when it gets close to the harvest season, picking plants and testing them in the lab.

Once the plants are ready, they put them into these Cookers and then the treat the plants to a nice steam bath! Now, you see that once piece that looks like it's going into the floor...

...well it does! And here is the other end! The bottom stainless steel thing is where the oils meet cool water...not too cold, but just the right temperature to start the gentle cooling process.

The oils and water are combined in this giant glass tube. Oil and water do not mix, but they do separate! So the water comes in just high enough to pus the oils over the top of the plate like thing and then oils drain through that tube into a container that they hook up.

Pretty cool, eh?

This is an old distiller...but Ben wants it! After our tour was done, we headed back to the car and we continued on our merry way! We hope that one day we can go back and be there during the harvest season!

A drive by picture of the fields.

Now, are you ready to win a FREE bottle of Young Living's Valor blend?!?!

HOW TO ENTER (You may enter each way one time. Your name will be entered for each "task" you complete.)

1. Post a link on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or Buzz to this contest page
http://asimplerenaissance.blogspot.com/2011/11/renaissance-giveaway.html and include this hashtag #renaissanceoils

2. Follow our Blog by clicking "Join This Site" on our sidebar.

3. Repost a link to the contest page http://asimplerenaissance.blogspot.com/2011/11/renaissance-giveaway.html on your own blog, then leave the link to that page in the comment section of the contest page (below).

4. Leave a comment in the comment section below this post telling us how which ways you chose to enter.

The contest BEGINS now and ENDS on November 17th at 11:59pm. The winner will be announced on Monday the 20th!

Lilyana hopes that YOU win! She's a happy, essential oil loving baby, too! *grin*

Click here to find out how to sign up to become a Young Living member yourself!

Wrapping up....

2011-10-20T11:03:00.000-07:00

As usual, life has been pretty busy. Ben and I are participating in our church's quickly approaching Reformation Day play, which means costuming! As usual, I have put things off until almost the last minute (I know...one day I'll learn...but sewing requires inspiration!!!), so in between mothering and house-wifing, sewing has managed to squeeze into my daily routine. I'm taking a quick commercial break to posts a few pictures from the last day of our trip, though this one will be short for two reasons...the aforementioned busy-ness and the sad fact that my camera died on the very last day! I managed to keep it going for the whole trip, but on the last day, it was tired. And horror of horrors (well, for wannabe photographers like me), I had to use my phone for a few!!! :(

Next post will be full of pictures and stories from our visit to the Young Living Lavender Farm in Utah. We are also excited to announce that we'll be hosting a giveaway for one of their wonderful blends! So check back soon!

Okay, the sewing machine is calling me...so I'd better run. Enjoy!

Coming back home on 120 means crossing Tioga Pass and driving through the always beautiful Yosemite!

Well pulled off a few times to enjoy the view, breath the mountain air and eventually go for a hike. But, the camera didn't last that long, so we have no photographic evidence. :(

Home...

...sweet home. Yes, my husband was hugging the tree....does that make him a tree hugger? ;)

In other news...other BIG news...guess who turned 6 months old this month?!?!?!

Yup...my little girl is growing up! She couldn't believe it, either! Well, mostly because we let her eat real food! She's been begging for table food for quite a while now, so she was tickled pink when we pulled out her silver spoon (yes, she has one...thanks Grandmommy!!!) and gave her some egg yolk. The video is below...

Not only does she gab all of the time, and smile and coo, and eat her feet, and all the fun things that babies do, but she figured out how to sit up!

She's is trying hard to crawl, much to her father's excitement...I, however, am quite content with her being immobile. Her rolling all over the place already has been pinning her in... This, as you will find out in the video, is her excited face.

Now, doesn't she have the sweetest smile ever?

Okay, time for the video!

Be SURE to check back SOON for our Young Living essential oil giveaway! We have some neat stories about our trip to the lavender farm in Utah and some oils to giveaway!

Even the ghosts have left.......

2011-10-10T09:58:00.000-07:00

Whenever the word "Ghost Town" is mentioned, you automatically have my interest. It is a perfect combination of old, abandoned, and non-structured, which appeals to our family's off the beaten path mentality.

Delamar certainly qualified as being off the beaten path. Sixteen miles off the paved road, we braved several treacherous descents into gullies, and roads that could have been cobblestone, if the rocks would have agreed to sit all at the same level.

Founded in 1894 as a gold mining town, Delamar once boasted a population of 3,000, but while we were there it only had a transient population of the three of us, and a rather large snake, which I could not get Tiff close enough to take a picture of.

The mine shafts are still scattered about the hills, some of them going straight down, and others digging into the mountain. We sadly were without a flashlight, so our exploring of the tunnels was rather limited.

Tiff refused to go very far into the dark recesses.

The baby and I braved the dark.....

After the coolness of the mine, the dry desert air seemed even hotter, but there were ruins to explore!

Even stone walls eventually fall down.

While Tiffany was being artistic, I looked around for buried treasure.

All of the walls were constructed from local stone.

"Tiff, can we take the wall home?"

A window, to let in air....

This was probably part of the line of shops. They once had several stores, and even an opera house!

"Once more, unto the breach..."

The breach is taken!

Sometimes, the smallest part lasts the longest. Poor stovepipe....

I think it needs a little water, and some trees.

Still no treasure.

The mines on the hill, which produced $13.5 millions.

Desert ground, green mountains, a big blue sky... Now, if we could only get some water up there to keep the grass green and to fill a large swimming pool, it would be a nice place to live!

Who lived here?

For sale, well positioned house, quiet neighborhood, wealth nearby. Solid stone walls, could use new roof.

The baby and I, plotting to take home rocks!

The sun sets over the ruins, just as it has for the last 100 years.

We had a delightful time, picking through the old buildings, guessing about what each place was, and who lived and worked there. Several hours passed before we knew it. It was getting dark by the time we left the ruins, but we were still a long ways from our destination. Part three of this day will have to wait for the next post!

Coming up, ALIENS and LOCALS. Oh my!!!!!!!!!

BFH

"As far as the East is from the West..."

2011-09-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

When you travel to certain parts of our country, there are so many wonders to behold. When you consider that the Lord has cast our sins as far as the East is from the West, it sounds pretty far...but when you're standing on top of a mountain looking at the world stretched out before you, going both East and West...going on for miles and miles...as far as the eye can see...it's then that you really get a picture of just how far the East is from the West. This is how I felt on the 5th day of our trip...

Once more, we spent quite a bit of time in the car. When you get to certain parts of certain states, towns are pretty spread out...so to make sure we would have a place to stay, we kept going. We hopped out a time or two to stretch our legs, but other than that, Lilyana entertained herself with her giant plush girafe and we pushed on...

Be forewarned...this post contains lots of scenery pictures...there isn't much to photograph inside of the car, and my camera batter was reeeeeeeeally low, so the amount of pictures continually dropped. :(

As I mentioned above, if you don't keep pushing on when you have the chance, you end up without a place to lay your weary head. After spending what seemed lifetime on that old bumpy road, we found a spot to get some sleep. This is, by far, the best view from our windows!

Okay, okay...so yes, we did end up sleeping in the car! After removing our luggage, food, souvenirs, etc.., and laying the back seat down, we had a cozy little room! Thankfully, Ben packed some JIC items...(for those of you who are like me and have to have your BIL's explain what JIC means, it stands for "just in case".)...two sleeping bags, one wool blanket, pillows, etc... I thought it was freezing outside, but Ben insists that it didn't get that cold...but I'm sure it got close! Lilyana was snug as a bug.

After a quick breakfast and then loading the car back up, we were on our way again! That girafe isn't Lilyana's BIG one, the one she talked to the entire trip, but she loves the pink one, too.

We were unpleasantly surprised to find that just around the corner from our "room" was a lodge.......

Behold the great Fish Lake! This is only part of the lake. It curves around the foot of the mountain on the left and keeps going.

Pops, we should take the sailboat out here!!!!

As we meandered through the state of Utah, we spent a good portion of our drive with this for our view. Ben wants to get some when we build our dream home. :)

See those nasty yellow flowers...they are nasty yellow flowers...had me sneezing and itching like crazy!

I used the YL Thieves spray orally and then put the Harmony blend on my sternum and the Valor blend on the bottom of my feet to help get my system back in order.

As far as the East is from the West is purty far, now, ain't it?

Standing up there makes one feel awfully teeny-tiny...

Ahhh!!!! Where does the road go?!?! And NO guard rails?!?!?!

Ben taking in the breathtaking view. And it's soooo peaceful up there!

We love staying off of freeways and finding back roads...they're usually more fun to drive, and you never know what you'll find! This area of Utah reminds me of "The Garden of the Gods" in Colorado...only BIGGER!

The baby found a cozy place to sit!

The road in front of us...

...the road behind us. I hope we can make this drive again!

We spent the next night in a cute little Western town called Caliente, NV. Since we were already into trains on this trip, we went to see the old train depot in town as well as the museum. Ben and baby appear to be waiting for another train. They may have to step back in time if they want to catch one here, though...

Yes, these happened on the next day, but Ben is going to put up the next post about the ghost town that we visited, so I thought I'd throw these up with this post.

Okay...does anybody in family remember this guy?!?! Maybe not this one in particular, but still....

Getting gas before we head out into no-man's-land is important!

Oh, and I got some Rocket Dogs at this hardware store that turned out to be a small mall inside...go figure.

Ben heard that if you go up the road yonder a bit, hop off in between mile markers 81 and 82, take an old dirt road to a well worn foot path, follow that until you get to the bottom of a little knoll, you can dig around, break rocks and find fossilized Trilobites.

So "Lawrence of Arabia" is digging and looking for one. We actually did get some pieces of the little bugs, and brought home some other rocks to gently break them at home with proper tools. The baby was more interested in her nap, so we decided to do a better job hunting when she's a bit older.

So I'll close this post with a picture of what Ben called "Lauren of A-Babia"...

Check back to read Ben's post on the Ghost Town!!!!

"And it makes me wanna take a back road. Makes me wanna take the long way home..."

2011-09-26T12:13:00.000-07:00

...And that's what we did! There was no rush to get back home and we knew what general direction we were heading in, so we went out to the back woods.

With the exception of one very exceptional stop (more on that later!), we spent most of the next day driving. The view was beautiful, we worked on our lines for the upcoming play and went through our Assyrian cards while snacking and talking...okay, picture time!

As usual, Lilyana was quite perky that morning. A good night's rest, and she was ready to hit the road once more!

In the last post, I put up a picture of our view at night...this is what we woke up to. Purty, ain't it?

Ben and I love staying at Bed & Breakfasts, and this one is definitely on our "favorites" list. It's a beautiful home that was built in 1906 for the same family that built the house we posted pictures of in this previous post. Loverly wood paneling!

Ben is in his element...over-sized dining room, wood foors, beautiful table, breakfast...and a newspaper.

The view from his end. But the paper has his attention at the moment...

...that is, until breakfast arrived!!! Lilyana is getting more and more interested in food! Can you believe that she's ALMOST 6 months old?!?!? :(

After our morning refreshment, Ben challenged me to a game in the billiard room.

I really stink at this game, but playing on an old table in an old house is not an opportunity one should pass up!

One of my favorite rooms in the house! Look at the detail on the wall and ceiling!!!

The grand staircase. We were on the third story, so getting our luggage up and down was...fun! :)

The front of my new dream home! The grounds were beautiful, too! So, if you're ever in Salt Lake City, be sure to book a room here!

And no, they didn't pay me to say that. :)

On our way out of town, we drove by the Mormon Tabernacle. They sure do know how to build a beautiful building!

While heading down the freeway, we passed this huge building. It's a little hard to read...I mean, it was a little hard to get a photo once we realized what it was, so for that to take root in the brain, and then trying to grab the camera in time and snap a photo while cruising down the interstate at 80 mph is a little trying on one's nerves...

BUT...it's the Young Living distribution center!!! We had NO idea that they had one in Utah.

We also passed through a little town called "Benjamin." Since finding a sign with the town name seemed impossible, we settled for second best. :)

Okay, okay....so our BIG stop of the day was...The Young Living farm!!!! When Ben saw the sign on the side of the road, he asked, "Would you like to go?" Ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! How fun! We spent quite a bit of time there, which was nice, because I was suffering from some kind of allergy attack. The ladies there were very helpful and got me set up with some oils.

Since there is SO much to cover from that stop, we'll have a separate post about that later.

Moving on....

Down a small country road, we drove by this little antique shop. Ben got all excited when he realized that he had been here before. The last time he was there was when he was heading out to Illinois for our wedding. The owner was just tickled pink that Ben was back with a wife and baby in tow! And yes, we left the shop with something else to pack into our car. A new/old bedside lamp!!!

We pulled off of the nicely paved road to take this back road into the middle of nowhere to see the world's largest organism, Pando...or 106 acres of Aspen trees that have one massive underground root system. Located in the beautiful park near Fish Lake, Utah, it's quite the drive.

On road was not only blocked by several large rocks that had to be cleared, but we also found this...

The car made it across quite nicely, too!

But our troubles weren't over. A huge fallen tree blocked the road, too. And we thought we took the easier route! There was a "shorter" route, but the sign said that a 4WD Jeep wouldn't make it, so we didn't even consider taking the Subaru down there!

We pulled off to get some pictures and Ben took a quick jog to see the view at the top of the hill.

There are these nasty yellow flowers blooming all over southern Utah that we're really making my allergies go crazy, so I stayed down with the car and the baby and my oils.

Our trusty rig...she remained faithful and kept going, no matter how tough the road appeared to be.

When the little warning signs on the side of the road have a picture of a cow, they are really trying to warn you in Utah!

We got around another corner, and this is the view that Ben saw from his hill. We can practically see all of the way to Illinois!!! Hellooooo family!!!

The Aspen trees.

A beautiful and peaceful drive.

After spending several hours on the road and only traveling about 10 miles, this sign cracked us up!

The sun set very quickly after this photo was taken...we found a place to sleep and it didn't take long for sleep to find us.

Check back for the next installment tomorrow! My baby needs some mommy time...

Tiffany for BLT

That train is a beauty, makin' everybody stare, but its only destination is the middle of nowhere....

2011-09-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

Well, being in the middle of Nowheresville, UT and continuing on into Notown, NV mean Nointernet. And when there is Nointernet, there will be Noblogposts.

BUT, after a few busy days, we stumbled upon a little town with a hotel that offered internet! And since we about to hit the road once again, I'll give you a quick post from our third day away from home!

As you saw from the last post, we stayed in Ogden, which turned out to be a good thing, because Ben left his signature hat at Grandpa's apartment! Which meant that we were able to swing by his place again and have lunch with him! What at treat! This is a view of our hotel from the eleventh floor. Four windows down and the two on the end were ours...

A view down the street. This is the street that my great-grandfather used to walk down every day to get to work. The brick building at the end of the street is the Union Pacific Railway Station, where he worked for so long. They don't use it as a station anymore (which is SOOO sad, because it's SOOOO pretty!), so it is now the museum.

Hey look, Thomas...this guy is afraid of spiders, too!!!!

Lilyana told us that she wanted to take a ride on the Train of Tomorrow

Can you believe that it only took them SIX years to build the Transcontinental Railroad?!? Look how far it went!

These pilings are from the original Trestle Bridge that went across the Salt Lake. It was built in 1902...crazy, huh?

My and my girl!

Lilyana taking a seat on the potbelly stove that my Great-Grandfather donated to the museum. It's new home is in the caboose in the Railroad musuem.

Ben and the baby checking their weight...

They want to drive the train, too!!!!

Cool old signs.

On the way out of the the train museum, they have tracks and tracks of model trains that give an idea of what the original tracks would've looked like. Lilyana LOVED them.

The second picture in this post showed you a view of Ogden from our hotel. Now here is a view of Ogden from the train station! See the red arrow, that was where we stayed!

Must be cold in there...

The Round House is there anymore, but we found this picture of it. My Great-Grandfather worked there.

Bye-bye!!!

Outside of the train museum, they have the Browning Gun museum! We had to stop in just for Nic... This place had a TON of guns!

And I want that one...ain't it purty?!?!

Ben, on the other hand, wants this one....

Or he would settle for that one...

Ben and Baby waiting for the train. Isn't it a shame that they don't use this place anymore?

No trains were coming that day, so we moved on.

The beautiful station. Ben is in there somewhere...

We love old buildings. The baby took this picture...

The French sent a bunch of little trains to the U.S. as a way of saying "Merci" after we sent them food and supplies after WWII. They called them the "Forty and Eight Cars" because those are the dimensions of the car. Many of the WWII Veterans remember riding in these cars through the French countryside.

Oh how I wish these still worked!

Ben jumping cars like they do in the movies.

Moving along down to Salt Lake...the car started smoking, so Ben pulled over to check things out. All is good, though and we're still alive!

He managed to find a really pretty place to pull over, though...

Now how would you like THIS for a front entrance to your house?!?!

Okay, so maybe there are too many steps.

Ahhh, the marble entry way... Yeah, I could live here!

Now, would we make this an office, or our sitting room?

He tells some funny jokes.

Self portraits in front of the capitol. The really strange thing about the capitol building, is that they didn't have any security running around, no metal detectors and I think we saw THREE people in there! It was soooo quiet...

Oh, what a loverly room! We stumbled upon a B&B, The Inn on the Hill, which was a few blocks away from the capitol. It was cozy, beautiful and fun! And they were totally fine with us bringing a baby with us!

The other side of the room. Lilyana was too happy to be on the floor rolling around!

I loved this bathroom!

And the view from our window.

We took more pictures of the house the next morning, but those belong to the post about Day 4...so you'll have to wait to see those!

Now, the road beckons, so we're off once more!

Reporting from Notown, NV...

Tiffany for BLT

But you know there's vict'ry in the Lord I say,
Vict'ry in the Lord,
Cling to the Father and His holy name,
And dont go ridin' on that Long Black Train

Only a life lived for others is worth living....

2011-09-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Here is an update of the second day of our trip....

After our late night arrival in Ogden, we were absolutely dead. The morning was spent in a small local coffee shop, checking emails, and getting posts. Iced coffees and lattes were the order of the day. So tired were we, that there is not one single photo of the morning. So, the picture narrative only starts up at our picnic in the park.

More accurately, two members of the party were exhausted, the third was still bright eyed and bushy tailed!

During our picnic, a friend came to play. He was so cute!

Making introductions. (Jess, stop screaming, you'll hurt something....)

Beneath the spreading chestnut tree, the happy family sits....

The long arm of the law takes a self portrait....

Yesterday we we able to make the most important stop of our trip, and meet the person whom we drove all of this way to see, Tiffany's great-grandfather. We found him in a small apartment, the same room he has lived in for the last 33 years, since his wife died. It is not an expensively furnished room. In fact, almost all of the items in the room were things that neither Tiff nor I would look twice at during our yard sale-ing excursions. However, along one wall of the living room are a series of picture frames, covering a bookshelf, the television cabinet and nearly all of the floor. Opposite of these picture frames sits a man, in a large easy chair. A man with the kindest eyes I have ever seen. He has lived within the same ten block area of Ogden for his entire 94 years, ("Except for one year in the army, back in '36", he informs us), spent 40 years as a machinist with the Union Pacific Railroad walking 30 minutes to work starting out at $.21 per hour (yes that is cents), every day, and spent his retirement working in soup kitchens. "It felt good to give back to people," he said with a soft smile. His days are now spent watching television, and looking at the pictures of family and friends that occupy most of his living room. "I have great-grandkids that wouldn't know me if they passed me on the street," a comment made with a chuckle, without the least touch of bitterness, but you can see that he longs for human interaction. The only person he sees every day is another tenant in is apartment, who comes in the mornings to help him get dressed, and make his breakfast, not for pay, but just to help out a friend. With all of this, he loves life, gets to church every Sunday, has a Bible sitting on the end-table next to his chair. If the Lord allows someone to become so old, and so wise, they must be something special. When we left, it was with tears in our eyes, and a promise to write him letters every month.

The difference of five generations, and 94 years.....

These are the things that matter.

In the same neighborhood as Grandpa, stands a stately stone home, which Tiff had to stop and see.

That is a serious front porch.

Tiff made me leave my books at home, so I would spend time with her. But, I found a couple of kids who were willing to share!

Our hotel for the night was built in 1927. A wonderful example of Italian Renaissance Revival style.

The view from our eighth story suite.

Dinner time!

While waiting for our food at the MacCool's Irish Public House, we played a bit of shuffleboard.

Look at that form, such concentration and grace!

Tiffany's grilled salmon salad. She at the WHOLE thing, it was that good....

Getting a new hat!

The hotel, from the outside. Right side, four windows from the top, we occupied all three windows on that side....

Ogden night life....

After our late night of driving, we hit the sack early! I have my bed, so where is Tiff sleeping?

We will catch you on our next day!

Two roads diverged in a wood and I....

2011-09-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

...Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference...

Anybody who knows Ben knows that this poem is a perfect fit for him. Since we've been married, our travels have always been filled with lots of adventure, excitement and....getting "lost". But every time we get "lost" we always find something really fun and end up being really glad we got "lost." Not to be confused with the phrase, "Get lost." This trip is no different...instead of taking the fast route, we somehow ended up on the long route, and even though we didn't get into our hotel until 2:00 am (our time), we had such a blast...

Since we have places to go and people to see, I'll make this short, but we wanted to keep y'all updated on our travels....

First stop: Trader Joe's, of course! They open at 9:00 am, and we were there 20 minutes before...which meant a quick trip to see Grandma Rose.

She had a wig for us, but I left my camera in the car, so I had to use my phone...ain't she a doll?!?!?

Next stop was Sissy's hair salon in one of my favorite towns in our neck of the woods...

(This is a middle of the cut shot...I'll get pictures of the final look for you, Jess!)

And I really did mean woods. Our beautiful drive down Highway 4...if they didn't get SO much snow, I'd seriously consider moving up there...

Ahhh, such a peaceful setting...

Once we got over the pass, we stopped for some lunch. Ben picked a beeeeeautiful spot on the side of the road, nestled in the mountains and RIGHT next to a creek. Lilyana looks a bit dazed...she had been sleeping just prior to this picture.

"All because two people fell in love..."

Nice view, eh?

Hey Dad! Remember this?!?!?!

Being in the car for 800 miles means LOTS of time together...which makes me happy. :)

Like I said, we like to get "lost." And this time, we found a really neat SAND DUNE!!!!

Isn't it pretty?

Ben thought it would be fun to climb to the top...never mind that it is 600 feet high!!!!

The guys who made these tracks with their quads thought we were crazy...

Shadow shots.

Our tracks in the sand.

We made it!!!!! And now, Ben isn't sliding down with the baby. He did carry her all of the way up, though. AND we figured out why the Bedouins try to always walk on the top of the dunes...

Check out that view!

Happiness...and utter exhaustion!

My adorable and dashing husband. Epic, isn't it?

Heading back to the car. Going down was MUCH easier than going up!

The sun quickly setting...and at this point, it was just over our home.

Ben pulled over once we were completely away from all city lights. We wanted to see what the first settlers would've seen. It was so quiet, gorgeous and FREEZING COLD!!! Oh, and we saw a falling star. :)

So, we're off to see my great-grandfather and plan the rest of our trip!

Reporting from Utah,

Tiffay for BLT

The road goes ever on and on....

2011-09-14T16:08:00.000-07:00

It always amuses me that we are constantly trying to find time for all of the things that we would like to do. Time never stops and as Tolkien said, "the road goes ever on and on..." I keep saying that one day I'll do nothing but stay home (which is my favorite place to be!) and never go anywhere. Don't get me wrong...I really do enjoy traveling, seeing sights, going to Yosemtie, kayaking down the Stanislaus river, etc... But if you were to ask me where my very favorite place is, I'd be honest and say "home." I never run out of things to do, and I enjoy what I do. My craft/project list gets longer rather than shorter, there are so many dishes that I want to cook, and there isn't enough time in the day to spend with my husband or with Lilyana. Time seems to be slipping through my fingers like water...I try to grasp it, to hold on for dear life, but there is nothing to grab...

And so, I'm working on making the most out of every moment. Ben and I have been talking about how we're due for a blog post, but as we're continuing to adjust to Lilyana's ever changing schedule (and our own family craziness!!!), we keep running out of time. But I am taking a break to give those interested a brief update on the happenings in the Hector home...

It all began when we had Becky and Laura staying with us for a few days...

We found out that there was an outdoor play going on near our house, so we packed up the baby, grabbed some picnic goodies, loaded the car and off we went!

AHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Becky! Look over there...it's on of the actors...It's Benedick, and he's sitting RIGHT THERE!!!!

Lilyana with Beatrice and Benedick from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Ben knew Benedick, too.

Let's see...this was Lilyana's third Shakespeare play to see, but she's also seen an Oscar Wilde play and an opera... Yes, she's cultured.

Spring has come and gone, and the lettuce that we SO enjoyed in the Spring has...

GONE TO SEED!!! We're going to plant lettuce for the winter, now! I love heirloom seeds...

Mommy's little helper quietly sitting in her favorite chair while the girls and I harvested tomatoes.

*gasp* The playing cards must have been here painting the roses WHITE!!! Beware...the Queen of Hearts may come 'round the corner at any moment yelling, "Off with his head!!!!!!!"

Our dear friends were out of town and asked us to tend to their garden and harvest, can and eat whatever we could... We were more than happy to oblige!

Twenty-six pounds of tomatoes soon became eleven jars of Marinara sauce, and then came the peach pie filling, and cucumbers. Salsa is next!

After all that hard work (and fun in the pool), we were hungry and tired. Ben treated the ladies out to pizza at our favorite family owned and operated (by REAL Italians!) pizza place. Well, they do more than pizza, but we've only had their pizza...and it's SOOO good.

Oh, I'm getting hungry again! Fresh mozzerella, tomatoes, basil and a homemade crust...

On our way out to the car, we spotted this scary looking lady in the realty office next door...we thought it was strange that she was in there after hours and wasn't moving...then we realized it wasn't a real person...

No dip needed.

Lilyana and Auntie Laura hanging out.

Okay, now we're on to the Foodie part! All italics are quotes from Julia Child...

Lilyana LOVES to be in the kitchen when I'm working on dinner. Sometimes she gets hungry, too...

What? Don't you eat your feet when you get hungry? Never mind...don't answer that.

French food again! Salmon with a cream sauce, cheesy mashed potatoes and broiled tomatoes.

You must have discipline to have fun.

We had a small going away party for a good friend of ours, and so we dined on chicken dredged in flour, cooked in butter served along side peeled and blanched asparagus, a cheese sauce poured over both. Homemade rice pilaf completed the plate.

Dining with one's friends and beloved family is certainly one of life's primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal.

Believe it or not, but this is her "I'm so excited that I can't stand it!!!!" face. She opens her mouth reeeeeeally wide and shakes. It's absolutely hilarious...maybe I'll figure out how to post a video on here....

Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper.

I think every woman should have a blowtorch.

In this case, a woman does have a blowtorch (or a kitchen torch), and the gentleman pictured is borrowing it... Don't worry, he's friendly...

Joel and Ben working together to ensure that the caramelized topping on the Creme Brulee was perfect! Great job, guys!

Be a fearless cook! Try out new ideas and new recipes, but always buy the freshest and finest ingredients, whatever they may be. Furnish your kitchen with the most solid and workmanlike equipment you can find. Keep your knives ever sharp and -- toujours bon appetit!

Okay, so we happened to have leftover chicken and rice pilaf...somebody has to eat the leftovers around here! We had green beans with it the second time around.

Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music.

Crêpes are very French...and they are very good. This was an interested crepe layer casserole thingy... It had 14 crepes all layered with veggies, a cream sauce and chicken. We had broiled tomatoes and rice with a sauce over it as well.

Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.

To break up all of the foodie pictures, here is a picture of Ben reading to Lilyana. We bought her this new book, and it is sooo funny. It's about a *whispers* spiiiiiiiider. *stops whispering* His name is "Barry B. Wary" and since Ben likes the previously mentioned insect, we had to get this book. We always have an excuse to buy books. :)

You find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not make an honest effort to confer that pleasure on others? Half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy.

As I said before, Crêpes are very French. Grandma Rose took us out to lunch on this day, and it was a bit late in the afternoon before we actually got out there, so neither of us were hungry when dinner time rolled around. so, we opted for just eating dessert. Homemade crepes with homeade ice cream with homemade chocolate syrup...YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry...are you drooling?

I wouldn't keep him around long if I didn't feed him well.

And since I'm a bit behind (and have other things coming up on the blog list), I'll throw in last week, too. We were only home for two days, so there isn't much to cover there, anyway...GREEK!!! Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE Greek food?!?!?

Judging by Lilyana's expression, one would think that she loves it, too! It was sooooo nice to eat salads again. The Greeks have salad with every meal...they're smart. So, we've got Grilled Lamb, beets with a bread sauce, homemade pita bread, a grilled pepper and feta dip, and Greek salad!

Oooo, cabbage leaves...can you guess what was on the menu for the next day?!?!

Ahhh, Dolmades...or stuffed cabbage leaves! They had lamb, rice, egg, spices, onion, garlic and homemade bread crumbs inside. I am getting hungry, now... Off to the side you see another salad, hummus and homemade flat bread. Ben is really good at getting that stuff nice and think and cooks it to perfection! It fluffs up so nicely!

*sigh* All of this cooking makes my little one sleepy. We were up visiting Pops, Mumsie and the aunts and Uncles for the weekend, well, Wednesday-Saturday. Pictures from that coming later. We're eating Greek food again this week, so I'll have more pictures of that later!

Now, how many of you would like a recipe?!?! Today I'll add:

Julia Child’s Master Crêpe Recipe

1 cup flour

2/3 cup cold milk

2/3 cup cold water

3 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for brushing on pan

Directions:

Mix all ingredients until smooth in a blender or with a whisk. Refrigerate. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Brush with melted butter.

Pour in 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter into the center of the pan and then tilt the pan in all directions to cover the bottom evenly. Cook about 1 minute, or until browned on the bottom. Turn and cook briefly on the other side.

Cool on a rack or plate as you finish making the rest. Serve as desired.

And now it is time to say, "Au Revoir!" or "Antío"

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say...

~ J. R. R. Tolkien

We The Foodie People...Week 6: French

2011-08-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back!

Oui, oui, I know. This post was supposed to be up last week, but for various and sundry reasons (which Monsieur B. Francois will relate in a post later this week) the posting of the following pictures and foodiness were postponed. However, I am now at liberty to give you a glimpse into our very fun French week.

Actually, we're bending the rules a bit (Or are we? I mean, this was our idea, so I suppose we can do what we like without really bending the rules, right?) since we will be spending one more week in France. It's a long trip to Greece, and we haven't quite mastered the "Art of French Cooking." Wait, that's the name of a cookbook, isn't it?!?!?

Why, so it is! As a matter of fact, my BIL, Matthew, bought these books for me. What a perfect gift! All of the meals I made last week were from Julia Child's French cookbooks. While her recipes may be "simplified" for the American housewife, they are still a bit involved!

All of the quotes you will find in this post are from the very inspirational Julia Child...

Day 1: Poulet Saute aux Herbs de Provence with Potato Crepes and Broiled Tomatoes.

This dish was made with slices of chicken and a very rich cream/cheese sauce. The potato crepes were a cross between the Tattie Cakes we ate when we were in the British Isles and hash-browns. Add the broiled homegrown tomatoes...can't get better than that!

"If you're afraid of butter, use cream."

And she was serious! Almost all of the food we ate was swimming in cream and butter.

I. Love. Dairy.

Ben loves dairy, too. Actually, I think that his first love would be bread...then dairy.

"You'll never know everything about anything, especially something you love."

Ahhh, my little princess at the piano. She was very much intrigued by the fact that she could push the ivory keys and hear a sound. Soon she will be playing Clementi... *grin*

"Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you'll have a marvelous time!"

Day 2: Filets de Poisson Bercy aux Champignons with Risotto Pilaf and Steamed Artichokes with a Hollandaise sauce.

Or my translation: Filets of Sole in a buttery, creamy sauce with mushrooms served next to a risotto pilaf. Preparing the artichoke was great fun, and eating it was even better! I cleaned out the middle so that I could serve the sauce inside the artichoke.

"It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it."

Ben and I ate everything except the heart...we were waaaaaaaaaaay too stuffed to finish that part, so I had it for lunch the next day!

"I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate."

Day Three: Pork Roast with Stuffed Eggplant and Cucumbers in a cheese sauce.

The eggplants had a really good cheesy filling...it just sort of melted in your mouth! The cucumbers were a bit interested at first, but by the end of the meal, we both decided we rather liked them! Warm cucumbers sound nasty, but once they've been sitting in vinegar, then baked, then tossed in a cheese sauce, they are pretty tasty!

"This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!"

My first attempt at homemade French bread. I love how Julia Child gives the background of her techniques and recipes... Next time around, I'm going to try putting wet bricks in the oven! *grin*

"How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?"

French Toast for breakfast, made with our homemade French Bread! The French have this delicious dish for dessert, but here in America, it graces many of our breakfast tables. Cook the bread in butter instead of oil, and it really adds some pizzazz!

"In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport."

Day Four: Beef Rolls...

"The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken. Bon appétit. " (Or in this case, the cut of beef!)

...with broccoli...

"...no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing."

...and stuffed tomatoes.

This was a very interesting dish...everything had bread in it! The tomatoes had breadcrumbs, the beef had chopped bread, as did the broccoli. Oh, and if you peel broccoli before blanching it, it's waaaaaaaaaaay better than how we've always eaten it! It only takes about 4-5 minutes to cook, and it will keep it's bright green colour. Ben and I can't go back to the way we used to eat broccoli!

"The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook."

Oh, and some homemade Cherry Lemonade to keep things perky. Lilyana is hoping that it's for her!

"Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all."

Oooooo...FIRE!

Ben poured the flames over our Apple Tart Flambé and then enjoyed the sight. Lilyana thought that it was pretty cool, too.

"You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients."

Day Six we were on the road and so we stopped in for some "French" food at the Thai restaurant on our way home late that night. Oh, didn't you know that there were many French-Thailand relations back in the 17th Century? Fascinating history....

And so that wraps up our first week in France! It was loads of fun, and we're excited to be spending one more week here! Hopefully I'll feel like I'm beginning to master the art by the end of this week! Since we haven't posted a dessert recipe before, how about one this time!

Apple Tart Flambé

Serves 8

An 8 inch partially cooked pasty shell

4 large cooking apples (we used Granny Smith)

2/3 C Sugar

2 Tb butter, cut into pea-sized dots

1/4 C Rum

Preheat oven to 375.

Peel, core and slice the apples. Sprinkle 3 T of sugar in the bottom of the pastry shell. Arrange the apples over that in a closely overlapping layer of concentric circles. Spread on the remaining sugar and dot with butter.

Bake in the middle level for 25-35 minutes, or until the fruit has colored lightly and the juices have become syrupy. Remove from oven.

Heat the rum on the stove over low heat. As soon as it is hot, light it with match and pour over the tart. But make sure everybody is there to watch...oh, and be sure to turn out the lights!

Enjoy!

"Just like becoming an expert in wine–you learn by drinking it, the best you can afford–you learn about great food by finding the best there is, whether simply or luxurious. The you savor it, analyze it, and discuss it with your companions, and you compare it with other experiences."

Onward and Upward! To Narnia and the North!

2011-08-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

Living 2,600 miles away from family is tough...especially when children start having children of their own. Ben talked me into spending two weeks back East with my family in July, which enabled my family to spend 2 weeks with Lilyana. Due to Ben's work schedule, he had to miss out on all of the fun, so Anton was more than happy to pack his bags and travel with me. The girls didn't know he was coming, so it was a big surprise for them! Ahhh, but I'm getting ahead...

As usual, the cameras were whipped out at every opportunity, so I've selected my favorites (just over thirty pictures...that's not too many, is it?) and put them all into one BIG post! Life continues to move along, and I've got to keep up somehow...

The big trip began with a hotel room in the Bay Area. We didn't want to face traffic the next morning and had no plans on missing our flight... We finally made it to our hotel around midnight. Ben dropped us off the next morning and then made the lonely drive back home and to work.

Waiting for our second plane, Lilyana spent some time on the floor stretching, playing with her toys and talking (or babbling) up a storm! She charmed all of the other passengers and we were SO thankful that she was an angel on the plane...no fussing a'tall!

Good morning time with Uncle Bubby!!!! Back story: When the kiddos were little, they called Caleb "Bubby" so his nickname is still going!

Woo-hoo!!! Being back East means going to one of my favorite stores! This picture was mostly taken for Ben... *grin*

See! This store has GREAT signs....

Birthday time for James! We celebrated his birthday early and since I had promised Caleb to make this while I was out there, we had Frozen Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Pie for dessert. Yes, it's insanely rich...

Cuddles with Grandmommy before heading off to bed!

Lilyana's veeeeeery favorite book is "The Duchess Bakes a Cake". It was a favorite book in my family, so my parents bought a copy for Lilyana. We've been reading it to her since she was born, and she is still captivated by the bright illustrations and the soothing sound of people reading the fun rhyming story to her.

Spending quality time with Grandpa...precious moments!

I love bringing new crafts back home to the girls, and this time we made hair clips as party favors for the Ladies Tea.

Aunt Jessica has this thing for frilly dresses... This one belonged to Abby (or was it Grace?) and Jess fell in love with it...so it's in her hopechest waiting to be used. The dress is still a bit big for Lilyana, but Jess HAD to inflict this torture on her... *grin*

Aunt Grace holding the pink frilly thing. Grace is looking forward to playing with Lilyana.

Coffee break at Eli's! The girls found this really fun coffee/tea house near the church so we dropped in to have some drinks.

AH! A rare moment of tummy time! She might have serious objections to being held all of the time come December...

Aunt Jill looking cute as she teaches Lilyana to gamble... *grin* Anton and I taught the family one of our new favorite games.

As foodie people, we spend LOTS of time in the kitchen! It's the best room in the house, right?

So, we like our funky glasses, okay?

Auntie Em rocking the baby to sleep. Both of these girls love to cuddle!

Caleb and Anton made my mom's day when they removed all of the wallpaper on in the powder room and painted it.

Uncle William having the time of his life! He absolutely adores this little girl!

And so does Caleb....

...and so does my dad! *laughing* After bringing the boxes of decor in, protecting his granddaughter was his job for the afternoon.

Aunty Abby loves her little niece. One day they'll be having tea together....

William teaching Lilyana how to make funny faces.

Love.

The Grandsisters.

Hey! Look who else made it! Nic and Matthew escorted Mumsie out and surprised the girls again!

Some of us went peach picking with the Bandys and Len, and the rest of us joined them for breakfast...I'll let you guess who did what...

Like I said...we like our funky glasses.

Spending some final moments with the granddaughter before it was time to head out. She'll be much bigger in December.

And so the fun trip came to an end. Our little angel comforted me as we said our teary goodbyes, slept on the loooooooooooong flight home and was tickled pink to see her daddy waiting for us at the airport. Missing my family still hurts, but I am so thankful to be married to my best friend, the love of my life...and to spend each day training my little blessing from heaven. Family is a wonderful gift and I love all three of mine...my family, the family I married into, and the family that Ben and I have made.

So life moves on...Upward and Onward...to Narnia and the North! The homeschool convention, oral surgery and getting back into the swing of things have all taken up my time. But now that I'm back on my feet and feeling mostly normal once more(and can actually EAT again!!!), I'm pleased to announce that we're back to our foodie travels! Hurray! F is for French and it's going to be a goooooooooooood week...or two! *grin* Before I close, though, I thought I'd leave y'all with a few pictures of life back home...

Ben is still reading aloud and this is our morning reading. As you can see, Lilyana enjoys it, too. Right after Ben reads a poem from When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne to Lilyana, Dante's Inferno is our current evening reading since we just finished The Wisdom of Father Brown.

Lilyana gets bigger and more curious every day! She rolled over for the first time yesterday, and she thinks it's great fun...which means that she's a floor baby now! She's also discovered her toes and thinks that they taste reeeeeeeally good.

Lilyana has also loved sitting up since she was really small, so Ben went out and bought her a Bumbo chair. She's had oodles of fun sitting at the table with us and watching the cars go by.

In honour of our return to the Foodie Chronicles, I'm posting a picture of our homemade ice cream. I decided to try my hand at chocolate and got two very big thumbs up from Ben, so I went on to try a mocha ice cream...still tweaking that recipe, though!

If you don't hear from us the rest of this week, just remember that we've got our hands full of French recipes and good family fun. We hope to have a drool worthy post ready for you next week!

Until then,

Tiffany...for BLT

An apology.....

2011-08-02T08:30:00.000-07:00

Editor's Note: Upon reviewing our last post, it has been decided, and I will try to state this gently for the sake of my own tender feelings, that the preceding pathetic collection of words must be the WORST attempt at writing ever attempted by literate man. The prose was pitiful, the captions criminal, and the diction dreadful. For that, I apologize to anyone who was brave enough to read it.

The only excuse to offer up is the fact that my wife was gone on a two week trip to visit her parents, and had carried off the child to deepen the pain of her absence. This plunged me into a profound despondency from which there was no escape. As an attempt to mollify all readers who wish to place my head on a stake, as a warning to all other writers who would dare to so offend their sophisticated palates, I offer up this: a bit of humorous writing, in an effort to expunge my past wrongs.

In the hallway of our house, which is very much like any other hallway, and containing doors from which to pass from the intermediate existence of the hallway into the much more practicable location of another room, we have one particular door who behaves in a way that is unbecoming to a good natured door. It does, in fact, act so contrary as to close itself, even when it has been placed in an open position by those with more sense than itself. Much effort has gone into explaining to this door that if it wishes to be known as a pleasant sort of aperture that it should yield to the guiding hand of us, his owners. Every known communication method has been used, all to no effect, both weeping and gnashing of teeth, and soft rebukes, and yet this portal between rooms continues to deport itself with much impropriety.

We asked ourselves, “What should be done with such a headstrong hatchway?”, and such is the case with these matters, a solution did not immediately present itself. However, after additional suffering caused by going through the door to fetch an item, and finding that it has closed behind your entrance, leaving your arms full of that which was fetched, it was determined that a plan had to be developed. That plan was though up, assessed and enacted in such swift succession as to almost seem as one action, but it should really be thought of as three distinct actions.

Close at hand during one of these bouts of contrariness was a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale. This bottle, merely from the fact that it was within easy reach, found itself drafted into the post of using its personal values of mass and the associated weight given to it by gravity, as a method of keeping the door in a state of immobility, at least past a certain point, namely the edge of the bottle. For this fact we are much indebted to those who decided to place Newcastle Brown Ale in a glass bottle, rather than in, plastic bags, for example. A plastic bag would have rendered this action ineffectual, as the difference in weight found between plastic and glass, combined with the malleability of a plastic bag should make clear. Despite the frangibility of glass, the higher chance of possible punctures in the plastic would also have proven distressing, given the wanderlust nature of liquids which are not properly contained.

Now, there are those who will tell you that the intrinsic value of such a beverage, in its drinkable nature, beckons it to a higher calling than that of a counterbalance to an unruly door, and that there are many more suitable items, yea, even specifically designed items, which could serve this purpose. To this charge I answer that the value of a Newcastle Brown Ale is quite subjective, and while one person would view many other beverages in glass containers better endowed, merely by a lack of another endowment, to take its place, the subjective value to me does not make it so, and that the effort to locate a replacement is not outweighed by the limited enjoyment I would receive in this bottle being put to another task.

Another remonstrance that has been voiced is that the presence of an alcoholic beverage in as frequently accessed an area as a hallway, gives an air of alcoholism to the house, or at least an uncomfortably lax view in regards to such subjects. This charge is unwarranted, for two reasons, one of which is that if it were secreted away in a closet, and discovered with a great number of its contemporaries, that fact of mere density would do more damage to the reputation of the house, and that scattering such intoxicating beverages around the general area, actually softens the blow, rather than a cabinet dedicated to its kind. The other reason is that if such a disparaging view was true, the task of said bottle would be in jeopardy, as it would likely find itself replaced by some undrinkable counterpart, in an effort to satisfy such unhealthy appetites, should they indeed exist, which they do not.

That is not to be said that the bottle is safe against the attentions of outside parties, and there are several factors which we have taken to keep it in place, which seem to have been successful, as it has maintained its post for the last twelve months. The primary guard is the constant lukewarm nature in which this Newcastle Brown Ale constantly finds itself. This guards against the casual passerby desiring to slake their thirst upon an unsuspecting, and importantly occupied bottle, such as itself. The other is that during long duration visits from dangerous parties, sacrificial substitutions are to be found in a chilled state, and close at hand. There are some that say the thick layer of dust on the exterior portions of the bottle also offer some safety, though I am unsure as to the validity of this claim.

You now have the story and reasoning behind the presence of a Newcastle Brown Ale in our hallway, and the above paragraphs prove that even the simplest of circumstances can be explained with the most complex of rationale.