Hooked on Fishin'

Dork moment of the week. So I went to Fred Meyers with our roomate and they are having their big clearance sale. So of course I head to the back with all their home stuff and sporting goods. Ha..... I found a pair of waders in my size for 8 dollars!! WOO HOO!!! I am way excited. And to go along with it I got the Hooked on Fishin' sign. Makes me laugh!!
I have some things I need to get off of my chest and we both need to vent. Lately there have been some people trying to belittle us in many ways. Our job with not for profits in little Boise Idaho isn't a real job, we don't live in nice enough house, yada yada yada.... we prefer going camping to expensive vacations and if we had money we would change our minds about everything. Well, I have lived with money, and I have lived with way less than we have now. We have nothing we need to prove to you... We love each other and we love our jobs and the people we work with, they are family. We enjoy working for the art and the appreciation of theater, not just for the paycheck that comes with it. The one thing that let us be who we really are, lets us get rid of all the pettiness that surrounds us, is being in nature. If we had money, the only thing that would change is that we would buy the land we camp on, and put our tent right in the middle of it!!!!!!!!!!! If fancy jobs, destination vacations,and having fancy houses and cars is what it takes to make you happy, we feel incredibly sorry for you... We really sincerely do. We would not trade our life for yours any day.

In Memory

President Hinkley's Testimony


"Now, in conclusion, I hope that all of you will remember that on this Sabbath day you heard me bear my witness that this is God's holy work. The vision given the Prophet Joseph in the grove of Palmyra was not an imaginary thing. It was real. It occurred in the broad light of day. Both the Father and the Son spoke to the boy. He saw Them standing in the air above him. He heard Their voices. He gave heed to Their instruction.

It was the resurrected Lord who was introduced by His Father, the great God of the universe. For the first time in recorded history, both the Father and the Son appeared together to part the curtains and open this, the last and final dispensation, the dispensation of the fulness of times.

The Book of Mormon is all that it purports to be—a work recorded by prophets who lived anciently and whose words have come forth "to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations"

The priesthood has been restored under the hands of John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. All the keys and authority pertaining to eternal life are exercised in this Church.

Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, the great Prophet of this dispensation. This Church, which carries the name of the Redeemer, is true.

I leave you my testimony, my witness, and my love for each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

What we lost, heaven gained. What a great prophet, leader, man. What an awesome day in Heaven.... it would have been neat to see him reunited with his family and past apostles and prophets.

Welcome to my world!

As previously poster, I am sitting at work bored out of my mind... so I thought I would take some pictures for a little insight into what we do, where we work. This is a view of the light board... mostly Matts home away from home but occasionally I take the helm. Like today for example. It consists of a big processor to the left which you cant see, two monitors on either side and of course, the board. We have complete control of every single light that is plugged into a dimmer. Its pretty awesome. Today is rather dull, there isn't much you can do that will make the Philharmonic look any prettier.... In the background you can see the shell unit that they perform in front of. It looks prett from far away, but let me tell you.... it is a pain. It is made up of ten rolling units the highest being 33 ish feet. The roof is 2 peices on a motor that comes all the way down to deck, gets folded up when we are done and sent as high as it can go out of sight and thats where it is storedEveryone aside from the security people are on head sets. This is my "excited to be here at 7am" face, while talking to the Stage Manager Tony. During the phil head sets don't really serve a purpose other than to keep us talking to each other... and not falling asleep but normally headsets are to call cues from the backstage to the light console, sound board, spot lights etc... basically runing the show.All of that aside, the one thing I love is walking out of the light booth or spot bay and seeing the view we have. The whole front side of our building is windows and they face the Boise river. We had some failry decent snow fall on us the other day so its beautiful!!! You can see on the botton in the river there were a bunch of geese just chillin in the frigid water.... so pretty!!!

A few little projects

I have nothing better to do right now other than sit and blog while at the light console during load in and rehearsal for the Boise Philharmonic..... Literally 5 hours of nothing, oh, I push 4 buttons.... anyway, I thought I would post a few pics of some of the projects I have been working on.The first is some material I originally bought for a table runner and place mats but we ended up getting a whole set during an after Christmas sale so I started playing one night while I was bored and here is what I came up with. I am not quite sure which one I like better, whether I should use both in a quilt or stick with one.... give me your opinion.
The second is a quilt I am making for my niece. Its such fun princes fabric and the purple fabric has glitter on it! I am so close to being done. If I could work on it while sitting at work I would be done... but I can't so it will probably be done in the next week or so

Book Review

I just got done reading this book. Its so good, yet SOO depressing at the same time. Its about a woman who loses her husband to a brain tumor but before he died he left a series of letters, requests, instructions and gifts to last throughout the year to help her adjust and move on. They were so sweet!!! One thing this book did for me was make me so grateful that even if I lose my husband or he loses me, we have the blessings of an eternal marriage.

Recipe Tag

If you are reading this, you are tagged!!! This is not my most healthy recipe by any means but it is SOOOO good. I like to serve it with Ceasar Salad and chicken of some sort. MMMmmm

POTATO GNOCCHI with MORNAY SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:
8 potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
*you can also add a bit of ricotta cheese, garlic, or whatever sounds good to you*
DIRECTIONS:
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool slightly, and peel. Mash potatoes with fork, masher or in ricer. Place in large bowl and make a well in the center. Put butter in well and allow to melt. When mashed potatoes have cooled, knead in enough of the flour to make a soft dough.
2. Divide dough into fist-sized portions. On a floured surface, roll each portion into a long rope. Cut the ropes into one-inch pieces. Roll each piece with a fork for a distinctive texture.
3. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Drop in gnocchi and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until they float to the top; drain and serve with tomato sauce, Alfredo or Mornay Sauce (My favorite see recipe below)

Mornay Sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
Salt and pepper
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese plus 1/4 cup for topping
Salt and pepper
*I like to add a bit of garlic or garlic powder and minced onion*

To make Mornay Sauce: Heat butter. Add flour and stir in 2 cups milk. Cook until thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk in 3/4 cream to thin sauce and add 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese.

Tap and Irish Step dancing are NOT the same!

It seems like its been FOREVER since I last blogged! Not a lot has happened, just a lot of work! After the first of the year we went back to work doing a lot of maintenance things gearing up for an inspection of our rigging systems, totally boring to you I am sure but that was the hardest day ever!!!Anyway, our first big show Riverdance, this year came on this past Monday. I was so excited to work with costumes on deck so that I could see most of it until the completely boxed in the stage so that I couldn't see a thing!!! It was SOOO maddening!! I did sneak out to the audience every night to watch a number or two. And argued with on of our security guys that claimed Tap and Irish step dancing were the same.... Silly... Thats like saying clogging and Tap are the same. The costumes were fun but definitely designed circa 1995. I dressed the lead girl "Countess Cathleen". The first night the lead was a girl named Alana and she was SOO cute! The last 2 nights I had a girl named Zara who was super good but really self important. HAHAHA!!! I wonder what it is like to feel that way? At any rate, here is a picture of Miss Zara.
Right now I am working George Carlin. Hes a comedian, kind of a dirty old man type. Not too interested in hearing him, hence the blog update. On Monday we start building the set for the next Opera Idaho production, Elixer of Love. Its going to be a circus!!! Just a side note, after our dog got put in the trash can, she hasn't touched the garbage at all!!!!!

The Piper Post

Looking at this face one would think that she has never done wrong, a perfect angel so to speak. Something that cute can't be bad. Let me tell you a different story. Piper has one Hell of a personality, which is part of the reason we love her so much. But there are days, that past couple weeks for example, that I am not so sure there isn't a devil underneath those sad eyes. We have had her for about 2 years now after a friend of ours heard we had been looking into getting a dog and he traveled too much to properly take care of her, so we sttled for her, even though we don't consider her a real dog. :) We really wanted a Husky or a German Shepard, you know, a REAL dog. Usually she is fine while we are at work. If she did happen to have an accident she always did it in the bathroom... kind of smart don't you think? And she only gets so bored that she makes messes like digging in the trash or what not when we have left her ALL day. Yeah, well, lately she has been a hellion!!! We leave to run to the grocery store and she has dug in at least one of the trash cans. Its some sort of weird fettish for her, trash, and its contents. We finally had to bungee cord the trash in the bathroom to the wall and the other ones are headed in that direction. Classy eh? Anyway, here are a few pics. She got put in the trash can tonight after we got home only to find more mess... She didn't like it very well. And we came home to her laying in our clean laundry. Brat!!! One of these days we will invest in a real dog!! LOL We love her!!!!

Here's to a New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! This year we spent the day with our "mom" for her 50th birthday. "Mom" is one of our friends mothers who we are very close to and love very much. We started the day decorating her house while she was at work. While some of us were decorating another team went and decotated her car, filled it with balloons and saran wrapped it. In the house, we had tombstones outside on the walkway and about 200 balloons and 6 thousand feet of black crepe paper, along with 2 cases of depends and a plethora of over the hill type signs. What can I say, give a Mormon crepe paper and ballons and we will decorate better than anyone I know. A few of us stayed and waited for her to show up and surprised her. Then we had a huge potluck and game night with TONS of people. She can't say she isn't loved. Here are a few pics of the party. She was told she had to wear her depends all night, halfway through it ended up on her head. LOVE YOU MOM!!!

Moment #1

Our favorite part of this year was really Christmas. We were busy busy for about a month before hand so being able to stop a few days before Christmas and breathe, and just enjoy ourselves in our own home was SO great. We celebrated Christmas eve at my parents but Christmas day we never left our house. It was awesome. We might never leave for christmas again!!! Okay, well probably not but its a nice thought.

MOMENT #2

So this one really is more of an accomplishment than a "moment", but we are really excited to get certain rooms remodeled in our home. This year we re did parts of the kitchen, remodeled the bathroom and redid our bedroom while re painting all three. Yay!!!! I think I mentioned earlier that my bedroom was the one room I had no idea how to make comfortable. Well, we did it! We painted, added trim and molding on top and bought new shelves and cubbies and things and it is 150 times better. We love it!!!

MOMENT #3

After our time in Denver we met up with my family in Arizona and attended a big family reunion. It was a lot of fun to have so many of us there and to see so many cousins and family in the same building. We were able to meet up with family from Arizona, Texas, Utah, Nevada, California, and Colorado. Another highlight was spending time with the immediate family that lives down there. We never get together enough!!
On our way home we stopped in St. George for 2 days and went and saw Jacob Hamblins house and Brigham youngs house and a monument dedicated to my 7th great grandmother, Sarah Sturdevant Leavitt (Jacob Hamblins mother in law). From there we went to Salt lake for 3 days.We were busy busy busy all three days! We met up with my "sister" Megan and her kids who live in Oregon (shes actually my cousin but we were born about 3 hours apart and have always been more like sisters) and went to Temple Square and Trolley Square and Matt and I had lunch with my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Scott. Whew, we were ready to go home after that!!!

MOMENT #4

We took the month of July off from work and just had a vacation, well, mostly a vacation. Matt and I, my little sister Makayla and our dog Piper loaded up the truck and headed to Yellowstone for 2 days. Kind of a small adventure. Makayla hadn't been there since she was about 4 so it was fun for her. Way too many people who just shouldn't ever try camping though. :) After our 2 days at Yellowstone we headed to Denver to stay with Matts parents for about 15 days. For the first week we went to our nephews birthday party, to Elitch Gardens- an amusement park, out to lunch with Matts great Aunt, and attended a wedding at the Denver Zoo. Yes, the Zoo... it was after hours so we were able to roam the zoo with almost no one else there! The last week or so we got down and dirty and painted a bunch of rooms in Matts parents house and spent a day with the niece and nephews, brother and sister in law and went and saw Harry Potter 5.