Miracle of all miracles, April has had a perfect 4/4 sunny saturday record.  Rainy during the week and brilliant on the weekends.  I can handle that.  Most of my life in pictures happens on a saturday, so if I can look back and remember April in patches of sunlight on a forest floor, cascading waterfalls, and picnics by a river, then my life is a happy one!

Anna did really well.  The Twin Falls hike was about 3 miles round trip, and we were hiking this without a backpack.  The first part of the hike went like this...

and the second half of the hike went like this! (don't worry, Richard carried her during all the uphills-- he didn't make the pregnant one carry both the kids all the time)

This was our first family hike of the year.  Richard has been buried alive by work this season, so it was really necessary for us to start breathing again and having fun.  This hike was a beautiful way to start the spring and the waterfalls at the top were beautiful.

Anna has a love affair with bridges...and water...which has given me many heartstopping moments.  So she loved this waterfall.

 At the end of the hike we stopped for lunch by the river, and this is really where our happy girl showed her true colors. (and no, its not her birthday-- all of her clothes are hand me downs!)

You can find the twin falls hike about 30 miles east of Seattle, just off of I-90.  We saw as many dogs as we saw people (the well bred, expensive, smaller dog varieties).  This is a popular family/dog hike, so go out and try it.

First Dates

Yesterday, Richard and I saw the new musical production "First Date" at the ACT theatre here in Seattle.  It was really funny.  It exaggerated and made fun of all the awkward moments in a first date: first impressions, greeting (hug or handshake), what you talk about, "googling" your date, old romantic history coming back to haunt you, who pays the bill, etc. 

I have to admit, it was really nice to watch an awkward first date while being comfortably married. Couple dating is a whole different ballgame.  We go on a lot of couple first dates, and some of them yield second dates, and some of them end up being just a "positive experience."  In that sense, I have become an expert in asking couples out, and to tell you the truth, I am pretty confident about what Richard and I have to offer.  We even have a couple of steadies now!! My best pick up line for couples is "hey, you guys seem really interesting and we would like to get to know you better-- want to come over for dinner?"  I have never been turned down (and yeah, its probably the food factor...).

Anyway, watching "First Date" made me think of my first date with Richard, and the conclusion I came to is that Richard must have been SO convinced that we were meant for each other that absolutely nothing was going to deter him from his chosen objective (marrying me).  Because our first date will live in infamy for its awkwardness.  I never should have gotten a second chance.  And believe me, the awkwardness was all me.  Richard was a perfect gentleman and very charming and charismatic.  He had planned out a wonderfully romantic first date for us, and I pretty much thwarted him at every turn-- because I too had an objective from which I could not be deterred.

I knew Richard was serious about dating me.  He had made it perfectly clear the night before when he had kissed me (just a peck-- he's a gentleman, remember!) and then asked me out after a perfectly innocent evening of playing Monopoly with friends.  So I knew he meant business when he picked me up for our date.  And I was ALL business!  I'll bet he didn't know that "grilling" was on the menu for dinner that night.

We went to the top of a mountain where he spread out a table and picnic dinner for us.  He would talk about the stars, I would ask him about his professional goals.  He would tell me I looked beautiful, and I would ask him about his relationship with his mother.  He would talk about music and I would ask him about his testimony of Jesus Christ.  And then when he answered me, I would ask him to relate 5 experiences from his mission that illustrated the principles he just described.  If given time, I am sure I would have asked him for his resume and a list of references.

You think I am exaggerating....I wish I was!

The pinnacle of the evening came when he was taking me home.  He asked me a question and I didn't know the answer so I responded with "you've got me."

and he said "I do?"

and I started freaking out and saying "NO, I didn't mean that!!  I take it back.  I can't be beholden to that statement.  No contract, no contract, no contract!!"

You think I am exaggerating....still not exaggerating.

And yet, I stand by my first statement that Richard must have been so convinced that I would return to normal at some point, that no amount of awkwardness would deter him from his objective.  In fact, I would not be surprised if Richard from the year 2030 had visited him from the future to tell him to pursue me and to not be disturbed by my alien nature and lack of sense of humor. 

And it did get much better!

Anybody else have good first date stories?

First real beach day

What happens when it actually reaches 70 degrees in Seattle?  Beach day of course.  Any hotter and you would absolutely have to stay at home with air conditioning, but 70 degrees is just hot enough to justify taking your pants off and playing in the water while you get a sunburn (which, at this point, I welcome!).  Anna seems to have a fascination with big sticks (though she is not very good at the walking softly part!).

Anna's original song

The other day I got home from running some errands, and I found Richard and Anna hard at work, perfecting an original song they had written together. Apparently, Richard had just started fingering some chords, and Anna picked up his pic and while swiping them across the strings began singing a new song.  Richard asked me if this was a song I had taught her, and I told him we had never sung it before.  Enjoy!!

Thoughts on Food blogs

I am a little obsessed with food. I like to eat it a lot. I like to think about it a lot. I even dream about it. Food is my friend.
One of my favorite things to do is to menu plan and to come up with "perfect" meals. So if I know we are having someone over for dinner, or if we have family coming to visit, I spend weeks crafting out the perfect menu. This usually means that I do endless recipe searches to find just the right menu combinations.

So sometimes I use food blogs to help me find new ideas, and I realized this last week (perusing for the perfect Easter plate), that most blogs follow a pattern that I have come to find frustratingly annoying.

1) They reel you in with a beautiful picture of the finished product.
So I think, "hey, thats looks delicious, I want to make that-- where is the recipe?"
2) Then, they spend a few paragraphs (or pages) telling you exactly how the recipe tastes, and how they felt as they tasted their recipe, using a lot of punctuation like "BEST. COOKIE. EVER!!" and exaggerations like "when I die, I want to be dipped in this caramel" and suddenly...
3) you, the reader, become their confidante, and they start telling you how they had not one, not two, but three helpings of this recipe and couldn't help but eat half of the dough before they had even put it in the oven (because you know, its been a really stressful week for them and the kids have been driving them crazy and you just HAD to make some comfort food), and how their hips were going to hate them in the morning, and how their spouse normally hates this kind of food, but this recipe- it changed his mind, etc., etc.
So I think "great, this woman (because they are mostly women) is finally going to stop beating around the bush and give me a recipe" but instead...
4) she starts taking me painstakingly through the entire cooking process. First she shows me a picture of all the ingredients, in case I didn't know what "sugar" looked like. Then she shows me some carefully taken pictures of her turning on the stove, boiling water, pouring a teaspoon of salt into the water. Then in case I didn't know what it looked like, there is a picture of the pasta boiling in the water. Then there is a picture of a can of tomatoes because it is about to make its entrance. And amidst all of the gorgeous, beautiful lighting photos of her chopping vegetables and mixing things in bowls, there is a running commentary, in case the pictures have not been explanatory enough. Boil water. Go ahead, throw that rice into the boiling water.
After scrolling through pages and pages of photos and commentary, the blogger then proceeds to 5) give her final thoughts on the process, including some words of command:
You HAVE to make this. TONIGHT. You will thank me for it later. And don't plan on any leftovers because last night I found myself at 2 am finishing it off for a late night snack. So without further ado, here is the recipe.

and usually by that point I am a) either so disgusted by the time consumed out of my life waiting for this recipe to magically appear at the end of the 20 page blog post or b) completely wrapped up in the drama of the blogger's life so I have to tune in next week to find out how spring break did turn out...sheesh!

So yeah, I have some issues with food blogs. I have considered doing my own, just posting the vegetarian recipes I make with a picture (or not) of the finished product only. Because if there is one thing I hate, its eating cold food that is best eaten hot, and I just can't take the time to make sure I am photographing my curries from the right angle with the right amount of beautiful blur in the background.
But would anyone read a food blog that was just about....the food?

Meaty Monday (a satire)

So lately I have been feeling guilty, really guilty about my diet. I noticed that I just had too much energy. When I looked at my dinner plate, there were so many colors represented there. And I realized, much to my chagrin, that the majority of my food intake were fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
I decided to go see my doctor who confirmed that I was, in fact, very healthy. After a thorough examination, she finally told me the hard truth. If I didn't change my lifestyle soon, I was probably going to avoid most major diseases and live to be 100.
I sat there on the examination table in stunned silence, seeking to justify myself. When had I become so healthy? I remembered eating whole pans of brownies as a child. All I did was watch T.V. after school. I couldn't run a half mile without wanting to throw up! But somehow over the ensuing decade I had allowed myself to become healthier and healthier, and now I was embarrassed to admit to my doctor that I couldn't remember the last time I had purchased red meat.
I found myself trying to justify myself to her:
"I'm not really that healthy am I? I mean, I don't exercise at least 1 day a week, and I do have a propensity to eat chocolate chips straight out of the bag, and my husband and I eat out at least twice a month."
My weak excuses did nothing to phase my doctor. She responded:
"Although not exercising is generally a good way to decrease your health, you need to do it more consistently to make it have any effect. And I am sorry to say that the occasional dark chocolate binge would only nominally affect your overall health. If you are serious about trying to become more unhealthy, you are going to have to make a much more concerted effort to change your lifestyle for the worse."

She suggested that in addition to becoming more sedentary, I could try some small changes to my diet. Specifically, to add more meat to my diet. Apparently, my saturated and trans fat levels were alarmingly low and eating some fatty meat would be the surest way to increase them.

I had lots of questions for her. I didn't have experience making meaty meals. What kinds of meals center around meat? What kind of restaurants have meat entrees? What if I am out with co-workers or friends and I order meat...won't they think I'm weird? Won't it be a burden if I am invited over to dinner and I insist on a meat-centered meal? What if there is no meat available?

She took all my questions in stride. She suggested that I take baby steps. To start out by setting aside one day each week in which to increase my meat intake and to portion out precut bacon in plastic containers for easier snacking during the week. That way if I am tempted to take out some hummus and carrots, I will have an unhealthier option easily on hand.

So with that, I am going to start "Meaty Mondays." Each monday I will devote to trying out new meaty recipes. In preparation, I went out and bought all the tools I would need-- a George Foreman grill, some steak knives, and some A-1 sauce. Now I feel I am ready. I know it is only a small step toward unhealth, but it is a step nonetheless. And who knows, maybe someday all my meals will be meat centered and I can finally hear my doctor tell me "Rachael, congratulations, your arteries are almost completely blocked and your days are numbered unless you get an expensive bypass surgery!"

One can only dream!

Hunger Games party

"The Hunger Games" has been the only movie I have actually been excited about for the past year. I don't like paying more than the cost of a redbox for a movie, so it was really saying something that I wanted to see it opening weekend.

But in true Rachael fashion, it wasn't enough to merely see the movie, I had to coordinate a Hunger Games party as well, complete with district themed couples, district themed food, and elimination style games (in a friendly but ruthless kind of way). Richard and I represented the Capital (as hosts of the event), so we wore bright vivid colors, drew tattoos on our faces, and I adopted a haughty accent for the evening. Our themed food dish was a peanut butter mousse brownie torte with chocolate ganache (to represent Capital decadence).

The food and games were phenomenal. Other districts and their food were:

Meat district (wore Texas T-shirts): ribs and sausages

Technology district (wore iphones and earbuds): "apples" and caramel

Utah district (BYU sweatshirts): funeral potatoes and green jello

Rebel district (bandanas and blue jeans): chips and salsa

Athletic district (full on biking gear and helmets): bread rolls for carbo loading

Coal district (gray clothing): ice cream?

In addition we had two certified game commissioners on hand to make sure there was no cheating when it came to the elimination games.

There were three rounds:

1) two team relay with 9 "minute to win it" type challenges (like stacking blocks with chopsticks and pulling all the kleenex out of a box with one hand)

2) trivia and knowledge count downs (30 seconds to name all the prime numbers, or scientific elements, or shakespearian plays, etc.), with the lowest scoring team being eliminated after each specific round.

3) blindfolded musical chairs.

I wish I had the photos from these events because I was dying laughing. We had so much fun. It was one of the most successful events I have planned in a long time and it was great to have so many friends come. We had set up a room with movies and snacks for the kids complete with babysitters so all the adults could play unhindered.

And yes, Hunger Games was SO satisfying to watch. And emotional-- more than I thought it would be. I cried twice. I think I would have cried anyway even if I hadn't been pregnant. For some reason, it was easier to separate myself from some of the scenes of the book so that I was just emotionally removed enough to enjoy it without being horrified. The movie didn't leave me quite as lucky! I thought they did a fantastic job.