Great....

My brother-in-law sent the following news article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080528/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_shark_attacks. And now I can't sleep because I'm dreaming of these:

If there is one thing that I am absolutely scared to death of it is sharks! I grew up scared to swim even in fresh water lakes for fear sharks would have migrated from the salt water to live under the dock where I liked to swim. So to connect the dots, the location of these shark attacks is the town that we're going to over Christmas!! I'M SO SCARED! But I did learn that week that donkeys kill more human annually than any other animal (sharks included) and I doubt I'll be coming across any donkeys on the beach. Oh for crying outloud! I can't even look at the picture above without my heart skipping twelve beats!

Tomorrow night we leave to fly to Dallas, TX. As far as I know, there are no sharks there. In fact, there's hardly any water there so I should be fairly safe. Can't wait!

Graham's starting a blog!

I have to giggle because he was the one who gave me a hard time about starting a blog in the first place. I knew he would come around... :o) I can't even tell you HOW EXCITED I am for him to start this writing venture! Yes I'm married to the man and feel like I know him better than anyone else, yet there still are those times where I just wish I could get inside his head and figure out what he's thinking---this may just be my chance! Anyway, it's not ready to read yet (seeing as the whole first long post he wrote got deleted), but in the future days to come, check out http://crackergraham.blogspot.com/.

For fun yesterday, I went back and read his old xanga blog that he kept in college--SO FUN! He kept talking about this girl he was crazy about (i.e. me) which made me happy. It is so weird to read and think about how casual we started out with it being one of those "let's just see how it goes" kinda thing. Now look what happened! Anyway, I find the way he blogs hillarious because it is so random but he thinks it makes total sense... :o) Maybe it's just because he doesn't use paragraphs...Enjoy!

Green-ISH Thumb

I have been having a lot of random urges lately, my most recent being an excitement about gardening (well, okay, and maybe I've been excited about babies in the future too, but Graham says no). So because we are in a townhome, technically I don't own the dirt in the gardens in my backyard. But I decided that the dirt by itself is ugly and that in order to avoid an ugly yard, I should be able to plant in it. So I have. And if I get in trouble, I will ask for forgiveness for my shameful sin. But I mean, who gets upset when they see flowers?!?

Actually, I planted my garden almost a month ago but I'm pretty sure it drowned. I was checking the dirt for any signs of plants but without much luck (a few things came up but not much). So this weekend I went to Home Depot and bought another round of plants in hopes for better success with take 2. I planted dahlias, green cosmos, echinacea, calla lilies, sunflowers, a clematis plant and many other little flowers that I can't remember the names of. In addition, I have my potted vegetable garden that hopefully will produce zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce/arugula, garlic, herbs and green beans. Unfortunately, produce is difficult to grow in pots so I may just end up frustrated and have to wait until we have a big yard where I can put in raised beds. I would take pictures of my little plants if I could, but my husband loaned our camera to his brother....so you'll just have to be patient and I'll post pics at a later date!

Just when we thought we had it figured out...

Yesterday afternoon we learned that our plans were not the Lord's plans. A letter arrived from Seattle University--it felt too thin to be good news. Graham will not be attending graduate school in the Fall so that was a bit of a bummer for both of us. It seemed to make a lot of sense--get school out of the way while I'm working and we don't have kids, get a good job, buy and house, use the nurse practitioner degree to do mission work in another country etc.....but I think it may have also been just a little too easy. This plan wouldn't involve a lot of risk and therefore not a lot of opportunity for growth and increasing our faith. Graham of course was disappointed but I really do think he would have said no or at least deferred the program for a year had he been accepted--the timing was no longer seeming right.

To lift his spirits when he returned from work yesterday, he was greeted with a note on the door that told him that unfortunately he couldn't come in but instead had to look under the door mat. Money was waiting for him and off he went to get Starbucks (always a good cheer-up for him!) When he arrived home again (he didn't actually go to Starbuck--the stinker!), there was a new note on the door with instructions to go to the backyard and relax. Waiting for him on our patio table were candles and his favorite news magazine. His "waitress" offered him the house special and he accepted: Homemade Thyme Fococcia, Spinach Salad with Apples and Balsamic, Penne Pasta with Broccolini and Goat Cheese, water and wine. We had a wonderful dinner on the patio complete with a card that led him to his gift: Season 3 of The Office! I think I was able to successfully distract him and cheer him up... :o) I'm so proud of him!

Anyway, so who knows what we'll do now. It feels weird to finally have an answer to the school questions. I keep finding myself thinking "now what?" Here's my vote....

JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Making a Difference

I've been thinking and praying a lot lately about my job and what my purpose is there. I mean, how often does a person get called to serve in Everett, WA??? It isn't exactly the most glamorous of cities! :o) Anyway, it seems like anyone employed in a neonatal ICU would automatically be classified as being a part of a "helping profession." But honestly, until recently, I was having a hard time seeing how I was really helping anybody. So I started to pray about it. Our pastor at Bethany has been preaching a fabulous series on Ecclesiastes. I've never really liked the book because it's contents really scared me. I couldn't reconcile how life could possibly be so "meaningless" and I really did not want to think about it. Pastor Richard has shed new light on the book for me--I might even say that I love Ecclesiastes now! He has preached so many convicting sermons about our work and how a huge percentage of people are dissatisfied with their jobs and are looking for new ones that are bigger and better. Richard simply encouraged us to just focus on doing and being the absolute best we can be at our current jobs. And so that has been my focus this week....

It has been AMAZING! I feel like I've been in somewhat of a spiritual dry spell as of late, not experiencing God in a tangible fashion. But this week has been so different now that I've been working on realigning my perspective! All of a sudden, I have been given wonderful opportunities to be there for hurting coworkers. Honestly, it is weird. I have had people who hardly shared surface stuff with me in the past just open up and dump out all their really personal struggles. Two separate people in as many days have even been moved to tears as they shared. I have never really thought of myself as a good listener (although I would really like to be!) but this week something must have changed and people are letting their guard down and letting me share some of their burdens. The honesty is absolutely wonderful! Even though it took nearly two years to get to this point, I am so excited to feel like I am making a difference. And I feel like maybe God is finally helping me to see why he placed me where he did.

Frozen Yogurt

On a more personal note, we had the BEST day yesterday! I think I was a little overly-eager about the sunshine though (and less eager about the sunscreen--I'm paying for it today but I'm wearing pink so my skin and burn all blend together!) Graham made me a crepe breakfast with fresh strawberries that we ate on our patio. Then we packed a lunch and a couple of backpacks and rode our bikes to Waverly Park on Lake Washington in Kirkland. We sunbathed, read, had our picnic, jumped in the water a few times (FREEZING!) and then walked from there to downtown Kirkland for frozen yogurt. There's 2 amazing frozen yogurt places that we've discovered in the past week (this was our 3 trip there in 1 week). We ordered one dish to share from the first place but our serving of yogurt was hollow in the middle so we hardly got anyway! Plus it is really hard for me to share my frozen desserts because I start to feel like it is a competition with the other person to get enough bites so I eat it really fast and then the whole experience is over before I have the chance to enjoy it! So after feeling awfully disappointed about the weany yogurt serving at the first place, Graham let me go to the second place (so that no one would know we'd already had any!) and order another dish. :o)

Char Siu Bao (Steamed Pork Buns)

I was asked to make sure that food subjects be included in my blog with a special request to post a weekly recipe. Hopefully my posting a recipe here and there will help spread happiness to many bellies! So this week I made these amazing Steamed Pork Buns (a Cooking Light Recipe) using my nifty new steamer from Crate and Barrel.

Even if you don't have a steamer, you should still make this recipe (you can use a collander over a pan of boiling hot water with a lid on top) because it was AMAZING! Graham actually introduced me to this kind of steamed bun at Folk Life Festival just after we started dating, but this is the first time I've tried making them on my own. SO GOOD! I made the bun dough in my bread machine to speed up the hands-on process but you can make it the old fashioned way with a bowl and spoon if you don't have a bread machine. Anyway, they are sort of a little labor intensive but well worth it. I used ground turkey instead of the pork and it tasted just as good. Enjoy!

Steamed Pork Buns (Char Siu Bao)
(adapted from Cooking Light Magazine)

Filling:
2 teaspoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
1 pound ground pork or turkey
1 cup thinly sliced green onions
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt

Dough:
1 cup warm water (100° to 110°)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 14 2/3 ounces)
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

To prepare the filling, heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground meat and five-spice powder to pan and saute, breaking up meat with a spoon until cooked through (~8-10 minutes). Remove meat from pan and place in medium bowl and let stand 15 minutes. Add onions and next 7 ingredients (through 1/4 teaspoon salt); stir well to combine. Cover and refrigerate.

To prepare dough, combine 1 cup warm water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add flour, oil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to yeast mixture; stir until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size. (Gently press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough.)

Punch dough down; let rest 5 minutes. Turn dough out onto a clean surface; knead in baking powder. Let dough rest 5 minutes. Divide dough into 10 equal portions, forming each into a ball. Working with one dough ball at a time (cover remaining dough balls to keep from drying), roll ball into a 5-inch circle. Place 1/4 cup filling in center of dough circle. Bring up sides to cover filling and meet on top. Pinch and seal closed with a twist. Repeat procedure with remaining dough balls and filling.

Arrange 5 buns seam side down, 1 inch apart, in each tier of a 2-tiered bamboo steamer. Stack tiers; cover with lid. Add water to a large skillet to a depth of 1 inch; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Place steamer in pan; steam 15 minutes or until puffed and set. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

Yield: 10 servings (serving size: 1 bun)

Char Siu Bao (Steamed Pork Buns)

I was asked to make sure that food subjects be included in my blog with a special request to post a weekly recipe. Hopefully my posting a recipe here and there will help spread happiness to many bellies! So this week I made these amazing Steamed Pork Buns (a Cooking Light Recipe) using my nifty new steamer from Crate and Barrel. It looks like this:
Even if you don't have a steamer, you should still make this recipe (you can use a collander over a pan of boiling hot water with a lid on top) because it was AMAZING! Graham actually introduced me to this kind of steamed bun at Folk Life Festival just after we started dating, but this is the first time I've tried making them on my own. SO GOOD! I made the bun dough in my bread machine to speed up the hands-on process but you can make it the old fashioned way with a bowl and spoon if you don't have a bread machine. Anyway, they are sort of a little labor intensive but well worth it. I used ground turkey instead of the pork and it tasted just as good. Enjoy!

Steamed Pork Buns (Char Siu Bao)

Filling:

1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder

1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed

Cooking spray

1 cup thinly sliced green onions

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons honey

1 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon salt

Dough:

1 cup warm water (100° to 110°)

3 tablespoons sugar

1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 14 2/3 ounces)

3 tablespoons canola oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1. To prepare the filling, rub five-spice powder evenly over pork. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat the pan with cooking spray. Add pork to pan; cook 18 minutes or until a thermometer registers 155°, turning pork occasionally. Remove pork from pan, and let stand 15 minutes.
2. Cut pork crosswise into thin slices; cut slices into thin strips. Place pork in a medium bowl. Add onions and next 7 ingredients (through 1/4 teaspoon salt); stir well to combine. Cover and refrigerate.
3. To prepare dough, combine 1 cup warm water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes.
4. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add flour, oil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to yeast mixture; stir until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size. (Gently press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough.)
5. Punch dough down; let rest 5 minutes. Turn dough out onto a clean surface; knead in baking powder. Let dough rest 5 minutes.
6. Divide dough into 10 equal portions, forming each into a ball. Working with one dough ball at a time (cover remaining dough balls to keep from drying), roll ball into a 5-inch circle. Place 1/4 cup filling in center of dough circle. Bring up sides to cover filling and meet on top. Pinch and seal closed with a twist. Repeat procedure with remaining dough balls and filling.
7. Arrange 5 buns seam side down, 1 inch apart, in each tier of a 2-tiered bamboo steamer. Stack tiers; cover with lid.
8. Add water to a large skillet to a depth of 1 inch; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Place steamer in pan; steam 15 minutes or until puffed and set. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

Yield: 10 servings (serving size: 1 bun)CALORIES 259 (21% from fat); FAT 6.1g (sat 0.9g,mono 3.2g,poly 1.5g); PROTEIN 14.3g; CHOLESTEROL 27mg; CALCIUM 54mg; SODIUM 343mg; FIBER 1.6g; IRON 2.9mg; CARBOHYDRATE 35.7g Cooking Light, MAY 2008

On a more personal note, we had the BEST day yesterday! I think I was a little overly-eager about the sunshine though (and less eager about the sunscreen--I'm paying for it today but I'm wearing pink so my skin and burn all blend together!) Graham made me a crepe breakfast with fresh strawberries that we ate on our patio. Then we packed a lunch and a couple of backpacks and rode our bikes to Waverly Park on Lake Washington in Kirkland. We sunbathed, read, had our picnic, jumped in the water a few times (FREEZING!) and then walked from there to downtown Kirkland for frozen yogurt. There's 2 amazing frozen yogurt places that we've discovered in the past week (this was our 3 trip there in 1 week). We ordered one dish to share from the first place but our serving of yogurt was hollow in the middle so we hardly got anyway! Plus it is really hard for me to share my frozen desserts because I start to feel like it is a competition with the other person to get enough bites so I eat it really fast and then the whole experience is over before I have the chance to enjoy it! So after feeling awfully disappointed about the weany yogurt serving at the first place, Graham let me go to the second place (so that no one would know we'd already had any!) and order another dish. :o)

Quality of Life

This is going to be more of a reflective post given that I have had a couple of more reflective months at work in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). First off, I'll start off by saying that working with babies can make you really want to have some of your own, but it can also be really good birth control when you see all the complications that can occur. In the almost-two years that I have worked in a baby ICU, the endings have been mostly happy ones with the babies getting well and going home healthy. However, this spring has been a very hard one for some reason with lots of sick babies and not-so-happy endings. Medicine has come so far and we are able to keep younger and younger babies alive. But I'm beginning to realize that it is not always for the best. Some of these kids born 12-16 weeks early end up severely disabled as a result of complications of their prematurity. Yes, we may be able to keep them alive, but then to live for the rest of their life on a breathing machine? That just doesn't seem right or fair. It is such a sticky subject! I honestly do not know what I would do if I were the parents of these babies. I pray that I will never have to be put in a situation where I will have to make the decision to withdraw life support for the sake of the baby's quality of life. Today we had a mom decide not to intervene and resuscitate her now 2 month old if she is unable to breathe on her own (she hasn't been able to for her entire 10 weeks of life). My heart broke for this mom! I really do respect her choice as I know this baby's future would not have been an easy one. Wow, really tough stuff. It sure makes all the "problems" in my life fade in comparison, doesn't it?

Waiting

So most of you are probably aware that my dear husband applied for a masters degree/family nurse practitioner program early last month at Seattle U. Since early April, we just been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting to figure out what the next few years of our lives will hold. It isn't at all that Graham dislikes his current nursing job. He's become quite the cancer expert (he's one of the few chemotherapy certified nurse on his floor) and does a really great job of working with patients and families (all the old ladies love him!) But we've been talking a lot about future plans and one of our goals is for me to eventually be able to stay home with a family. In order for us to live on one income in this crazy expensive city, it seems that Graham will need to pursue higher education and now seems like the perfect time to go for it. Yesterday he had his interview with a couple of the faculty at Seattle U. I was super excited to finally hear something from the school and took it as a good sign that they called him in for an interview. He thinks they do that for everyone but hey, regardless, I think that he must have looked good enough on paper not to weed him out of the applicants. Anyway, he talked about his wife a bit during the interview which I was thankful for. I mean, let's be honest: If a well-dressed male nurse came walking into your office, you might, if ever so briefly, wonder if he were straight or not so I'm glad Graham broke the ice and answered the question that no one would ever admit they were thinking. So yeah, in two weeks we should hear back and therefore know which direction our lives are heading. I really can't even imagine what is going to happen in the next two years. I'm really trying very hard to live and enjoy each day and be satisfied and not always look ahead to what's next. I'm am oh so very curious though....

(PS-I tried to post an actual picture of Graham in his scrubs but I don't have any good ones so I was left with this google man..)

252 days until....

WE GO TO MEXICO!! AS YOU CAN TELL BY MY CAPITALIZED TEXT, I AM SO EXCITED!!! I have purchased a new swim suit and I'd say I'm pretty much ready to go. Seriously, I have such a bad case of travel bug right now. All that I want to do is go places! Now all that's left to do is patiently wait for 252 days and then I'll be on a plane out of Seattle with my wonderful family. That brings me to my next point---my dad is pretty much amazing! He managed this multi-million dollar project this year at work and did a fabulous job. He was award with a nice plaque to honor him as well as a bonus in the form of a check. Now there are a lot of things I'm sure my dad would have liked to do with that money (like buy more fishing gear or a small little boat) but instead he wanted to take the family to Mexico! Well, he kind of owes us somewhat I guess you could say though. The last time we were scheduled to go on a big trip to Florida (back in my SPU days), he got too excited about a foul ball at my brother's baseball game and tore something in his knee on the day we were supposed to leave! Needless to say, we spent the day in the Everett ER and then did our best to "vacation" in Bellingham for the remainder of the week. Of course we were limited to activities that my dad could participate in on crutches. :o)
Anyway, back to Mexico...we leave the day after Christmas and will be spending New Years on the sandy beach between Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo on the Pacific side (not Baja). Here's a picture of the condo's pool and beach where we'll be staying:
Supposedly this area is much less touristy and has a 9 mile long beach for walking/sunbathing. Graham is thrilled to finally be going someplace sunny (he's never been to Mexico on a vacation before) because all his big family trips have had poor weather. It rained when he went to Hawaii. It rained for all but 2 days on our honeymoon in Fiji. It was only 50ish degrees in Italy in March (with occasional rain)....Pray for sun in December or else I think the poor guy will give up on traveling with me!

It's FINISHED!!

Oh hooray of all hoorays! Our bathroom is pretty much completed! Take a look....They did such an awesome job!

Of course it took quite a bit longer than I'd thought it would (which meant my father-in-law almost had to fly out for Hawaii leaving the project unfinished for 10 days), but it looks beautiful! And plus it was a learning experience. The two things I learned were:

1) If we ever, EVER decide to buy a fixer-upper house, there is NO WAY I will be able to sanely live in it while it is under construction. Oh how I value not having to wipe shards of tile off the bedspread before we climb into bed at night! (Don't ask me how the stuff flies so far, but apparently it does.)

2) Tiling the guest bath is no longer appealing (sorry to those of you who might stay with us--you can use our bath if you really want to experience a giant sunflower shower head).

Crozier Catering

Tonight I catered a fancy dinner for Graham's aunt's church's pastoral candidate search. Nine of the church members were entertaining a potential candidate from Alabama for the weekend and wanted to serve him a nice catered dinner. Apparently no local catering businesses cater for groups of 20 or less so I was asked to do the job. I was super nervous but it went really well. I wish I would have taken pictures of how we plated the courses--they were fancy and I even garnished them with fresh herbs! The menu included:

Fresh and Sun-Dried Tomato Feta Bruschetta

Apricot Spinach Salad with Walnuts and Feta

Crispy Thyme Salmon with Creamy Risotto and Roasted Tomatoes

Fresh Plum Berry Cobber with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Sparkling Cider, Coffee, Tea, Water

The dog really liked all but 3 of the first bruschetta appetizers that we put out on the table (oops! Thankfully the guests hadn't arrived yet and we had some spares saved back in the kitchen...) The humans really enjoyed the food too. It was overall a success!

Oh and on a PS note, our bathroom is now deemed "un-useable" until further notives (Graham tore it apart today).

Wellness Works!!

Or at least, so I'm told... I have just finished placing ink marks in various locations on my body to measure my arm, thigh, waist and hip circumference. I've taken my blood pressure, calculated my BMI (body mass index for the layman) and will count my resting heart rate when I wake up tomorrow morning.

And why am I doing this you might be asking? My hospital's wellness department (Wellness Works) is kicking off a wellness program where we are asked to choose three health goals for ourselves which we must accomplish in 12 weeks time. Periodically throughout the program, we will have to remeasure ourselves, looking for improvements/changes to keep us on track. I chose to partake in the "Pedometer Challenge" so you can expect to see me walking ever-so-nerd-like, with a pedometer on my hip counting my steps.

I'm hoping this will help me be motivated to exercise more. I love being active but until last week, the gym and I weren't getting along so well. I am finally getting back into it! For those of you who know me well, you know that I don't, nor do I ever plan to run long distances. But when I was at the gym on Wednesday night, I was walking on the treadmill with guys running on both sides. I started feeling like they were one-uping me so I decided "Maybe I'll just run for 5 minutes." So I sped up my treadmill to join their pace. After 5 minutes I thought, "This isn't so bad...I'll go for 10 minutes." And then after 10 minutes I realized I could do double that. I ran for TWENTY MINUTES PEOPLE!!!! Nothing impressive when compared to a seasoned runner, but for me, huge progress! Now whether I'll do it again, I don't know, but for now I'm excited to have some accountability through work to really push myself towards my goals.

I'm awefully comfy on the couch right now....I think I'll start tomorrow. :o)