Apple Pie

What's more American than Apple Pie in September?

Two weeks ago I took a drive out to Williamson Orchards in Caldwell to buy 6 boxes of peaches (22 lbs. per box) in order to put up peaches with Susie. [We wanted Elberta peaches, but they were sold out for the season, so I got Snow King peaches instead, which have white meat. In the jars, they look like pears.] We each wanted to have 30 quarts of peaches and according to the Ball Blue Book, we'd need about 120 lbs. of peaches. After one long day of canning, we had 56 quarts (3 jars had broken), and 2 full boxes of peaches left. We were out of "Fruit Fresh" and energy, so we resolved to finish the rest the next week. Little did we know that my boys would get sick, family would come into town, and "Fruit Fresh" was sold out at every store in the vicinity. Before we got back to them, the peaches were rotten. Susie says she has pictures she'll post to her blog. Here they are.

Anyhow, while I was at the orchard, I also bought a box (22 lbs.) of Gala apples. I was intending that our family would eat them, but we haven't been doing it as quickly as needed, so yesterday I decided to put up apple pie filling so that we wouldn't end up with a half-box of rotten apples. This morning, I canned 6 quarts, 1 pint, made 2 Dutch crumb apple pies (thanks to Susie for the pie crusts), and one apple crisp for Ryan to take to the scout campout tonight. Yum!

Now I have to go make the Amish Friendship bread that my sister Milaka sent to me with my mom last week. I have 2 starts to work with because my sister, Shanda, didn't take hers home with her. Can I interest anyone in a start?

Ohio Star

I've now attended the 3 classes in the first session of beginning quilt making. The instructor was very helpful. For my quilt, I've decided to make 6 blocks. When I'm done, it will hang on a wall in my bedroom.

For homework after the first class, I had to go shopping for fabric. I'm glad I had Stacy there with me to pick out the fabric. The next step was washing, drying and ironing! I had no idea that ironing was such an important part of quilting. This was the first time I ironed fabric right after pulling it out of the dryer.

At class 2, we learned how to cut the fabric. Rotary cutters are my friend! The homework for this class was cutting out the squares and triangles needed. Happily, I got this done in class, so all I needed to do at home was clip the corners of the triangles. With the corners clipped, the sewing should go smoothly.

Laying out the fabric--just to see.

Yesterday afternoon, when I layed out the fabric in the Ohio Star design, I couldn't see the star. I thought I might need to change out the fabric to make it more dramatic. But there was no time to do that before class, so I decided that I'd sew one at class and then change the fabric for the other 5.

However, after sewing and pressing the one block at class, I am able to see the star and I think it looks pretty good. Our teacher gave us some awesome hints on how to sew triangles without pinning them. I am so glad I'm taking this class!

My first completed Ohio Star block.

Now, to get ready for the second session of beginning quilting class, I need to sew the remaining 5 blocks and then purchase sashing and border fabric. Can I get this done by Oct. 23? I plan to.

Do you agree with these 'scientific' results?

And there you have it, my kids look like me!

8 Things

My sister-in-law tagged me to blog about 8 things that most people don't know about me. Lucky me.

1. Telephones. I am scared when I need to call people I don't know on the telephone. In high school, I wouldn't even call for pizza delivery. I did not mention this during my interview with Delta AirLines when I was applying for a job being a phone reservation representative.

2. Christmas Stockings. I have cross-stitched designs for Christmas stockings for myself, Ryan, Sabrina, and Roderic. I have not yet started on the one for Hyrum. On each of the stockings, I have 'Merry Christmas' stitched in a different language. Mine is in French, Ryan's is in Russian, Sabrina's is in Dutch and Roderic's is in Danish. I'm thinking of having Hyrum's language be Welsh.

3. Suspended. In 9th grade, I was suspended from school for 2 weeks. The reason for my suspension? Measles. My mom did not have me vaccinated as a child. At the start of every school year, she would sign the release form that I could attend school and that they could keep me out if my health were in danger. Well, that spring there was a measles outbreak in Davis county, so me along with several other students, were called out of class and told to go home and not return for at least 2 weeks, or if we got sick, we could return when we were no longer contagious. I was looking forward to the break from school, but the next morning, I had red dots on my torso. Measles! Our family was quarantined (my sister in 10th grade had to miss school - she had been vaccinated, but we had no record to prove it) My 3 little brothers got sick and my oldest sister got sick, even though she had had German Measles as a baby.

4. Tree of life. I started my formal schooling at The Tree of Life School, a private school in Ogden, UT. I was the only person my age in the school. There were a total of 15 students, K-12. I was able to work at my own pace, and after attending there 2 years, I had completed work for Kindergarten, First and Second grades. However, the next school year, when I transferred to Lincoln Elementary School (a public school), my age indicated that I should be in the second grade. After one quarter, a demanding Mom, and testing, I skipped to 3rd grade. From then on, I was the youngest person in my grade.

5. Kisses. The first time I kissed my husband was over the altar in the Salt Lake Temple on our wedding day. All of the times before that, he was my boyfriend. Interesting enough, I have only ever kissed Ryan.

6. Doll Collection. I started collecting dolls in 1988 when my sister, Shanda, came home from England with a doll dressed in a ceremonial guard costume for me. Now I have dolls from all over the world.

7. PDQ. One night when I was working at the Delta Center (on the suite level on a night when most suites were empty), I started compiling questions for my "Prospective Darling Questionnaire." [I was 18.] There were 50 questions in all ranging from favorite color, to favorite scripture to favorite General Authority to what they were studying at school. It was quite an exhaustive list. I only gave it to one boy, and surprisingly enough, he took the time to answer each question thoroughly. It's no wonder I married him.

8. Chain letters. I do not forward chain letters be it by mail, email or blog (I consider tagging a type of chain letter). If you were to send me a chain letter about recipes, for example, I would send a recipe to your friend and one to you, but I would not send the request to anyone else. So, I've done my part in sharing 8 things about me, but I'm not going to ask anyone else to do the same.

a·rach·no·pho·bi·a (ə-rāk'nə-fō'bē-ə)

I have a fear of spiders. Not cute spiders like Charlotte's Web in the movies, but of big spiders. Once, when I was about 10 and reading Charlotte's Web in my bedroom, a spider was crawling on my wall (far away from where I was) and I had to go get my big brother to kill it. That spider had nothing on the one I found in my garage yesterday.

When I came home and opened the garage door with the remote, I saw this large black thing run across my garage floor. I parked the car on the driveway and got out to investigate. I saw the biggest spider you've ever seen. I went over to my hero's house (more on her later) and asked her if she could come and kill a giant spider for me. When we got back to my garage, there was no sign of the giant, so my hero left. I got the two boys out of the van and we went into the house via the front door. I did not want to be startled by a spider with my baby in my arms.

A few hours later, when Sabrina went out to the garage to go to soccer practice, she eeked due to the spider. She had almost stepped on it. (I told her that would have been a good thing.) I calmly went in to grab my camera so I could photograph the giant (leaving Sabrina to put on her helmet alone). The spider wasn't gone when I got back, so I snapped a picture. I'd love to have posted it today but this explains why I can't. I called my hero to come and kill the spider and she came quickly. We discussed the best way to do it: I suggested a flyswatter, but my hero thought that wouldn't give enough force, so she used a metal snow shovel found in the garage. She swatted and got it, and then a bunch of baby spiders were on the shovel, so she smooshed them with her shoe, all while I was frozen at my garage door.

Using my photograph and the internet, I have come to the conclusion that the offending giant spider was a wolf spider, which according to the University of Idaho Entomology Department, "Wolf spiders run after prey and catch it. They do not employ webs to entangle insects. They have one large eye on each lateral side of their head for better vision. Adults will carry spiderlings on their back for a while. Some of our largest spiders in Idaho are wolf spiders."

Today, looking at the picture on my camera, typing spider in my web-browser, and reading all about them have caused my heart rate to elevate. I have a fear of spiders.

I'm so excited!

Earlier this year, my mom recommended a series of books for me to read because I was nursing a lot, so I had a lot of reading time available. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about these quilters and so I started looking into taking a quilting class in the spring. I found several stores around Boise that offered beginning quilting classes, and decided that was for me. The reason I couldn't start then is because I nurse my babies, and this one doesn't like a bottle. I even told Stacy that she would need to sign up with me to take the class (although her husband now refutes that she would even like to learn how to quilt). Long story short...

TONIGHT IS THE FIRST CLASS!!

In the first 3 meetings of the class, we're going to learn about designing and drafting a quilt, color, fabric selection and machine piecing. That seems all fine and dandy. In classes 4-6, we're going to learn how to set them, add borders, determine and mark quilting designs, quilting techniques and attaching binding. Its the last 3 classes that I'm most excited for, but in order to get to that stuff, you need quilt blocks, and that is what we make in the first 3 classes. All things must go in order.

Food, Glorious Food!

On Friday night we ate dinner on the "Pannenkoekenboot" (translation: The Pancake Boat). We got a tour of the Rotterdam harbor and ate all the pancakes we could eat for 1 hour. The pancakes are thin like crepes and you put on them any kind of topping you want: meats, cheeses, boiled eggs, chocolates, syrups, fruits, etc. It was delicious.

Ryan eats one last pancake before the boat docks.

Poffertjes. Delicious silver dollar sized fluffy pancakes served with butter and powdered sugar (also whipping cream and strawberries). I bought Ryan a pan that can cook these for Father's Day in 2004. We've made them for dinner a few times and they are tasty. However, from this street vendor, they were heavenly!

Quarter Chicken and frittes. FYI, they eat fries with mayonnaise or with "American Frittes Sauce" which consists of mayo, mustard and dill. Have you ever eaten fries with that?

Stuffed Sol and Frittes.

For lunch most every day, we ate cheese sandwiches - I loved it. Gouda and Edam cheeses are delicious!
For breakfasts, we ate a variety of foods, including bread with butter and sprinkles that you eat with fork and a knife. They come in chocolate and fruity flavors. I've found this online store that will sell them to you if you want to give it a try. Sabrina loves this as an after-school snack.

Dutch Cousins

After our lovely stay in St Petersburg, we flew to the Netherlands (hey, we were in the neighborhood) to visit Ryan's Dutch cousins. Ryan (and his parents) got to go and meet them in March 2004 while I stayed home, too pregnant to travel - I was 32 weeks along with Roderic. Then, in September 2004, Elly, Gerard and Annie came to Utah to stay with Ryan's parents and tour the west. We went down and got to take them to some sights around Salt Lake City.

The top of Hidden Peak at SnowBird Ski Resort in 2004.
Robert, Elly, Dorothy, Roderic, Malauna, Sabrina, Ryan, Gerard, Annie.

Elly loved to hold Roderic and sing him songs in Dutch. Needless to say, I was excited to take Hyrum to visit Elly, so she could sing for him as well.

After a delayed flight out of St Petersburg, we missed our connecting flight in Paris, so we got to Amsterdam about 2.5 hours later than we planned. Gerard was planning to pick us up, we weren't able to contact him to tell him about our delay, he left the airport before we got there, so we booked a hotel near the airport and spent a lot of money on a taxi to get there (and back to the airport train station the next day to go to Rotterdam).

View of Elly's back 'yard.'
Malauna, Hyrum, Bianca, Vivian in Elly's living room.

We stayed at Elly's house in Rotterdam. We got to tour around Rotterdam and Kinderdijk with Elly, her daughter Bianca and granddaughters Charlotte and Vivian on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday and Monday we toured around The Hague, Delft, Zaanse Schaans and Amsterdam with Gerard and Annie.

Annie and Gerard walking in Delft.