Daily Tweets

• 15:14 My children are running through the house screaming "Uncle Ben is coming RIGHT NOW!" Sorry Auntie Mer...chopped spam. #
• 15:14 Just put down the peanut butter M&M's and walk away... #

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Daily Tweets

• 09:27 Last day of school and the excitement in palpable. Summer here we come! #

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Daily Tweets

• 19:38 Standing outside smiling as a neighbor walks her dog by and then, from behind me, E turns the hose on them. #
• 19:39 After her string of profanities, and my apologies, we hurried into the house. #
• 19:42 E is determined, apparently, to spend his 3rd year of life in "time-out." #

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Daily Tweets

• 10:23 Popcorn chicken and sugar cookies for breakfast boys! Mom has lost her mind. #
• 13:07 Wasn't prepared for the flood of emotions at H's pre-school graduation. (And, classically, I am the only Mom without a camera...) #

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Daily Tweets

• 09:03 Yuck. Threw up this morning. Hope it's just a 24-hour thing. #
• 18:17 Not prego. Stop the rumors. I wish, though. #
• 18:18 A great friend brought over lunch and then dinner for my family. Yum. I wish that I wanted to eat. #

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Before I Die

I'd like to:

• Be published in a food journal or magazine
• Publish a book
• Spend a summer chasing tornadoes with the boys
• Open a restaurant/bakery/catering business
• Give birth to a baby girl*
• Take the children out of school for a year and take a cruise around the world
• Teach in a classroom of some sort
• Perform as the lead in some community musical theater
• Live in a foreign land
• Publish poetry
• Have 12 kids and a reason to buy #10 cans of peaches from Costco
• Have a really interesting house with either colorful eclectic furnishings or clean and crisp white hues
• Serve a mission
• Study at the Cordon Bleu
• Have fresh flowers constantly on my tables
• Be the proud owner of a walk-in-freezer and a Hobart mixer (and maybe a proofer, but that's just getting greedy)
• Have tight abs
• Play my viola in a symphony orchestra
• Sleep in

---

(to be continued)

*Let's be honest, this may just be a passing fantasy and I'm more likely to get that walk-in-freezer than a baby girl. But everyone has got to have an impossible dream, right?

Daily Tweets

• 11:12 E has taken to ending every phrase today with "babe" as in "here you go, babe" "what is for breakfast, babe?" #

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Daily Tweets

• 09:56 I think that my parenting skills are getting steadily worse. #
• 19:43 Found my cell phone amongst the bubbles in the boys' bath. (Sigh.) #

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Daily Tweets

• 15:59 My one-year-old just walked by, tapped me a couple of times on the derrière and said, smiling, "Spanky, spanky!" #
• 16:00 ...Oh and H just told me he held a girls hand out to recess today. "Because she likes me..." he said. #
• 16:22 Dear E, repeatedly pinching me and hitting me does not make me want to hold you. It makes me mad. #

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Daily Tweets

• 15:50 Enjoyed our Waterfield weekend. Enjoyed the Shrek twinkies a bit too much. #
• 15:51 Playing go fish with the mormon game cards. "Do you have a curelom." "No, but I have three Liahonas" #
• 19:56 Boys in bed. Party time. #

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Daily Tweets

• 18:27 Bought my swimming ensemble for San Diego today! Can't wait! #
• 21:44 We need a camera. Which one should we buy? #

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Dearest Family - THIS is What I Was Doing

Last Wednesday I catered an event--a little dessert buffet at a Stake YW night. It was a first, really, and it wasn't much to anyone else, I am sure, but for me it was enormously satisfying.  I couldn't believe that Jamie would actually let me do the whole thing without any sort of credentials beyond a passionate (and often delusional) desire to play chef. 

But, nevertheless, I found my thoughts churning obsessively, and almost instantly, over various textures and colors and flavors that might make a charming presentation. [Side: I know when I have really found a project to love when I wake up in the middle of the night to possible recipe formulations, interesting garnishes, or the timing logistics of carrying it all off. One time, when I was orchestrating a major freezer dinner enrichment activity, I woke in the night to nurse the baby and fumbling to remember which "side" the baby needed to nurse on, I found myself thinking "no he had the stuffed chicken already, he needs to have the beef!"]   

There is something so thrilling about participating in the process of culinary imagination to creation--and doing it en masse. Plus having a real reason to shop at Costco is, well, glorious!  Who doesn't get a little rise out of purchasing 11 pounds of butter and 7 quarts of heavy cream? I ask you!

In the end, I learned so much--about vanilla beans, about the importance of creaming in cake making, about time management, and (most importantly) about letting people help me in the process. My friend, Ashley, spent a lot of her Monday afternoon and most of her Tuesday morning cheerfully glazing chocolate cupcakes and pressing out tartlet dough. (I believe I pressed two tartlets to her 137.)  And Aaron, one night, bless that man's heart, single-handedly whipped up a gorgeous vat of Coconut Italian meringue and helped me lop it onto beautiful tiny cupcakes.  Finally, when it came time to actually plate the food, Ashley and Mindee spent more time in the kitchen than I did. Who knew that giving up some of the control and letting people participate with you could be so rewarding! 

(Maybe that is a sign of maturing, Mom.  You think so?) 

Though it wasn't perfect, (next time I will not glaze with a modified ganache, but, instead make a sturdier chocolate "shell"), I was proud of how it turned out. 

The final menu was:

Lemon tartlets with citrus sugar

Chocolate bombes (little chocolate cakes filled with ganache and glazed)

Mint and almond truffles [because I had a lot of extra ganache]

Strawberry shortcakes 

Vanilla creme mini cupcakes with coconut meringue

Lime shortbread with almonds and white chocolate

and

Almond sparkly sugar cookies

---

Me and Ashley (the fearless tart-presser-outer and grand friend)

Daily Tweets

• 21:38 I am hanging up the toque for the month and getting back on the diet. Ouch! It's been a pricey few weeks for the scale... #
• 21:46 Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, Mom-in-law, Sissies, Sis's-in-law, and Friends! #

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Daily Tweets

• 21:21 I. Am. So. Tired. #

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Daily Tweets

• 09:23 Swimming in ganache yesterday, today we are working the egg magic: lemon custard and Italian meringue. Wish us luck. #
• 16:55 While I was neglecting the children, H took the training wheels off the neighbor's bike for him. Oh and he threw the bolts in the trash. #
• 16:57 ~Awkward neighbor moment~ #

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Daily Tweets

• 08:08 Feeling a little "under the gun" today. And EZ is feverish. Movies, anyone? #

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Daily Tweets

• 20:00 Beautiful and relaxing day today. Now hunkering down for a very intense week to come. #

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Daily Tweets

• 08:28 We bought 50 lbs of flour, 24 lbs of butter, and 20 lbs of powdered sugar yesterday. Now let's get to work! #
• 00:15 Up late hanging with the hubby and setting up Quicken on the new computer. Feeling tired (and saddle sore). #

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Daily Tweets

• 09:36 I'm going to the Costco business center today. Woot! Woot! #

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Daily Tweets

• 10:10 Enjoying a beautiful crazy windy day with the guys. Whoa. It just knocked over the barbeque. So cool. #
• 17:05 Watched the garbage can fly across the street. Today's weather is endlessly entertaining. #

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