Guest Bathroom

I was reading over at Laurie's blog and she posted pictures of her newly decorated bathroom. It is beautiful and she obviously has no fear of painting, which is something that often holds me back from doing decorating projects. It inspired me to post pictures of my finally finished guest/main bathroom. I finally found the right color of towels to match the room, so I now feel like it is complete. The whole bathroom color scheme is centered around a print of Carl Larsson's that I found about a year ago entitled, "Spring."

Carl Larsson is a well known Swedish painter and he really brought forward the whole Swedish design era with a book his published called, "A House" which was full of paintings he did of his summer house--Sundborn. I love his work and my house has most been decorated with his Sundborn home in my mind.

In the Spring and summer, I like to leave a vase of fresh flowers on the counter, usually in the "pink" category.

Beef Satay

I got this recipe from a magazine several years ago. It is supposed to be cooked on the grill on skewers but last night, I ran out of time and to put them on the skewers, so I just put them on a cookie sheet and broiled the meat for about 15 minutes. They were just as good if not better. So, this went from an easy recipe to a super easy recipe. My friend Gabriela loves this, so I am not the only one who thinks this recipe is a winner.

Beef Satay

In a bowl, combine 2 Tablespoons soy sauce, 4 teaspoons vegetable oil, 2 teaspoons grated ginger (I buy a section and freeze it. It is easy to grate and doesn't go bad that way), 2 teaspoons sugar and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Pour marinade over 2 pounds of stir-fry beef and let marinade at least 10 minutes.

Side note: All of the grocery stores around here carry, "Stir-fry beef" in their meat sections. Occasionally, they don't have it out and I have to ask the butcher to cut me some. I don't know what the actual cut of beef it is but I am sure flank steak would be good.

If you want to take the time, thread strips of beef onto skewers and grill for about 5 minutes. If you don't want to bother, spread beef onto a cookie sheet with raised sides and broil for about 15 minutes or until done.

This recipe came with this optional dipping sauce but I made it only once and decided the meat was too good plain so I haven't bothered since. But here is that recipe, if you want it:

1/4 cup peanut butter
3 Tablespoons hot water
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. sesame oil

We usually eat this with asparagus or broccoli and have it over rice or with my spirole recipe.

Books I Have Been Reading

OK, my house looks like a bomb has gone off in it because I have spent the last three days reading. Once I started, I couldn't stop. I now have put myself on a book reading moratorium until I get my house back into shape--or least until I can walk across the floor and not step on something. So anyway, here is a list of the current books I have read:



Love Walked In by Marisa De los Santos: I can thank my blogging friend Michelle for this recommendation. I liked this book a lot. The author was a poet before she was an author and her writing reflects it. Her word use and phrasing is beautiful. I should warn people the "f" word is used about 5 times in it but it shouldn't stop people from reading it. The story was quirky and good.



Amazing Grace by Eric Metaxas: Thank you Liz for writing about his on your blog. Don't be fooled in thinking this is about the hymn. It is not. It is about William Wilberforce and his campaign to end slavery. I really liked this book but I am a lover of history and I realize it might get long for some people. I will admit, at times, I felt like, "Come on, get to it already." But that said, I was embarrassed I didn't know about this part of history before. A movie has been made about this book and I have it on reserve at the library. However, I am something like number 230 on the list, so I might just have to shoot the lock off my wallet and pay to rent it.



Escape by Caroyln Jessop: Again, a Liz recommendation. I could not put this one down. It is about the Warren Jeff's polygamy sect down in Colorado City, UT. It was a fast, fascinating read and the only thing I didn't like about this book was that she didn't include a picture of her husband and the other sister wives. Call me a voyeur but the author paints such an amazing picture of her husband and the wives, I wanted to see what they looked like. As an active LDS Mormon, I am amazed by how fast fundamentalism can change and distort basic truths.



The Faraday Girls by Monica McInerney: My friend Lyssa (who doesn't blog) recommended this one to me and after a slow start, I liked this book. I didn't love it but it takes a lot for me to love a book, so don't be turned away from it just because I didn't love it. I think I will read this author's other books (Family Baggage and The Alphabet Sisters) as well because she really is a good story teller even if some of the characters really bugged me in this book.



So, waiting in the wings to be read are: Moloka'i by Alan Brennart and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. I won't start either for at least another few days. When I say my house is a mess, I mean it. I almost didn't open the door when a neighbor stopped by because it was so messy. Yes, that bad.

A Grand Adventure at the Dollar Movie

Dentist husband has been gone all weekend in Texas with his brother and Dad golfing. His brother lives in Wisconsin and about this time of year, they all decide that they are tired of the cold weather and they plan a golf trip to a warmer climate. Texas usually is where they go because the flights are relatively cheep from Utah and Wisconsin.

Anyway, when Dad is away, I always try to plan a fun weekend. So, on Saturday, I told them we would go see "Enchanted" and then go to a local favorite chocolate store afterward. Toothsome #4 (16 months) is VERY active these days and I should have thought through taking four kids under the age of 8 to the dollar movie theatre the first day that "Enchanted" is there. As I write this, I am still not sure, what I was thinking.

We got there early so we could get seats together and stood in-line for 20 minutes waiting for them to let us be seated. I was able to get good seats, next to the aisle, so I could slip out with toothsome #4 and stand in the back if necessary. Well, before the movie had even started, she was wiggling and hollering out about having to sit on my lap. Once the movie started, she was beyond wiggling and started crying and hollering loudly in frustration and anger. So, I quickly stood up and moved to stand in the back and let her run around at my feet. That was not good enough. She started POUNDING on the exit doors, trying to escape--yelling in frustration as I tried to hold the doors shut. Meanwhile, toothsome #3 did not like sitting next to his brother and sister without me, so soon he was standing next to me begging to be picked up. I couldn't pick him up because I was still trying to keep toothsome #4 happy and in the movie theatre. (I should mention that people are coming and going through the doors, I was trying to keep shut and she tried to slip past me everytime a door would open.)

Anyway, in trying calm down toothsome #3, I noticed that toothsome #4 was happy. She was happy because she was picking up popcorn from the floor of the movie theatre and happily munching away at it. Remember this is a dollar theatre---the floors are black from lack of cleaning. So, I stood there at a loss of what to do, she is happy and actually standing in one place but then again, she is eating popcorn off the floor. I can't leave the theatre to buy a bag because I still have a 6 and 8 year old in seats watching the movie and toothsome #3 is clinging to me because the movie is too scary. (He says that about everything--even Barney). I then notice a group of four 12ish aged looking girls with a fresh bag of popcorn. They couldn't find four seats together and were sitting on the floor in the back of the theatre. I decide to offer to buy their bag of popcorn from them and have them get a fresh one. Instead, these VERY nice girls tell me they have more popcorn than they want and they will just share with toothsome #4. So the rest of the movie was spent with toothsome #4 standing about 3 inches from these girls while they feed her popcorn. Every once in awhile, she would leave them and try running down one of the aisles or try and escape out one of the exits and I would have to go chasing after her with toothsome #3 running behind me.

Needless to say, I didn't see much of the movie but my older kids loved it. (I did get to see the whole singing section in the middle and loved that part.) We ended up not going to the chocolate store, but to 7-11 where I got myself a 44 ounce Diet Coke. Boy, did that taste good after my movie experience.

Piano is Finally Here!

After almost two months of waiting, the piano is finally here! (For those of you who are wondering, it is a Yamaha U-1 mahogany). The day it came, I walked into the room where we put it and found toothsome #4 playing it. She had climbed up on the bench herself and was going at it. I had forgotten how much I love to sit down and play. I am not good (I can barely get through most hymns) but I love having piano music back in my house. I have started giving lessons to my two older kids and so far, they are loving it--even fighting over who gets to practice first. I am sure the novelty will wear off, but right now it is nice to have them eager to learn how to play. I now need to rearrange the furniture in the in the front room (that drop leaf table in the back needs to be moved to another spot) and then I will really start feeling like that room is complete.

Weekend "Away"

This past Thursday, Dentist husband and I both realized that he had Monday off. He rarely doesn't work and I always forget that he takes President's Day off. So, Thursday night, we decided that we should "go away" somewhere. We already had plans with family and friends until Saturday night, so our options were limited. After looking up various places on-line, we decided that our weekend "away" would be a hotel about 20 minutes from our house--the Hampton Inn at Thanksgiving Pointe. Yes, Paige, we were 10 minutes from your house. It was brand new, had a nice in-door swimming pool and was close to several places that our kids like to go. So, Saturday evening, off we went.
As a surprise to me, Dentist husband purchased for me this WONDERFUL Arc'terytx jacket. I love the Arc'terytx stuff but it is very pricey. He promised me he found this on clearance and I LOVE it. It fits like a glove.
Here we are at the hotel getting ready to go swimming.
The kids at the local Dinosaur museum. That is the Utahraptor behind them.
The sand pit area at the Dinosaur Museum.
The kids in their 3-D glasses getting ready to watch "Dinosaur's Alive". I didn't get pictures of the kids at the Cabella's laser shooting range, at the movie theatre watching, "National Treasure 2" , the various places we ate out or the monthly family dinner we went to since we were so close. It was a PERFECT get away. We knew how to get everywhere, it was close enough we could run home and feed the fish and someone else made the beds, cleaned up after us and cooked. So fun!

Magic Drawers

My husband has magic drawers. I am not sure if most of you have husbands with magic drawers or not but here is how it works. My husband goes to his drawers every day to remove underwear, socks, shirts, pants, etc. And, it seems that no matter how often he takes things out, there is most always what he needs in there when he wants them.

However, recently, my husband has been complaining about not being able to find his black socks in his drawer. After thinking about it, I asked him, "Have you been putting your socks in the dirty clothes?" This is an important question, because the magic drawers don't fill up without things passing through the "magic dirty clothes pile." He looks at me and says, "Well, no, I leave them against the wall in the Great Room and they magically make it into my black sock drawer." Oh, there is the problem.

So, either he needs to start putting things in the dirty clothes pile or I need to do it for him. Since, I have a "magic checking account" that seems to always have money in it, no matter how much I take out of it, I think I will graciously check the wall in the Great Room regularly. Ok, maybe not so graciously.