Amelia Bedelia in the kitchen

This weekend, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen.  It was fun, and I really did enjoy it.  However, before I go off sounding like the wife who made homemade this and homemade that for her husband's birthday, I thought I'd share with you a few of the moments where I just had to laugh, because it was either that, or get frustrated.  And I've decided life's too short for that. 

First, I made a marble cake to take to the station when Adam was on duty.  I made a bundt cake, from a box, and that was all fine and good.  I let it cool and waited until after work to ice it.  I don't know about you, but I'm not very good at icing things.  I want it to look smooth and pretty, but it never does when you just use a knife.   The only way I know how to do that is to melt the can of icing in the microwave so you can drizzle it over the top.

It works pretty well for chocolate, but I've found that vanilla is not as forgiving.  I heated it up a bit too much, so in order to thicken it, I added powdered sugar.  It worked, but when I poured it on the cake, you could still see lumps of sugar, despite my attempts to stir it.  Awesome. 

I'd like to note that the guys ate it all, even though my icing was a bit lumpy.  Note to self: firemen eat anything in the kitchen.

As a backup, I bought a can of chocolate icing, but I ended up not using it.  I also brought with me "Happy Birthday" plates and napkins.  I kept them in the bag, thankfully, and when AMP asked me what was in there, I showed him.  He got this really funny thanks so much for doing this, but please don't use those and embarrass me in front of the guys look on his face.  So we served cake and ice cream on boring plastic cream colored plates.  Problem averted.  We also didn't take any photos for that celebration.  (Again with the embarrassment thing.)

I came home and cooked my little tail off after that.  Adam's other favorite cake, besides marble, is Angel Food cake, and thanks to Pinterest, I'd found an Angel Food trifle cake to try.  (Layers of angel food cake, vanilla pudding, strawberries and cool whip)  It required store bought cake, but I couldn't find one in the store that was pre-made, so I got a mix and put it in the oven.




Never having made this cake before, I didn't account for how much more it rises than a regular cake.  (Just so you know, it rises A LOT.)  And it ended up rising up into the oven shelf right above it.  When I tried to take it out, half-baked cake got all over the oven.  I added oven cleaner to the grocery list for the next day.

I found a simple bread recipe to use for French Toast, which is what I made Adam for his birthday breakfast.  He usually uses a loaf of french bread, but I saw in Pinterest a heart-shaped piece of bread, and I thought if I made a loaf, I could cut it out and it would be so cute.  Well the bread tasted great, but it wasn't quite tall enough for a heart.  Nevermind that I couldn't find a heart shaped cookie cutter to save my life, either.

All was going fine and well (well?  good?  I can't decide...) as I made the French Toast.  I was about to serve it up, and Adam walks in the kitchen and looks at the stove.  He says, "Bear, you've started a fire."  The dishtowel I'd used to cover & keep warm the already made french toast had caught on the gas burner.  We had a small fire in the kitchen that morning. 

A lot of cooking made for a lot of dirty dishes, but it was so fun, and I gained quite a bit of knowledge.

Here's a recap, just for my future reference:
1.  "Happy Birthday" plates and napkins are not cool at the fire station.
2.  Vanilla icing is not as forgiving as chocoloate.  When appropriate, use chocolate.
3.  Angel Food cake rises way above the cake pan.  Plan accordingly--then you won't also have a line on the to do list that says "clean oven!"
4.  Don't put the dishtowel near the gas burners.  Just don't.
5.  Baking is fun, and hopefully I'll improve with time.  I think I can only go up from here!

Happy Birthday to YOU, AMP!

AMP,
This weekend we celebrate you and your birthday.  I might have gone a little over-board with the decorations around our house, but I was just so excited to celebrate YOU!

I love the traveling YOU...

{Hawaii}

{San Francisco}

The House Fixer-Upper YOU...

The YOU that makes me giggle and smile like this...

 The YOU that loves these three little boys...

The YOU that climbs trees at random times...

The YOU that has become a Baylor Bear... 

The Spartan Man YOU...

And all the other "YOUs" too...even the few that drive me nuts.  :-)  It's been so much fun celebrating YOU and making sure you know how loved and special that you are this weekend.  

I love you more than I did when I met you, than when I said "yes," and more than the day we said "I do."  We don't always see eye to eye, but we get there eventually, and for that I'm so grateful.  

Thank you for loving me well.  

Thank you for being patient.

Thank you for making me laugh and praying for me when I'm sad.  

Thank you for working hard.

Thank you for being YOU.

Here's to lots of more celebrations of YOU to come!

Love,

Bear

San Fran & Mendocino Bay Vacation

 We have a "No puppies, No babies" policy around here for now, which makes it easier for us to go do little last-minute trips.  We enjoyed our honeymoon, for certain, but after a few months of actually being married, it was a little different and more comfortable traveling together.  :-) 

 We flew into San Francisco on Virgin America airlines.  It's really swanky, and you can tell the flight attendants really enjoy their job.  Each seat has a screen, and you can play games, watch live TV (I watched the BU men's basketball game on the way home!), and even order food and drinks, right from your chair. 

 I'd read about Capp's on Fodor's online, and it's a family-style italian restaurant near the North Shore.  It was delicious!  We ate there on Friday night after getting to San Fran.

 The Fire Call box--just for the firefighter.

 We went to see Fisherman's Wharf and also Ghiradeli Square for some good chocolate. That stuff is rich!  But it's oh-so-good.

 On this sunny and fogless Saturday morning, we crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge

 Apparently Bella is a model for Coach when we're not looking.

 Golden Gate Bridge!

 

We happened upon Sausalito, just on the other side of the bridge.  We enjoyed a market with great sandwiches, which we ate right near the water.  

 Isn't this gorgeous?  We could definitely live here.

 

We drove about two and a half hours north of San Fran to Mendocino, where we had a Groupon for a stay at a quaint little Bed & Breakfast. 

Our room had a fire place that we used both nights, and it had a great view of the water!  

 We spent a lot of time relaxing, unplugged.  Our phones didn't work, and it was fabulous.  I spent a bit of time here just hanging out under the fluffy covers reading.  Glorious!

 

We went exploring around our B&B.  It was sunny, just windy and cold.  We loved it!

Wouldn't this be awesome if we could all just close down for vacation with a whiteboard??

 Sunday we went into Mendocino, about a 30 minute drive.  They have volunteer fire departments all over wine country.

 We went to a Redwood Forest and were in awe of how huge the trees were.

 

We watched the sunset every night.  It was gorgeous!

 

 We took the long way back on Monday morning to get back to San Francisco, and we were not disappointed!  The views were wonderful and we enjoyed getting away, just the two of us.  Here's to many more unplugged weekends in beautiful places like this!

What do YOU Say?

This is up for debate in the Paulson household:  Do horses "whinney" or "nay" when they make their sound??

Ps. this pic is from our honeymoon in Maui that I've yet to blog about.  I'm a smidge behind.  But I'll get there...

What say you?

{2011} Christmas in Iowa

We headed up to Iowa to celebrate Christmas on December 29. We flew up there, and had a fairly uneventful flight, aside from the fact that I got majorly frisked in the security line. It was lovely.

The weather was cold, but certainly not as cold as last year, when we left at -2 degrees! However, I managed to stay mostly on the couch under a wool blanket 90% of the time. Truly. (But I also had strep throat, so I wasn't exactly feeling my best.) Norene made sure there was a blanket in every room I sat in, because she knows how cold I get! I literally moved from the couch to the kitchen table, to the hearth, and then to bed. (Super exciting daughter-in-law, right??) We got to hang out and talk a lot with each other. It was fun to be together, and Adam is always happy to go home. And when he's happy, I'm happy!


One morning we came down (and it snowed for us!), and Mike and Norene were making lefse.  It's kind of like a tortilla, but made with potato instead.  It's a Norwegian flatbread that you have to roll out "just right."  Mike gave me lessons in rolling, and after a few, I think I got it down.  Then you put them on a very hot griddle, and can be served with butter and sugar or anything else you'd like.  I definitely went the butter & sugar route.

For a girl who knows that both my parents' families came over from England at some point, and that's about it, I must say that it was pretty cool to learn more about Adam's family's heritage and the different traditions that they have!



We had our "Christmas Eve" on Friday night, and we opened lots of really fun gifts.  Mike even wrapped one in half green and half gold paper, just especially for me!  (Bottom row, second from the left.)  David got a new jacket to sport while snow mobiling on a few trips he has coming up.  We enjoyed giving him a really hard time for how crazy the design was

The next morning, we had a great breakfast and then opened our stockings from Santa.  Both the boys got slinkies, which kept them amused for quite a while.

Norene and I watched the Baylor Bears play in the Alamo Bowl, while the guys went off and did their own things.  Between all the passing and lack of defense, it was a long game, but it kept us both interested!  I actually fell asleep and she woke me up so I could catch the last few minutes of the game.  :-)



New Years Eve, we drove an hour into Des Moines to grab a bite to eat at an Italian restaurant.  We had a great time together.  When we got back, we played darts down in the basement with Mike & Norene, and then Adam and his dad played pool.  It was low-key and wonderful.  And I even threw (shot?) (hit?) a bulls eye!  We had some blow horns when the clock struck midnight, and Sadie howled along to celebrate.

Mike built a fire each night, and I quickly gathered that even though it was cold (to me!) it wasn't typical that they would build a fire when it was so "warm." But he did for me!  :-)

It was a great trip, and so relaxing.  Now it's their turn to come for a visit!

My 2012 Phrase

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the things I want to do, and need to do, and have to do.  Getting back into the swing of things at work after two weeks off took a bit longer than I'd care to admit.  But as I stared at my checkboxes of things to do in the office, I decided that I simply needed to DO SOMETHING.  Anything.  And slowly but surely, the list got shorter. 

So that is my mantra for 2012--the year to do something. 

via

Whether that's getting involved in some small capacity at church, calling a friend to say hi, or even just texting them to let them know I was thinking about them, that's something.  Doing a load of laundry and getting them out of the dryer, hey, that's something.  (Does anyone else have trouble folding and putting clean clothes away besides me??) 

My something doesn't need to be huge, but it's something.  So that is what I'm choosing for my phrase for 2012.  And hopefully I'll  chip away at my list by the end of this year.

I was inspired by several blogs to choose a phrase.  All of them are very different kinds of writers, but I liked that they had a vision for this year.  See my inspiration below:

Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts.  Her word is Koinonia, which is Greek for "community"
Shauna Niequist, author of Cold Tangerines and Bittersweet has four phrases.
And Layla Palmer, over at The Lettered Cottage blog, chose the word "UP" this year.  She's hosting a link party, and I'm joining up over there to share.

Christmas in Dallas

This year we celebrated four Christmases: just the two of us, the Dixon family of five, our big family and then with our Paulson family in Iowa.  And since Adam had to work Christmas morning, I actually celebrated a fifth time with just the four Dixons that morning.  Here's a little recap of our celebrations...

Christmas as a Couple

Adam and I celebrated our first Christmas together, just the two of us, on December 23.  We went to eat dinner at a little neighborhood italian place, and then came back to open stockings.  We bought a printer as our gift to each other this year, and just did little things in stockings.  

 

{Opening our stockings!}

Christmas Eve

We hosted it at our house, and we were in charge of the appetizers.  I made Fruit Salsa, served with cinnamon sugar chips and also white bean chicken chili.  Adam was incredibly helpful, as usual!

{The hosts--looking rather rested.  After all, it was only 2  in the afternoon at this point!}

Christmas with the Dixons

Since AMP was working Christmas morning, we wanted to open gifts with him there, so we opened a few gifts from my parents that were to both of us, Adam got his stocking, and we gave my parents their gifts from the two of us.

{Sunday/Wednesday subscription to the Dallas Morning News!}

{Stockings with the stocking maker}

{Adam's fire pit!  He was pumped}

{Framed wedding photos for my parents}

Christmas Eve with the whole fam! 

{Austin & Papa, watching a little football with the same pose}

{Christmas Table is set with our new china!}

{The centerpiece}

Troy took a conducting class at school this last Fall.  For his final, he had to conduct a specific piece of music, which he did for us that night.

He thoroughly entertained us all!

Eating Dinner around my Nanny's dining room table, all together.  It was cozy, but it was really special.

After dinner, we all hung out.  Jonita celebrates with her four kids and their families, so we wait until she comes over to open gifts.

Hanging.

Even Bella got a gift--a Baylor ball!

Adam misplaced his keys, so Mom, Dad and I all helped him look. After searching for an hour, Mom found them under the cushions of the couch where everyone was sitting.  Oops.  :-)

Gift opening--get ready, yard work!

Papa & Jonita

Laura was so excited to buy clothing for Troy--never in his life has he requested clothes of any kind.  He modeled his robe for us the rest of the night.

Here, the hosts are looking a little (ok, a lot) more exhausted!  It was a fun night to have the family there, and now we know what all goes into hosting a holiday--lots of work!!

Christmas Morning 

Bella and our stockings

I got some art to hang on our walls!

Troy got a travel guitar case

Mom got a workout bag

Dad and I have a tradition of cooking breakfast after we open gifts that morning.  This year was no different!

Papa & Jonita came over in the afternoon for games.  I went to the station to see AMP that afternoon, and then met up with the rest of my family and the Caldwells for a movie, The Adventures of Tin Tin.  (Yes, the animated one.  In 3-D, mind you.)

We very thoroughly celebrated Christmas, and we're not finished yet!  More photos to come from Iowa.