Happy Birthday AME!!!

She turns 12 today!!!!

December is coming

Thanksgiving was great, and this is just a short post to tell everyone hello and that we are getting ready for December, which on the first includes Ame's 12th birthday, and the into December preparations.

I always intend to have a good Christmas. I always intend to take the entire month off and make it an event filled relaxing open time of love and authenticity. And yet I work so hard in December, that year after year it whisks by. There is something not right about this.

Not right at all, and I intend to change it. I intend to change it now.

We need to relax in December, not be crazy.

That is what I'm going to do. Relax into Joy and Love and AUTHENTICITY.

Jason

Blizzard

Massive blizzard moving into Utah tonight.

Grades are Coming!

It is the end of the term and we should be getting some grades right quick, which we will post here!

New Car!

Jennie got a new car on Saturday! Here it is!

Halloween Pictures

Now with Facebook we upload all our Halloween photos there so much easier than here on Blogger, that I forgot to put up some Halloween photos for those of you not on Facebook. Here you go:

This is Jennie and Me. I'm the Mad Hatter!

This is Riley (on the left) and his friend Jeremiah (who is pinhead)

And this is Jordie (Ame's friend on the left) and Ame, a Zombie Prom Queen!

And here is Jennie doing Ame's hair!

Children's Pictures

This morning Ame slept in and missed school, so we spent a few minutes together and put up these pictures before I drove her to school! Here is a composite picture of the three kids that my Dad put together.

Who is this below? Who? That's Ame, probably around 3-4 years old!

And here are the three kids at a young age. I'm guessing Ame around 2, Riley 4, Asher 6-7.

Sick & Watchman and Karate Kid Reviews

Jennie was sick yesterday. Had to come home from work. When I came home we watched the rest of Watchmen, which we've been watching for about a month now (yes it took us that long to get through the movie) and we watched all of the new Karate Kid.

My thoughts on Watchmen, considering I read the comic book? There was something missing. Not sure what. But in the end it just didn't hit me like I was hit in the comic book. Just powerful. But the movie wasn't. Visually stunning, all that stuff... but... just lacked the emotional impact of the comic book. Not sure I can say anything else about it.

On the Karate Kid. I had read a review on this movie by Orson Scott Card, which was, in my opinion, an odd review. He seemed to really like it. I'll include a link HERE. So I was influenced by his review, but MY review came to a different conclusion.

I could not escape nostalgia. This movie was good, but it wasn't the first one, and there isn't much more I can say than that. Card was able to separate the two, and I think that he watched the first Karate Kid when he was older than I was, enabled him to overlook it's flaws. For me it's still a great movie that brought me back to that time when I was a kid and really FELT the movie. I was blind to it's shortcomings.

So I just couldn't escape nostalgia watching this new one. Sure Jaden Smith was good, great vehicle for the child star, etc, but in the end he didn't convince me. I just didn't feel the same angst from him or from the setting. Poor Ralph Macchio just got my sympathy way more than little Jaden. When he cried to his Mom, I HATE IT HERE (meaning in China) I just didn't feel it. He didn't convince me in that scene that it was really that bad. I'm sure it was, but it didn't really get me.

And when he convinced Mr. Han (played by Jackie Chan, who did a great job) to heal his leg so he could go back out and fight, I didn't believe it either.

Oh well, the movie was good. It just had the first movie to compare it too, and in that battle, at least for me, it didn't win. It did have some good parts, but it's not better than the first one. Sorry.

Halloween Cupcakes

Jennie and Ame made Spider Cupcakes today for Halloween! These are some of the pictures! Ame got into the black frosting as you can see on the final picture!

Been Down and OUT

Modem crapped out on us the other night. So no internet at home. Went to Best Buy today and got a new Modem and Router, and if you are reading this, then YES.... indeed things are working again.

Lazy Day? SURE!

We took Figgy and Boo into the vet this morning along with Houdini and Philo. Did the vaccinations update. Everyone looks good, but Figgy is definitely going blind, in BOTH eyes. Plus the vet said she was FAT.

We had some coffee at a new place in Midway, which was really good, but I can't remember the name of the place, so no free promotion for them. Then went to Best Buy, TWICE, the first modem didn't work right, watched the Ute game, got a sad letter from Jim (Jennie's brother) and a sad letter from Brandy (Jennie's friend).

At least the Utes one 59-6.

After all that you want a picture, don't you? Well I aim to deliver! Here you go:

Oh you wanted a DIFFERENT photo? Okay, here is an old one (can you tell I found my old photo albums?) of me and my nephew Sean (who is now like 26 with 2 kids) and my brother Rick, down in California! I think I'm like 20 or so here.

Another note. Ame's soccer season concluded the other night with a tie, which put them in third place for the season, which means they do NOT move up to Division 1. If they had won, and the other team scored to tie it with less than a minute left, they would move up to Division 1. As it stands, they will stay in Division 2. They started in 3, so that's not too bad.

Thursday we had pot luck dinner with the team and families. I brought 3 pizzas from Dominos, and that was a hit.

Now we just signed Ame up for INDOOR soccer! Sounds exciting, but it will keep her going through the winter as we prepare for Spring Season!

Oh, and we had Bagi and Brian and Tom and Jennette over for dinner last night. My fish monger crapped out on me so we had my beef stew, and it was warmly received as very good. That and some great steaks Bagi did! Jennie gave us all a lot of energy, but the night was cut short by the unfortunate news that Keith (Tom's 6 year old son) was puking his guts out and the babysitters didn't want to deal with it!

Seventeen

Do you all remember what it was like to be Seventeen? Here is a picture of Ben Larsen, me, and Menges C. Parker Garlitz loading up his old subaru for the 26 hour journey to Gen Con, Madison Wisconsin. Josh Hansen, not pictured, is taking the picture.

Seventeen. Asher will be Seventeen in 4 months. Wow....

Ame in 4th Grade

So I just posted a picture of Ame in 6th Grade (this year, 2010) and now I'm going to post a picture of her from 4th Grade.

Where is 5th Grade you ask? I don't know!

Ame's School Picture

Here is Ame's school picture. 6th grade this year. She's starting to look like a teenager, isn't she? And the blond hair has stayed. Her brother's were blond once, and now they are dark brown.

Happy Birthday!

To Dr. Stanchfield. We took him to see Thriller on Friday and they came up for Steak Dinner on Sunday! AWESOME!

And Ame's Pumpkin she carved:

Dad & Soup

Dad & Soup

Okay, so Asher and I went to Moab yesterday and picked up my Dad. He’s okay, having surgery on his elbow for a hematoma. No broken bones amazingly… just really badly bruised and in pain. Asher drove him home in his car following me. We got home at 1:00. Jennie held down the fort for us while we were gone. Of course, luckily, the kids are out of school today (Thursday) and Friday for UEA.

So he’s home resting and will need us to take care of him for a few days. No driving.

Okay, so this morning Jennie got up at like 4:45 to go to work early for a seminar and I got up with her (yep, on about 3 hours of sleep) and started the Split Pea Soup. So here is the recipe. As I type this it is simmering and will simmer all day long, so we don’t have a clue how it will turn out. It could taste horrible…

Okay… after trying to remember my Mom’s recipe (which we have written down somewhere but can’t find) I consulted with Jennie and Ame 5 different Cookbooks. Here they are:

· The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook – Revised Edition (This is a book I got at Costco and I have to say, I’m impressed with it. I think it’s a great starter place for cooking and I have given it to Ame today as she wants to learn to cook something and do it all herself. So I told her to pick out a recipe and she’s in charge, no help from me or Jennie. (I’m sure we’ll end up doing something to help her, but we’ll see!) She choose Chicken Teriyaki which looks simple enough. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am if Ame ends up helping Jennie doing some cooking. That would be exciting. I’m getting sick of doing all the cooking.

· Fiery Foods That I Love by Paul Prudhomme – (As anyone who knows me can attest, I’m a Cajun cooker at heart).

· Professional Cooking, Fifth Edition – This is a textbook my Mom had and passed to me upon her death. It’s a fantastic book, because it is geared to how to learn to cook for a restauraunt and how to make money at it. It’s kind of cool.

· Soups – Williams-Sonomo Kitchen Library –

· The Fannie Farmer Cookbook – Thirteenth Edition –

I also got a recipe from Elizabeth and Jennie had some ideas about how her Mother did it. Okay, so I put them all together into my head and this is what I came up with. (BTW – Asher and I just tasted it and it tastes good, but it’s not thickening up into a green paste like my Mom’s. Maybe it just needs time or we might have to put it into a food blender. (I’m hoping not, because I made so much).

Here is my Seasoning Mix, the ideas for which I got from all the recipes plus one ingredient just for Jennie:

SEASONING MIX

2 TSP Dried Basil

2 TSP Dried Thyme

3 Bay Leaves

2 TSP of Paprika

1 ½ TSP of Smoked Liquid Hickory

2 TSP of Chili Powder

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Here are the Ingredients we used

· 1 Ham Shank, with bone included. (Jennie said her Mom used a bone from those spiral hams you get on Christmas to make the stock, but those are really expensive. Ham Shank with bone is $20.00, so that’s what I used.)

· 2 Tbls Garlic (That pre chopped up stuff in a jar)

· 4 Medium Onions

· 1 Full bunch of Celery

· 2 Hormel 12 oz packages of Salt Pork

· 1 10 oz package of Shredded Carrots (Kroger Fresh Selections)

· 3 lbs of Split Peas (picked over by Ame)

· 2 lbs (2 packages) of Cantebury Naturals Garden Harvest Split Pea Classic Artistic Soup Mix Organic

We started at 5:00 AM by putting the Ham Shank, Garlic, 1 Onion, and the fluffy stuff from the Celery Bunch into a HUGE pot of water and boiling it for 5 hours. Thus our stock simmered all morning.

At 10:00 AM we diced up the salt pork and fried it in our largest pan. I read afterwards that you should do this slowly to render it down, and not to cook it fast or brown the meat. Well… I didn’t read that till after, so I cooked it high and fast and browned that meat good. Oh well. We’ll see?

Then I took the huge chunks of fatty Salt Pork (with attending browned pieces of meat) and popped them into the boiling stock pot for a while. Might as well add extra flavor over there, yes?

In the remaining fat in the pan we put the remaining onions and celery and carrots that Ame had chopped up. To this we added the seasoning mix. We stirred this pretty constantly, about 10-15 minutes till it looked really good and cooked.

Then we added the 5lbs of peas (with the little seasoning packages from the 2 organic packages) a huge pot, then added the vegetable mixture. This we stirred together. Then we added 12 quarts of the ham bone stock. They say about 2 quarts per pound, but I found that not to be enough (as you’ll notice even more later on).

We threw in 3 Bay Leaves at this point, some fresh Basil chopped and fresh Oregano sprigs.

I took the meat off the bone of the Ham Shank, separated the fat (which made a tasty meal for the dogs) and put the meat back in. Then we added the huge ham bone and the salt pork chunks (we will remove them later). We brought to a boil and it has been simmering ever since.

At this point I could tell I needed more liquid, so 2 more quarts of stock went in. (And yes, we had TONS of stock from the cooking and still have some left).

Then about 1 hour later, we realized we needed even more stock, so put 2 more quarts (which is 4 cups) of liquid in.

At this point we are waiting. We did taste it, as I mentioned, and it was fantastic, but we have mushiness at this point, no green mush looking stuff. But we’ll cook it all day long on low, and really simmer all those flavors together. Hopefully we won’t have to put it in the blender, as I made enough for a friggen army.

Yes… I will tell you how it turns out! Just be PATIENT!

October 13th, 2010 - Moab

My Dad went to Moab Monday for a photo trip, and yesterday (Tuesday) ended up slipping and falling down a set of stairs. He bruised himself really bad and had surgery on his elbow. They don't know if they are going to let him out today or not. Asher and I will be driving down this evening.

Last night Jennie and I spent a couple hours with Ame practicing soccer. After watching her game Monday, we decided she needed some work on fundamentals. It was great to see her improve. We all had a great time.

I asked Ame what one meal she might want Jennie and I to make her, and she said Split Pea Soup. My Mom had a great recipe for Split Pea Soup all my life, but she neglected to actually write it down in her handwritten cookbook. So we found 5 different recipes and Thursday, tomorrow, we will do one with the family.

I'm worried about my Dad.

The kids are off school Thursday and Friday for some UEA thing. I think it's a thinly veiled excuse for going on the Deer Hunt.

We are back!

I went to Ojai for 5 days and didn't take a single picture... oh well. Jennie and are back from our yoga intensive, and we are spent! Back to work and the real world. It is hard.

A few more pictures

Ame's Painting

Here is a small version of it:

Hello!

Monday August 23rd, 2010

This weekend the kids were getting ready to get back to school. Jennie and I took a class down in Salt Lake Saturday and Sunday, and Fall is in the air. You can smell it. Ame painted a painting and I'm going to take a picture of it and get it up so you can all see it. Wednesday Jennie and I head to California for our 5 day intensive, and the kids will start school on Friday. The air is filled with smoke, and life is good, though breathing is hard.

Oh there is more....

August 10th, 2010

It has been a busy summer, so I am sorry for not writing more. I'll start with what I can here. Yes, a picture of Philo. Don't laugh. He's a good cat! :)

Hello!

It has been a while so I'll get back into this as best I can. It is weird the way you slip out of doing this. I think I did so much when in Hawaii, but this VERY eventful summer has not given me much chance to update the blog! Damn Facebook! Makes it too easy!

Right now Jennie is at work, and this weekend will be going to the Women's Retreat in Ojai, and Riley is in Idaho with Jennie's parents fishing (picture below) and Ame and Asher are here at work. Ame should be going up to Idaho Friday.

Jason

Pictures are Princess after hiking, Riley by the Creek, and Riley on the River.

Week in May

This week are watching Godiva (the chocolate lab) for John and Peggy as they are on a vacation back east. Elizabeth, the kids Nana from Australia is here visiting, and Jennie and I took her to dinner the other night. Asher got a job at the movie theater making drinks and popcorn. Riley got his Ipod taken away for disrespect and not doing his job. Ame won her soccer game Tuesday and has her last one for the season on Saturday!

Wednesday, May 5th

Last night Ame surprised me with a cake for my birthday! Even though it was back in April, I was in Hawaii when it happened, so she waited and surprised me with a cake. It was a wonderful cake, and I really felt moved that she thought of it and still did something. It was a nice and beautiful gesture.

Talked with Asher about depression and sadness last night as he is feeling down about a girl who likes him and whom he likes, but she's acting all, well... like a teenager, and he's not dealing well with her 'flippant' attitude. We had a good long talk, and though I don't know if I can help him, I let him know I love him no matter what and that I'm there for him.

Soccer

Ame's team won their second soccer game in a row last night! In Heber! They are excited. Another game tomorrow night!

Monday in MAY!!!

It's sunny! After a weekend of hellish snow and cold! Had a great weekend. Tom and Jennette took me out to dinner and a movie for my birthday! We went to Mike's Sushi Maru but he's closed for a month... so we went to the place next door. Not quite as fun. I was telling Tom celebrating birthdays are important, and then I thought to myself, hey, did I celebrate Tom's birthday? I totally blanked. I asked him, did we do something for your birthday? He was like... uh... did we? We sat there thinking what did we do? Then we suddenly both remembered we DID do something for his birthday! We went out to Sushi, saw Alice in Wonderland, and came over to the house for cake! For some reason all that slipped our minds!!! And it was only a month ago! Anyway, Tom and Jennette were great and gave me a nice birthday. And plus they introduced me to the magical wonder of a certain red painted toenailed barefoot drummer....

Ame has a busy week, three soccer games coming up. Asher and Riley had friends over Friday and Asher went running last night.

Elizabeth comes to visit this week, she should be here Wednesday.

Friday, April 30th 2010

About 4 years ago I gave Riley a huge Lego Submarine for Christmas and he asked me to help him do it. I promised I would, but got very busy, and never did. Last night was 'man's night out' with Riley. We went to Don Pedros for dinner. Afterwards, we got the Submarine out in the Man Cave, and began building it in earnest. 3000+ pieces! It was a good time working together. Riley chats a lot. We of course didn't get it done, but it was good start, and we kept the door to the room closed so a cat doesn't kill it. We'll continue on it soon! I had a great night. Afterwards we played a football game on the XBOX together. Jennie worked late and didn't get home till 11:30! Then she was up at 6:00 the next morning and back to work!

Thursday, April 29th

This is my brother Rick's 56th birthday. He's in Oklahoma, or somewhere, we really don't know, as since his wife died he's been kind of 'travelin'. Sunday night Jennie made us all dinner, the famous Melted Cheese Sandwiches. These were here best yet. Monday we went back to work, and started digging out of the holes that our Maui trip had caused. Ame had Soccer Practice Monday and Tuesday, while the weather was good (it's now snowed icy cold hell for 2 days). Asher and Riley went to scouts last night. Jennie's Dad... almost killed himself. Yep. He has a bar hung up in the basement upon which he hangs upside down on. Well I guess Peggy came home yesterday to find him on the basement floor passed out. The bar (or whatever holds it) had broken and down went John! Knocked himself out, gave himself a concussion. We are LUCKY he's okay. Peggy called 911 and he went to the hospital, but he's okay. What a scare!

My Dad went to Oxnard for a acation so I'm taking care of the house and the dogs for a few days. Let's see, today is Thursday so that is Jennie's day she has to work late at the lab (being a supervisor, she needs to actually see the LATE NIGHT people once a week, so on Thursday's she usually works 12-9, but she had to go in a bit earlier today). She's been working on BUDGETS all week! How fun!

Last night Jennie went to bed early, so I took the kids downstairs and we had a lesson/lecture/discussion on The Kabbalah, which is this sect of Jewish Mystics and their 'take' on religion. Pretty new age, and interesting, very insightful, and all based on the concept of PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. I like that and think it's good for the kids to hear about it from as many directions as possible. The kids had quite the discussion about the concept of 'freewill'. It was enjoyable. I taught them that step one on the path to Wisdom is SILENCE. They didn't like that..... (grin)!. (Step 2 is LISTENING! They liked that less!)

Wednesday night Jennie and I met with our friend Suzzanne and Wendy and Sharie (sp?) in our monthly get together and discuss life meeting. It's like a book club, only we don't talk books, we talk life. It's really cool and insightful.

So, it's Thursday morning and I'm at work. MOSTLY caught up. Good hell, can you believe? Yes! I'm mostly caught up. So I have time to actually write. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that Parker and Kelly came up to Heber on Sunday to work on the NASCRAG module for 2011, which we are the authors of for the tournament at Gen Con in Indianapolis. Can you believe that? Us authors? It's cool.

Sunday

Back from Maui this week it's been busy. Rise of the Eldrazi released, a bit game that we did well on. Also getting settled in. Today Jennie took Asher shopping while the rest of us did a lot of cleaning. It is... CLEANING DAY at the Smith household. It's warm and the dogs want to go outside. Asher and I played catch.

Let's see what else we did this week. Ame had a soccer game three times this week. They lost all three, but yesterday's was the closest. She did really well, and she throws the ball in from the sideline the best of all her team, she she has to run over and do it every time there is a throw in. Wears her out because she's often on the other side of the field when it goes out! Let's see, Friday she spent the night at Taren's house and had fun. Thursday night she and I had our long planned date night. We went to Canton City for dinner, a ride on the motorcycle, shopping, and watched a movie on how to paint. Our next date night will be painting an oil painting together! I'm excited.

Jennie got her hair done, and I should get some pictures of it because it's different and really cool! I like it. She's back to work and doing here supervisor thing. She's been helping me with the NASCRAG module we're writing for Gen Con 2011.

Riley spent the night Friday at Conner's and went snowmobiling Saturday. He reported having a lot of fun doing that.

Asher spent the weekend hanging out with his friend Ashton and Caleb. I think they all went to see a movie, though I can't remember the name of it. Hm... nope, I don't remember.

My Dad is heading out of town on a vacation for 2 weeks, so we'll be taking care of his animals during that time. Next Friday we are taking Peggy and John out to dinner at the Marketstreet Grill (I think we are, I haven't gotten 100% confirmation yet) as a small token of our appreciation for watching the kids for 11 days while Jennie and I were in Maui.

Unless I've forgotten anything...

Oh yes... there are a few days on the Maui trip that have photos I haven't posted yet. I plan on doing that, maybe today, but probably in a few days.

Opps....

So... you are thinking to yourself... those photos on the last post looked unlike anything one might expect on a trip to Haleakala. That's because they weren't of Haleakala. They were... of the trip toward HANA! So that got messed up. I'll take some time tonight to sort it all out. Today is day 11 in Maui as I write this.

Day 9 - Friday Haleakala

Today Jennie and I woke and went to the pool after a coffee breakfast... nothing new there, I grant you, but THEN, after reading some good books, we hopped in the car at 3:00 in the afternoon and headed up toward Haleakala. This is a huge volcano. We started in the cold blustery rain down at sea level, and drove up into lush green farmlands. I commented more than once that this looked a lot like New England, with the thick forests on either side of the road. Up up we went. First 1,000 feet, then 2, then 3, etc. Soon we entered ranch land, rife with chickens and cows. It was beautiful land. The city of Kula lies up here, along the foothills of the great Haleakala. So we kept driving, and it got drier and drier, and then we broke out of the clouds... and we were driving on the top of the world. It was CRAZY. And never wracking. You felt queasy in your stomach looking at it! Back and forth up the switch back road. Passing signs for NENE birds, and then we were at the top and it was COLD, and it was like being on the TOP OF THE WORLD. Amazing. Spiritual. Awesome. Cold. And these little birds live up there. Okay, enough! We came down, saw the sun go down, then drove into a mist (back into the cloud), saw misty cows, and came back to the hotel a few hours later for dinner and sleep. Amazing. Everyone should go up there if they can and experience it. Here are some photos!!!

Awe!!!! SWEET!

Day 8 - Thursday - Books

Hey! What happened to the rest of the Blow Hole trip? Yep, I got you covered, but I'm going to jump ahead to something else. Y'all know I'm a big reader, but the last few years have been really busy, and so I haven't read nearly as much as I would have liked. So... this trip I decided to read, and what I wanted to read were a couple books that Asher recommended to me. I shared with him so many books as he grew up, when he started discovering books he liked he decided to share them with me. So I read two books he recommended. So here are the books that we have been reading and what we thought of them so far. Included are some other books I'm reading and books that Jennie is reading. Here they are!

This is the new Stephen King book. It's a whopper, over 1,000 pages! I'm about 100 pages into it and it's interesting. Cool concept. Lots of characters.

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This is one of the books Asher recommended. Frankly, I wasn't too thrilled about this at first. It's a teen book. And not the kind of adventure teen book I normally liked. It's about two girls, so... it wasn't exactly thrilling. Finally, as it started, one of the girls had a mother who was very very sick, depressed, and out of it. This was hard to read for me as it tripped a lot of feelings. In the end however, the book was a great look into teens, and how things are not as they seem, and how there is hope in even the worst situation. Now I'm not recommending the book per se, as a book of adventure, but it is interesting and the theme of it struck me. When the mother was so out of it that the kids were just lost, a few times it even choked me up. It is a good story about strong kids who find strength in their differences. I do recommend it. But it's just not a big adventure or anything. Not of the sort I normally like, anyway.

I have read this book many times. I always take a Glen Cook book with me on a plane because it's easy to read and I love them. This is a good one, with Lady as the Captain and Annalist of the Black Company.

Jennie read this book, and really enjoyed it. It answers a LOT of good questions. And yes... dead people DO watch you shower.

Jennie liked this book so much she told me to read it, so I have started it, but she finished today. You have to read it in increments. It's a lot of commons sense stuff but they put in words. Stuff you can feel. Good stuff.

Jennie is reading this, and is about 77 pages in. So far...good book.

Jennie read this book... and considered it very different, but very good.

And finally, this is the first book Asher recommended to me and I found it to be EXCELLENT. An adventure that I predict will one day be made into a movie. Riley has read it as well, and he loved it. I plan on having Ame read it when I get home, she should like it as well.

So... today, being the 8th day in Maui, we relaxed by the pool and got more sun, and did some reading, then walked the beach extensively, then had dinner. Oh... I almost forgot one other book!

This is a book from my childhood which Ame is reading upon my recommendation!

Meanwhile, here in Maui I used this book (which was very complicated) to figure out Jennie's relationship signs towards me, and mine to hers. It is a fun yet complicated astrology book that gives you some fun insights:

Finally I'm reading this book slowly, as it is a very challenging book about becoming a better man.