Heresy, I'm sure.

Ok, so I finally read the first Twilight book. I don't have a lot of time for fun reading. It's unfortunate, because it's one of my favorite activities. I read mostly on vacations, etc.

I can't decide if I like it or not. I know that's probably heresy, but I'm reserving judgement until I get time to read the next book. It may be a little too melodramatic for me, I'm not sure. But, I'll give the next one a try, since everyone on the planet is so enamored of them. Meghan keeps asking me if I'm going to let her read them. Any thoughts? She's a VERY young 11. Like 11 going on about 9. But she reads on an 8th grade level. Her favorite genre is fantasy, she loved Eragon, Artemus Fowl, Inkheart... so she's pretty sure she would like this.

Ok, gotta run. My life is crazy these days. I keep thinking that after I finish this "big thing" (whatever it is this week), then things will calm down. No such luck so far. I think I will take an hour this afternoon and take Meg and her 3 yr old cousin Tanner to the beach.. My parents and sister are leaving tomorrow to go back to AZ, Meg will miss Tanner. What's better than someone who totally idolizes you, eh? She'll miss Grandma and Grandpa, too, I'm sure.

On another note...how many of you have kids with blogs? I'm thinking about letting Meg have one just to keep in touch with her cousins or Aunts/Uncles. Just wondering how many contacts she'd have out there....

Photo of the day....

Not that there'll be one every day or anything. Another busy day I'm afraid, but Meghan and I saw this on our way down the hill to school and we had to share. Fog is good for some things.

I hope the Esplins got my comment of things to do in Phoenix. There is a lot to do in the Valley, all you naysayers (Mark, I'm talking to you). However, August is definitely not the time I would pick to do them.

Good Morning!

Life is really busy these days. Sam gets up at a stupid hour of the morning to catch the shuttle to Apple (saves us like $500/month in gas, so it's sort of worth it). One perc to being up that time of day:

I took this from the back deck, looking east at the Sunrise....

I took this one looking west at the sun lighting up the ocean's "marine layer" (euphemism for fog). The little bitty spot at the top is the moon.

They'd have both been better with Sam's camera (especially if he was the one taking them). But I thought I'd share.

OK, gotta run, busy day today....

Just playing around

Not that I really have time for this, but my friend Rachel at www.princessladybug.com made me a new background. So, now I'm playing around with everything on here...

Thanks, Rachel, I really like it!!

The California Marriage Proposition

Elder Hafen talked last night about protecting traditional families, in light of what's going on in California right now. He read some things from an interesting study.

Apparently, in France, not exactly the most conservative of nations, they have voted against allowing same sex marriage, based on a study that they've done. This study was done by a multi-party commission from the French National Assembly, who spent a year of work and travel to different countries, and cultures, and talking to people all over the world. It has nothing whatsoever to do with religion, in fact Pres Chirac said once that Secularism is the national religion of France. Elder Hafen quoted some things from that study that I really liked. I'll just post a couple of them, then I'll give you a link where you can read an English language summary of the study, the entire study is only available in French. In fact, just in case anyone reads French, I'll give you the link to the study in French.

1. Articles 3, 7, 9, 18, and 21 of the New York U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child
(1989) set out the rights of children. The commission stresses that "to systematically give preference to adult aspirations over respect for these rights is not possible any more." The commission deems it essential to enshrine article 3 -"In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration." - into French law to help guide judges, individuals and other institutions. Children represent the future of society. They "must not suffer from conditions imposed upon them by adults". "The best interests of the child must prevail over adult freedoms... even including the lifestyle choices of parents". The legislator is not obligated to adopt the most permissive foreign legislation.

2. ...marriage offers the greatest protection and benefits for children and society. "Marriage is not merely the contractual recognition of the love within a couple. It is a framework with rights and obligations conceived in order to welcome the child and provide for his harmonious development." Thus, marriage is the only structure reserved strictly for heterosexual couples.
Because of the filiative nature of marriage (the fact of being the child of certain parents), it is essential that the male-female nature of marriage be preserved. "This corresponds to a biological reality, that same-sex couples are naturally infertile, and to an imperative, that of helping the child develop his/her identity as necessarily coming from the union of a man and a woman."

3. "The purpose of adoption is not to provide a child to a family but rather provide a family to a child ...Given the original trauma of his personal history, the adopted child requires the judicial and emotional security that only married parents can provide."

The English language summery can be found here. The original French study is found here.

Stake Conference, Wow!

What a great Stake Conference! We had a visiting general authority, Elder Bruce C Hafen (not positive about the "C", actually). He was incredible, no surprise there. We also have a new mission president, President Jackson, who spoke last night, who's pretty amazing, too. I played the organ for the choir, and didn't even screw it up too bad.

As usual, it all seemed totally planned just for me. Even the music we sang was perfect. They talked about missionary work, importance of marriage, contention, debt, teaching our children. We came home all pumped up, etc, to make a few goals and try and do some things better. We should have Stake Conference more often. We're going to try and keep the spirit up until we get another boost at General Conference.

We also finally got our new Education Counselor in our Stake RS Presidency. We've been going with half a presidency since Carolyn Jensen left for the Columbus Ohio Mission. But, they've called her daughter Emily to take her place, and she's a lovely lady that we're very excited to work with. Now we can get on to planning our next "thing".

They called my friend Rebecca to be the new Stake YW President, she'll be awesome. Which is good, since Meg will be in YW in just a few months. It's a scary thought, to have a preteen. A female preteen, especially.

Six Degrees

My friend Lysa likes to comment on the "Six Degrees of Michelle Bailey". And, I do have an awful lot of weird stories connecting people I've known throughout my life. For example:

1. When I was a pizza delivery person in Provo, I once delivered a pizza to someone "Udall", told them my uncle had married a "Udall" and found out that my aunt and uncle were also his aunt and uncle. He thought she was just as whacko as I think she is. In a good way, mostly, but I was glad he said it first as she was his blood, not mine.

2. Another time in college, I was chatting up a cute visitor to a ward function, only to find out he was my 2nd cousin. (In my defense, my grandma was the youngest of 17. I have a LOT of 2nd cousins that I don't know)

3. A lady in my ward in San Jose was from Snowflake, AZ, and had my college boyfriend's mom as a Mia Maid advisor.

4. The same boyfriend's mom had a painting in her house that looked very similar to one my mom has. Checked the signature and it was painted by the same lady, a schoolmate of my mom, who was apparently living in Snowflake at the time. The Institute choir that I played for sang in Snowflake the same summer, and that lady came up to me and said, "You MUST be Joyce's daughter!"

5. A family that we had never met or even heard of, stayed with us for a couple of weeks as they were relocating to our area from Mississippi. (The bishop asked if we would, which we did with trepidation, but they turned out to be wonderful people). As I was talking to the Dad about what he does for a living, he mentioned the school where he earned his PhD. I had a friend I grew up with who had earned a PhD in the same field at the same school. When I mentioned her name, he just laughed and laughed. He definitely knew her. Considering all the places that girl has lived, it was amazing.

6. I was Visiting Teaching Coordinator for a Relief Society president in my current ward for over a year before I found out that she was from my mom's hometown. Her mom had gone to high school with my mom, her mom's brother was married to my oldest cousin and she got engaged at my uncle's house at a pool party. We had been attending ASU and ASU Institute at the same time, and as far as we know, we had never met. Although, as toddlers we were probably both at the wedding of the aforementioned uncle.

7. Sam was giving a talk in church once, and afterward was accosted by an old missionary companion of his that is apparently a brother in law of a friend of ours here. He was visiting and recognized the reference to "the skydiving story" and said "Oh, THAT Sam Bailey, I know him!" Ok, I guess, technically, that's Sams story, but....

8. I went to High School with Mark, Cherie and apparently, Dan. I've known Laurie's family since we were kids. Met Sam in college and didn't know he was Mark's brother until I went to Sam and Julie's wedding. Now, they are all my in-laws. Not to mention how I ran into Sam again after 15 years, which is a strange story all it's own.

This week I get my weekly email from my missionary nephew, Taylor, who is in the Sacramento Mission. Here is an excerpt, complete with his usual lazy caps and punctuation

"well as expected the baptism was amazing! it was probably the most powerful baptism i have ever been to. ...his uncle gave the most amazing talk on the Holy Ghost and did so by acting part of it out. ..as i began talking to grant's aunt she mentioned that they had lived in mesa and come to find out her husband, Brother Perkins started the Mountain View Seminary [where Taylor went to HS]. if thats not crazy enough for you check this out... she also said that he was seminary prinicpal at Marcos de Niza [where I went to HS]. so i mentioned that i thought Aunt Michelle went there and he says "You mean like Michelle Elsberry?!" and i was like "what? are you serious?" so Brother Jerry Perkins says to say hi. i cant believe it still. so the old saying of "if you talk to a fellow saint, in 20 mins you will know of someone in common" applies here."

I should mention that his mission president is an old missionary companion and still good friend of the Jensens, good friends of ours who just left to be mission president in Ohio.

I was going to list just a few examples, but as I was writing, a bunch more popped into my head. Lysa says it's never happened to her. Although that's not EXACTLY true; we did find out one enrichment night, as we were telling dating horror stories, that a new lady in our ward had dated the same weirdo she had. But, I told her that it's tougher for converts from New Jersey. When she's been a member for 20 or 30 years, it'll start popping up.

Us....now Mo Po than Befo

So we got a new car. Then the mechanic (a friend from the Stake) told us that he wasn't going to bill us for the labor on the Dodge. Which was very sweet. But, I couldn't just hand the title over for half of what it was worth. So we paid for it. It's got a practically new engine now and I probably would have waited to buy a car had I known he was going to do that. So now, we're trying to make it presentable to try and sell it, hopefully for a bit more than it cost to get it out of hock.

Then Sam's computer freaked out and needed about $300 worth of stuff to make it behave. So we did that.

In the meantime, Sam saw a Craig's List ad for a used Yamaha console piano, like I've always wanted. It was only $550. Not that I really had that, since we just forked out a boatload for a down payment and a car repair. But, it seemed like a great deal, so I just did it anyway. Called my little piano tuner (cute guy, about 80 years old). He got it open to tune it and found all kinds of mouse damage (the piano had been in storage for an undetermined amount of time). He fixed what he could to make it playable and tuned it for $250. It really needs some more work, it has a really annoying buzz due to more mouse damage that I can't afford to fix right now. So, in a few months, when I feel like we can breathe again, we'll get a technician to come look and give me an estimate. Even with the buzz, I like it. My friend is going to buy my old piano when she gets back in October.

I hope we didn't trade our fall vacation for a piano. Sam won't be happy about that. So we're on a severe "money diet" as we call it. We may only go camping, but we're going SOMEWHERE. Maybe I should start searching the house for eBay items.

Who you callin' chicken?

Ok, stupid post title, but whatever. It's past my bedtime and my normal razor wit isn't quite up to snuff.

Since some of you seem to like my recipes, I decided to post some more. These are my favorite recipes using a Costco rotisserie chicken. If you've never bought one, you're missing out. We usually eat the wings as soon as we get home, then the rest goes for some of our favorite easy meals.

This first one is a family favorite that I got from my mom. Anytime I take this to a ward function, half a dozen people ask for the recipe. You'd think they all had it by now, but two people asked me for it tonight. We make it with whole wheat pasta, and serve it with french bread for an easy dinner.

Chicken Poppy Seed Pasta Salad
(All quantities are guessed, I don't measure anything in this..serves about six)

About a half a rotisserie chicken, boned and diced.
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 purple onion, diced OR about 1/2 cup sliced green onions
2 stalks celery, diced
1 cup purple grapes, sliced in half
1 can pineapple chunks
1 pkg rotini pasta, cooked to package directions (like a 12-16 oz pkg)
1 cup cashews or almonds...pecans might be good, too
1 bottle of your favorite poppy seed dressing

So, you throw everything but the nuts in a big bowl, add salad dressing until it's all moistened good.
Don't put the nuts in until just before you serve it, as they get soggy and lose their crunch.
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This next one is Sam's favorite recipe from his mommy. I don't make it as much as I used to, the rice has too many carbs....I have made it with brown rice and I like it, but Sam and Meg aren't crazy about brown rice. This is great comfort food, though, cheesy and creamy and carby.

Grandma Bailey's Chicken Rice Casserole

3 cups cooked chicken, diced or shredded
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (we use cream of chicken, as we have 'room haters here)
1 cup mayo or miracle whip
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
1 cups finely chopped celery
1 can drained, sliced water chestnuts
1/3 cup lemon juice (leave this out if you use Miracle Whip instead of mayo)
4 cups cooked rice
3 cups grated cheddar or cheddar jack or jack or whatever cheese you have on hand
Potato chips or sliced almonds

Mix it all up (except for the cheese). I find it's easiest to mix everything but the rice really well, then add the rice. Spray a 9x13 pan with Pam and dump the mix in. Top with grated cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Top with crumbled potato chips or sliced almonds and cook for another 10 minutes. We serve it with a salad or a hot veggie.

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This is an easy one that we really like. Me especially, because we usually have all the ingredients on hand and so it takes hardly any prep. Also, we make each person's plate individually, so they get exactly what they want in their enchilada. If you make it with 2% cheese and don't use too much of it, it's not even terribly fattening.

Individual Microwave Chicken Enchiladas

1 to 2 corn tortillas for each person (or 3, if you're Susan Bailey)
Diced rotisserie chicken, about 1/4 to 1/3 cup per tortilla (this is also good with leftover beef, pork, carnitas, shrimp, etc)
Grated cheddar or jack cheese
Your favorite canned enchilada sauce. Mine is Macayo's, but I don't think you can get it outside of AZ.
Chopped onions or green onions
Sour cream or guacamole, or just sliced avocados for the top.

Put the corn tortillas in little plastic sandwich bag, and nuke them for about 30 seconds. You can do about four tortillas at a time. They should be soft enough to roll when they come out. Place one or two on a plate, pour a little sauce down the middle of each one, then some grated cheese, then some chicken and onions. Roll them up, and leave them seam side down. Pour more enchilada sauce over the top and top with more grated cheese. Invert another plate over the enchilada plate (that keeps it from spattering all over the microwave) and nuke for two minutes. Top with sour cream, green onions, avocado or guac or whatever. I use the inverted plate to make the next plateful. When I'm done, I've dirtied one extra plate, but no other dishes. Serve a salad on the side.

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Ok, the last one is Vietnamese Spring Rolls, but it's an involved recipe. Not hard, just a lot of ingredients. If enough people are interested, I'll post it. Or you can come to my house and I'll teach you.

Playing with the header pics...

I keep changing our header photo because I can't decide which one I like. I liked the one we took on the dock that is now at the bottom of the page (if you wanna scroll down to look). Or at least I like everything about it except that it's a horrible picture of me. Very cute of everyone else, and the background is cool and it fits our blog "style" ....if we have one. I like the feet pic, because it's kind of fun. I like the picture that's up today (with us in red), because I think it's a good picture of everyone and I (the most UNphotogenic person in the world) don't look like a dork. Anyone is welcome to vote if they have an opinion....but I'll probably play around with it until I find one I really like.

We bought a car last night. We got a really good deal on a very nice 2004 Hyundai XG350L with only 32K miles on it. It's not a van, which I would have liked. But we really don't NEED a van, we just thought it would be nice. But, this makes more sense financially, and it really is very nice. Looks sort of "Lincoln"-ish. If I get time I'll post a pic...although I'm sure it's not exciting to anyone else. I'm just glad to have a car that will get me where I wanna go. Although, the truck did that. Just not with too many other people. Of course, the truck had the added advantage of the "E-ticket" ride that the person in the passenger seat got, since that seat won't latch in any one position: slides forward when you stop, and back when you go. Whee! Susan will be SO disappointed to miss that.

We LOVED having Amy and her kids Sunday night and Monday morning. She has such sweet kids, and Sam got an enormous kick out of Howie (and vice versa). We hope they come back soon, when they can stay longer.

Swapping out Houseguests.

So, Ryan and Susan are off today, after being here for nearly a month. We love having them here and are definitely going to miss them. They will probably miss the cool air when they get back to Phoenix, but I know it's always nice to get back to your own comfy bed.

Sunday night, my niece Amy and her family will be here, I think just for the night, although I'm not sure about that. So, we have a day or two to catch up on some sleep, do some damage control around here, shop for a car and catch up the laundry. Of course, I had already signed up to feed the missionaries on Sunday night, and I have Stake choir practice at 6 pm (stupid time...right during dinner). Since I"m the pianist, I can't very well ditch that. I signed up for the missionaries before I knew about the Stake Choir. I agreed to play for the choir and Stake Conference (ulterior motive, we're having a Gen Auth and I won't have to come hours early to get a seat) before I found out when they were going to practice. How does that always happen to us? I'm gonna have Sam make his famous spaghetti and he'll just have to entertain everyone until I get home. He's entertaining, it'll be fine.

Grandma Bailey is coming a couple of weeks after that, and one of our friends will be staying with us a for a month or two after that, while he starts a new job.

The Dodge has bit the dust. Time for a new car. I was really hoping to eke out another year on that thing, but I guess not. It's kind of fun looking at new cars, but since we've committed to pay cash this time (I may just be committed when its over), we can't have exactly what we want. Our shopping styles are very different. Sam is an eBay, Craig's list kind of shopper. Which is fine with me if the vehicle is somewhere where we could drive it, etc. Unfortunately, all the best deals are out of state, where we have the extra cost of getting here, not to mention it makes me nervous to buy a car sight unseen. At any rate, we'll hopefully have a new car within a week or so. In the meantime, I get to drive the 1988 Ford Ranger pickup with manual transmission. My first car was a "stick" so that's not really a problem. However, it's been awhile and Sue and I have had a couple of laughs at my trying to negotiate hilly stops and starts while trying to maneuver over to the keypad for the gate. (My clicker is in the Dodge at the shop). Not to mention, the truck has trailer mirrors that I keep forgetting about. I swear they stick out about four feet. I just about took out the keypad with the mirror a couple of times.

We had our first consultation with an orthodontist for Meghan. That was depressing, so I won't go into detail. But, between the orthodontist and a couple of implants for teeth that she doesn't have adult teeth for, she's going to have the most expensive smile in Elsberry family history, anyway. Not sure about Bailey family history, too many Baileys to count for me.

Gotta run, got a little two year old buddy coming for awhile this morning and I need to get my work done before that.

Recipes

Ok, a couple more recipes that we like. The first is a side salad I make when we make Mexican food. Sam loves it and then doesn't eat as many carnitas. :0) It's also really good with grilled food, or just by itself.

Corn and Black Bean Salad

2 cups fresh corn kernels (I use frozen, it's faster)
1 cup diced red pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions (or red onions)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup red wine vinegar (I use cider vinegar)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Dash of salt

Combine corn, bell pepper, onions, ciantro and beans in a medium bowl.

Combine everything else in a small bowl, whisk it up and pour it over the other stuff. Toss and chill for at least 1/2 an hour. It's better if it chills a little longer, though..

10 servings (1/2 cup)

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This one is a favorite dip that even Meghan likes. We eat it with baked pita chips. I like to bake them myself, slow on a low temp, so that they don't burn. They aren't as hard then as, say, Stacy's Pita Chips. Meg just cuts fresh pitas into triangles, separates the layers and we either dehydrate them (I have a dehydrator), or bake them at like 250, spread out on a cookie sheet, until they're crispy. It's also good with fresh veggies or chips (but then that negates the low fat thing)

Low Fat Red Pepper Hummus

1/2 jar of roasted bell peppers (or if you're ambitious, you can roast and peel a fresh one)
2 1/2 Tablesppons of lemon juice
1 T tahini (sesame paste, you can find it near the peanut butter at the store)
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained (save a little liquid aside)
1 garlic clove, minced.

Stick it all in a food processor and process until smooth. If it's too thick,add some of the liquid you drained off the beans).

6 servings (1/3 cup)

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Ok, one more. This one is from a friend, also. Sue and I loved it, Sam wasn't crazy about it, but he doesn't like spinach much.

Chicken Caesar Lasagna

9 dried whole wheat lasagna noodles, cooked to pkg directions
2 10 oz containers refrigerated light alfredo sauce
3 Tbls lemon juice
1/2 tsp cracked pepper
3 cups chopped, cooked, chicken breast (I use Costco rotisserie chicken)
1 10 oz pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
1 cup bottled roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
3/4 cup shredded Italian blend cheese.

Preheat oven to 325.

Combine Alfredo sauce, lemon juice, and pepper. Stir in chicken, spinach and red peppers

Spray a 3 qt rectangular baking dish with Pam. Arrange 3 noodels in bottom of dish. Top with 1/3 chicken mixture. Repeat layers twice. Cover; bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until heated through. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese and bake, uncovered for an additional five minutes or until cheese is melted. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

9 servings


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OK, Sue and I are off to play today. We made plum jam this morning from plums a friend gave me. Yum. The guys are off at work so now we're going shopping. :0)

We're gonna give family pics another shot tonight, it was so late that the last ones we did were pretty grainy. Hopefully, we'll get started earlier this time and we can post some.