Facial Cleanser Bleck!

A little funny thing happened a few minutes ago. Peter and I were getting ready for bed. I was in the bathroom putting on facial cleanser while chatting with Peter. At some point he leans over and kisses me on the cheek and then pulls back and starts spitting and washing out his mouth. I am head over heals in laughter. I don't know why he didn't realize that yes I was putting this stuff all over my face, and why yes it was still on and I hadn't washed it off yet. He said it was the taste of an orange and tide laundry soap. Yummy!

Culinary Adventures

Peter loves to cook! He loves experimenting with new recipes too. Most of the time he finds a recipe on the internet and decides that it sounds good enough to try. He gives it a shot and sometimes it turns out well and sometimes it does not. He admits that sometimes its not the fault of the recipe, after all he went to engineering school and not cooking school.

He remembers having four disasters recently and wanted to blog about them so here you have it:

Disaster #1 Ebelskivers-These are a Danish filled pancakes about the size of a muffin. After our trip up the coast awhile ago we stopped in Solvang and had some of these at a restaurant. Peter then thought it would be great to make some of our own, after all he has an ebelskiver pan at his parents' house. Now the problem with the pan was that it was cast iron so we needed something other than a glass top stove. We took the idea over to my parents' house and tried making them. Well something went horribly wrong and they all stuck to the pan and it looked and smelled awful and we gave up quite quickly and just made regular pancakes.

Disaster #2 Enchiladas- Now we've all had delicious enchiladas so really what could go wrong here? I'm sure the recipe was probably just fine....but the taste was absolutely disgusting!!!! When buying sauce in a can, DO NOT PICK THE CHEAPEST KIND! BLECH! Lesson learned, we tried it and they were not good. To make matters worse Peter hands me a plate and then starts staring at me. I asked him why and he said he wanted to see my reaction to the first bite. Now thinking this is some kind of joke, or perhaps maybe not, I take a bite. It's in my mouth, I'm thinking how I should react to this nasty thing in my mouth. I didn't want to hurt his feelings. I told him I didn't particularly like it, but would eat it anyway. He then takes a bite and says it tastes bad. I picked all the chicken out of mine to eat and then the whole dish went in the trash. It was pretty bad.
He would also like me to point out that he was trying to make a non-dairy type so I would enjoy it. On his side he used cheese sticks :( We'll just say the whole thing was a fiasco.

Disaster #3 Burnt soup! Peter made my favorite type of soup. All was going well until he decided that simmer meant leave the stove on temperature 6 and play a video game with me. Needless to say the stuff on the bottom got burnt and then he stirred it which stirred up the burnt pieces. The soup really tasted fine if you just scooped the stuff on top. So that's what we did. When it got to the bottom we threw it away. It wasn't that big of a disaster but he wanted me to include that in the list.

Disaster #4 Neither one of us can remember what disaster 4 was, but Peter insists there were four....so just assume there were four and we'll continue with the cooking success stories.

Success # I don't know....Peter makes a lot of tasty things like stir fry, sweet and sour, apple pancakes, crepes, and smoothies to name a few. I bought him a new ebelskiver pan that we could use on our stove that was a nonstick type. It got really good reviews from amazon, so I bought it.

So today Peter made ebelskivers.
They were delicious! The ones on the left plate were filled with homemade raspberry jam :) The ones on the right were plain. Both were very tasty! Now they don't look perfectly round, but really it was the first time trying so how perfect do you want them to be? And they shouldn't be gushing jam all over the place either...but they tasted really good. Peter blames his German heritage...he wishes he had some Danish heritage too.

When it rains it pours

Now I knew perfectly well that when I posted the last post about our beautiful weather that there was a series of storms headed our way and that the beautiful weather would be short lived, but would also return. So about a week or so ago we had the rainiest weather all week long. One storm after another hit us back to back. By Thursday the ground was saturated and the biggest of the storms was pounding down on us. This is what it looked like out the back door of the school I work at. I was standing up a step and was still inside peering around the corner to catch this picture. If I had taken a step down I would've soaked my shoes.
On this playground there are two drains fairly close to each other. Both were clogged with leaves and such, causing this wonderful flood. Vicki (one of the teachers) was preparing her lunch in the kitchen when she saw some students' jackets floating on the playground. She went outside and gathered up about 10 jackets that were clearly not hanging on the hooks that they were supposed to be hanging on. They were soaked. The kind of scary part is that the students all went outside to pick up their lunches and brought them in to eat. 15 minutes into eating the whole playground was flooded. Yes it rained a lot! Vicki was the only one who had rain boots, so she was nominated to go unclog the drains.
I stood in the kitchen laughing hysterically as the rain came pounding down. Then Vicki suggested that I take a picture. So this is kind of an after picture. Here the drains are trying hard to do their job as they're not clogged anymore. A couple minutes later the heavy rains stopped and sprinkled for a little bit. We all laughed! Vicki went out when the weather was the worst.

I don't remember the exact amount of rainfall we ended up getting, but on average we get about 8-10 or so inches a year. That week we received about 8-9 inches. Looks like we got our year's rainfall in a week....so the weather should be beautiful the rest of the year :)

Top 10 Reasons to live in Southern California

In lieu of a Christmas Card or newsletter or really anything of that sort since we didn't have pictures taken or anything this year. We decided to write about the fun things that we can do in December and January that you can't do as comfortably everywhere else. So are we rubbing it in about our beautiful weather? YES WE ABSOLUTELY ARE! Now one might ask why we would do such a horrible thing to all our friends that live elsewhere...hehehe (snicker snicker) and our answer is-because we can :) Aren't we wonderful?!

Now where did we get this ingenious plan? Peter was surfing the Internet one evening and pulled up a picture of the weather in the united states for that particular day. Sadly we didn't take a screen shot though we wish we had because the entire US was covered in blue and purple...meaning frigid temperatures. While a small part of the CA coast and of course where we live had the only green coloring on the entire map. We feel so blessed to live here. So here goes our top 10 reasons to live in Southern California:

Number 10: The weather is amazing! On New Year's Eve I took down the Christmas lights on my parents' house. Every year I put them on the roof and every year I take them down. This year I put my blow-up Pooh and Tigger onto the roof. It was really cool at night. My brother and I were talking about it and my dad said it wasn't possible it would lean too much. As soon as my dad left to run an errand, the ladder came out and I was soon on the roof with my brother handing me the equipment. It worked out well. My dad thought it was pretty cool when it was all up. So I put the lights up about a week or so before Christmas and I took them down on New Year's Eve. The weather both days was amazing!
Number 9- Sea World Fun

On New Year's Eve we went to Sea World. For the holidays the animals all got a special treat. The penguins here got a penguin snowman. We needed a special treat so we went and got our usual funnel cake. Normally we get strawberry, but this was a special caramel apple flavor, it was delicious!
Number 8: We have a beach close by...Why yes we can take long walks on the beach...even if we don't go that often...we still have one close by :)

Number 7: The Wild Animal Park
On New Year's Day we went to the Wild Animal Park. I hadn't been since Peter and I were dating. While dating we fed the lorakeets and had a blast. We relived the experience.
The meerkats enjoyed their holiday presents. So did the lions, gorillas and basically all of the other animals. It was really cute to watch them all play with their gifts.
Number 6: The weather
We can run to the grocery store without putting on heavy jackets or several layers. In fact on Tuesday I wore capris and sandals to work.

Number 5: LA Adventures:
Disneyland and Disney's CA Adventure are just a mere 2 hours away
The Getty Museums are amazing-we plan on visiting the Malibu one soon.

Number 4: The weather
Do your rose bushes look like this in January? I bet not.

Number 3: What doesn't grow well here?
Now we are totally jealous with our friends' gardens and the bounteous fruits and veggies they are able to produce...with that said there's always fresh fruits for sale at the local farmers markets and grocery stores. We bought strawberries today, yes they were grown in CA.

Number 2: No snow hereNot only are the animals out and about, but check out the mountains. We don't get snow at our elevation. That means no slippery roads, no sliding into other cars, no slipping and sliding while walking to the car. Gosh I love living here.

And the Number 1 reason to live in Southern California is tomorrow's forecast is 70 degrees and sunny. Can't beat that! How is the weather where you are?

Christmas Adventures

This year there were only two things that we were missing. 1-Nativity set and 2-Angel tree topper. Peter's mom bought us a nativity set while we were in Utah and we kept it when we got home so we could set it up. Then all we needed was an angel. We went to Canterbury Gardens in Escondido which is a totally Christmas exploded inside the shop type of place. They had a Santa tree and an everything purple tree, angel tree, star tree, green tree, red tree, basically you name it they had a tree with everything. We looked at the angel tree and really didn't like anything that we saw, so sadly we left empty handed. Then Peter did a search on the Internet and found this, showed it to me and we decided it was perfect. So no, we don't need an angel we have Tigger and that is so much better. :)
Before Christmas Peter got this urge to try a couple of fun recipes. We made peanut brittle and English toffee (pictured below). Both went very fast! We made a second batch of brittle and have yet to make more toffee, but it is on the list. We also made a ton of peppermint fudge.

For Christmas Peter and I gave each other a Wii! Peter convinced me that we needed one. Now after playing Mario Brothers I agree it was a good purchase. It's also a ton more fun to have multiple people playing...we need to get another remote. Some of our other gifts include a Bugzooka pictured here.

This thing was so fun to play with. Basically what you do is push the bottom part in, aim the top at a bug and then push a button and it sucks in the bug into the top part. The bug becomes stuck inside the top and then you can either let it go outside or you can put it in the freezer to kill it and then throw it out. Last night I found a spider and Peter got to try out the Bugzooka...it worked! He chose to put it in the freezer as quite frankly neither one of us wanted the spider back in our house, and nobody wanted to be that close to a live spider. This thing is really cool, but even with a 2 foot reach pole, once the spider was inside, it still seemed like it was really close, so of course Peter was jumping around and doing a spider dance. :) I was just glad it wasn't me.
In the above picture you can see the live spider at the bottom of the metal part. Sorry we had the smokey film on. It also came with a clear tube for observing the live creature...like seriously who would want to watch a live spider? Crazy people!
Last night we had Chris, Mary and the girls over for Pizza. The girls each made their own mini pizza. They had fun.
Not to worry, the pizzas for the adults (not pictured) were more elaborate and tasty.

Other fun gifts include:
Peter-A yodeling pickle, dress pants, the most annoying sponge bob puzzle (only 100 pieces, but seriously gave you a headache), pajamas, A Bug's Life-blu ray, apple slicer/corer in one and a video game.
Mandy- Two video games, pajamas, Topsy Turvy plant holder, puzzle, build a bear gift certificate, Pooh/Eeyore/Piglet/Tigger antenna balls, a book and a desktop calendar.
Together we got the Bugzooka, a book about how to avoid bug stings and a bottle of sting eeze in case we get stung by a bug. We also got a jelly bean dispenser too.

We had a great time hanging out with family and friends...it's sad that our vacation time is quickly coming to an end. 2 weeks seem to have flown by. (1 week for Peter...he's so bummed.)

The Getty Museum

This morning Peter and I drove David and Laurel to the Los Angeles Airport (LAX). On the slightly over 2 hour drive I slept (that's what you're supposed to do on a car ride), David fell asleep at one point and Laurel kept Peter company. We arrived at LAX around 10:15 for a 1:15 international flight. Laurel was panicked that we would be late on the way up...we made it in plenty of time even with a quick stop to Walmart on the way so David could pick up deoderant and shaving cream. While at Walmart there was police crime scene tape around some poles and several police officers in the same area. Laurel and Peter were speculating what was going on. The famous axe murderer was one possibility. We drove around in circles waiting and realized that it was a recruiting area, they had a table and everything set up. It gave us a good laugh.

After we dropped David and Laurel off at the airport we decided to head to the Getty Museum for a couple of hours. It was a spur of the moment decision. On our way to the Museum Peter asks, "Did you bring the camera?" "Nope." I didn't know I was supposed to bring the camera to drop people off at the airport...I'll remember that next time. :)

We were at the museum until about 2:30. In the medieval manuscript room, I learned how to draw a castle in three easy steps. They had tables, papers and crayons set up to use and step by step instructions to draw castles, boats, borders and something else. While we were in that room a ton of little children came in and started grabbing for everything, so we decided to head out to the next gallery.

We visited van Gogh's Irises, saw the illuminated manuscripts collection from the 800's-1500's, saw how sculptures were made, looked at the most interesting works of wood possible and much more. Peter's favorite words, "This one is really famous." He said it so often and at basically every painting he recognized. I was like, "Really, no way."

We saw lots and lots of paintings and we saw them all in chronological order. Another Peter funny-He enjoyed pointing out that most of the museum was made out of travertine and he kept asking if we should put travertine in a bathroom of ours. I kid you not he said it a ton of times. They even sold little chunks of it in the gift shop and he wanted to take it home.

We also liked the tram. It's like a ride and a show. I really enjoyed walking around the garden and looking at the different fountains. Now Peter wants to go to the Getty Villa in Malibu. Better bring the camera for that trip. :)

Christmas Cooking

So last week we started our holiday culinary adventures. We made pumpkin bread and several batches of sugar cookies. This week we've moved on to something more sought after by friends, family and co-workers.

You know it's Christmas when you take these

And you mix butter, sour cream and sugar together to get this. Then you wait until it gets to the soft ball stage on the thermometer....which feels like forever!

Then you take it off the heat and add marshmallow cream, crushed peppermints, peppermint extract and white chocolate chips and work it all together as fast as you can and then pour into a dish. This is a double batch....TaDa Peppermint Fudge!

It looks a little funny, but it sure does taste good and it's addictive. We will be making numerous batches.

Chased by a 500 pound Milk Dud!

Say Hello to Milk Dud! As you can see he's a cow...He's a milking cow, but he's a boy and you can't milk a boy cow, hence the name Milk Dud. Isn't he cute? He's extra friendly. So there I was in Utah for Thanksgiving. One of Peter's uncles has two cows. This one and the black one behind it. That's the momma cow, she's expecting a baby in January. Unfortunately poor Milk Dud here is being raised for meat, but he sure is cute.

So Peter heard that his uncle had a cow and he really wanted to go and see the cow. So we went over Thursday evening and saw the cow. I was happy with staying on the other side of the fence, but then they all went next to the cow so I figured it would be okay (I'm not a huge fan of large animals). Blaine (Peter's uncle) goes into a shed and pulls out some food to feed the cows. He hands a large bowl to Peter and immediately Milk Dud starts pushing Peter around to get to the food. The big Momma cow wanted some too. Peter dropped the bowl on the ground and the cows helped themselves to what was left. When they were done we all started walking back to the gate. Blaine was in the front, then Peter then me. As we walk back I hear footsteps coming closer to me. I look back and Milk Dud is chasing after me. I SCREAMED and took off running. My dear hubby heard me scream and he took off running :) Blaine turned around and by the time we got to the gate Milk Dud stopped running. We got inside the gate and shut it and then Milk Dud came bounding up to the gate and wanted to be loved.

The next day we went and talked to Milk Dud again. This time we stayed on the opposite side of the fence. He came bounding up to the fence and then wanted to smooch.

Just so darn cute! So yes I got chased by a 500 pound Milk Dud!

On our drive up to Utah we took a scenic detour and enjoyed Kolob Canyon. Isn't it pretty...by the way it was freezing up there!

So we drove up Wednesday morning and arrived at 10pm. Thursday was Thanksgiving. We rent a church gym and have a big Thanksgiving party. There were about 46 people there. Then on Friday Peter's family always does a big Oktoberfest party on the day after Thanksgiving. People make all kinds of yummy German food. Peter's grandpa made homemade root beer, it was great! We made Chicken Schnitzel. After dinner there was a lot of dancing.

Peter and Laurel participated in the Hat Dance. Basically musical chairs with hats.

We all participated in the Chicken Dance and the Hamburger dance.

The hats are funny. I had a pizza on my head at one point too.

Peter's dad called for him to do a dance. They were slapping the legs a lot. I grabbed the camera and started filming the dance. Peter was hooting and hollering, but by the time I filmed it he had stopped. Everyone was laughing and he felt stupid so he stopped. When the dance was done he came up to me and said, "You didn't just film that did you?" I said yes and then he handed the camera to Laurel and told her to tape both of us doing the next dance. So here are two of the dances we did that were caught on tape.





On our way to Utah we stopped in St. George for Frozen Custard....it was delicious!!!! We shared a strawberry flavored one. It was so good that on our way home on Saturday we stopped by again and each got our own. Peter got Oreo and I got raspberry. They were soo good!

We had a great time in Utah though our visit was very short. We have decided that we'll have to go up in the spring and we'll be flying. We hit massive traffic between Vegas and Barstow...we got home really late Saturday night. At one point on our drive home we're listening to a song that said, "There was a flash of light..." and right on the flash of light part the person behind us shone their brights at us. It was spooky how totally in tune with the music it was. We then got into the slower lane and let the car pass us. Each time the traffic came to a stand still Peter would say how we're totally flying next time. Then the traffic would pick up and he said, "Well this isn't too bad, we could totally drive next time." I kid you not, right after he said that we could see a ton of break lights ahead of us and then we came to a stand still. Peter changed his mind about the driving part. Once the traffic lightened up again he made the comment to drive again and I told him to be quiet since he jinxed us the first time. We were in traffic for about 1 1/2 hours....it was awful!

However, the highlight besides the frozen custard on Saturday was that we met up for breakfast with a couple of Peter's friends from BYU. It was way cool to finally meet Melissa and Vince and Linda. I read their blogs all the time and comment, and now I've finally met them. I'm just bummed that we didn't get a picture...I suppose there's always next time....we're still planning on coming again in the spring.

Oh yes and I have to say that we came home and it had rained, but then today was in the 70's....yes I love living here and visiting the snow once in a while.

How did that happen?

Peter had made us fresh smoothies right after dinner. We each devoured our glass and he went back for seconds and somehow this happened. He's still wondering how it happened. Not only that but it fell off the counter onto the hard floor and the glass didn't break! There's raspberry smoothie all over the oven, cupboards, floor, his sock and the arm of his shirt and the glass is still in one piece. Hmmmm that one has got me wondering, that's a pretty big drop.

Fire Alarm

So today was a fun little adventure. It started out rather normal though for some crazy reason we were both awake at 7am this morning....mind you it's the one day we get to sleep in and we're up at 7am!!!!! Okay so I guess it didn't start totally normal. We ran some errands. Went to Costco, Henry's and Vons. On our way home from shopping we started to pull up close to our building when we noticed that a lot of people were out in the street. I rolled the window down and could hear the fire alarm going off. We turned around and pulled into our own parking spot and started to unload the trunk. While walking to our place we could tell that our building was the only one with the fire alarm going off. We continued on our way, unlocked our door and walked in and there's an extremely high pitched alarm going off in our house. Our immediate thought was that our alarm triggered the alarm for the entire complex. Peter ran upstairs to check the smoke detectors. I stood still wondering how on earth our alarm could have gone off. We had cereal for breakfast so really nothing could've triggered our alarm. Peter comes back downstairs and we go outside and continue unpacking the car. We ran into our neighbors. I asked if their alarm was going off inside too and they said yes. Then a couple people were like "I heard the alarm going off and figured I needed to change the batteries in my alarm so I did, and that didn't help. Then I went outside and heard the alarm for the entire building." Two people did the same exact thing it was funny. Our neighbor said they called 911 after the alarm had been going off for about 5-10 minutes. The fire truck pulled up. They climbed out and opened the fire panel and looked around the building. They turned the alarm off and we were all thrilled. We could finally go back into our homes. I don't know if they ever figured out what triggered the alarm...it was definitely an adventure for today.