Do I Dare???

Well, I haven't blogged in over a year and I feel a little foolish picking it up again after so long.  I thought about scrapping this one and starting anew, but I'm too lazy for that.  So, here you have it.  Aramie's blog.  What's new with me, you ask?  Well, let's see........nothing.   Things are pretty much just as they were when I posted the recipe for corn souffle.  It is still the best, by the way.  Let's see....my mom is coming tomorrow.  So that's new.  She is going to stay with Kacey for a few days while Matt & I are in Lubbock for a National Guard thing.  We are both looking forward to a weekend get-away, although he will still be working.  My mom will be here for a week.  Where will I take her while she's here?  We could go to....oh, I forgot.  We don't have that here.  Well, there's always.....um no.  That's not here either.  I guess we will hit the Wal-Mart and if we're feeling really crazy we may stop at Pay Less Shoes for the BOGO sale.  What's cooler than matching mom/daughter shoes?

Corn casserole (or corn souffle, if you're the pretentious sort)

I haven't posted in 2 months, and then when I finally think of something to post it's another recipe. Oh well, I forgive myself because this is a great one. Sometimes I think that corn casserole is the only weapon I have in my arsenal against the pickiest eater in the world. Matt loves almost everything I make, but Kacey has threatened to run away over having to eat disgusting things like chicken enchilada soup or potatoes cooked any way other than mashed. Can you blame her?
One thing that Kacey does love is corn. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't love corn, and this is Kacey's favorite way to eat it. I make it every few weeks just to keep the peace. Here's what you need:
1 stick of butter
2 eggs
1 (8.5 oz) package corn muffin mix (Jiffy)
1 (15 oz) can whole kernel sweet corn
1 (14.75 oz) can cream style corn
1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 9x9" casserole. Combine all ingredients and pour into dish. Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Yes, that's my sexy man holding the delicious fried chicken I made for dinner last night. Ok, not really. The man in this stock photo would really be jealous of my even sexier husband, and if that were my fried chicken it would be in one of the disposable lunch meat containers I use when we have extra special company. Anyway, this is truly excellent chicken. Here's my recipe:

1 pint buttermilk
2 Tbsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 cups self-rising flour
3 eggs
chicken pieces
vegetable oil for frying

Combine buttermilk, salt & pepper in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag. Add chicken pieces & refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
Heat oil in a deep skillet on medium-high heat. Dip chicken in egg, then dredge in flour. Fry until golden brown.

My Bitter Disappointment

Dearest Michael,

I have loved you since I was 11 years old when my mom and I would drive to San Diego listening to her Soul Provider cassette tape. For 22 years I have dreamed of the moment when we would meet in person and you would tell me how I have been your muse; the inspiration behind the saxophone solos and passion-filled ballads. You cannot imagine my bliss when I read that you were going to do a show in San Antonio this upcoming Monday! I begged my husband to buy me a ticket so that I could make both of our dreams come true. He laughed, shook his head incredulously and logged on to Ticketmaster.com. I blew it off. He doesn't understand our cosmic connection to one another. Once my ticket was bought & paid for I patiently waited for the day of the show to come. Now imagine my sense of betrayal upon learning that the concert has been cancelled because I was the only one who bought a ticket to see you. I used to think that I was all you needed, but now I see that the almighty dollar reigns supreme in your life. It's over, Michael. How can we be lovers if we can't be friends, you ask? I'm sorry Michael, but my reply must be this; I said I love you... but I lied.

The Chicken Painting

This painting is actually titled "I Would Gather Thee" and the artist is Liz Lemon Swindle. Most of you have probably heard of her; she is a well-known LDS painter. I can't really say why this painting grabbed me, but I had never seen anything by Swindle in which a person wasn't the primary subject. This piece is from her series titled "The Parables of Jesus."
I spent a week with my sister in Mesa earlier this month & I always enjoy visiting Deseret Book & Seagull Books when I am there. When you live in the middle of nowhere (and I always seem to live in the middle of nowhere) it is fun to peruse the LDS book stores in search of resources for a church calling, gospel centered books and music, or inspirational art. Imagine my bliss when I spotted this painting in Deseret! The icing on the cake was an incredible frame. My dad was also down visiting my sister, and he bought it for me. When I showed it to him, he laughed and said "It's just a picture of a chicken!" I told him that beauty is in the eye of the beholder =) I love my dad so much, and I love my chicken picture too. Thanks, Daddy.

The Greatest Stain Remover Ever

I seem to be experiencing a very long bout of writers block. I think it's been 6 or 7 years now. Until I am over it I thought I would share with you my favorite stain remover. It's called Fels-Naptha laundry soap. Our local Wal-Mart carries it in the laundry aisle for 97 cents a bar. So far I haven't found any stain that it can't get out. It is color safe, so no worries there. I just run one corner of the bar under the tap, then rub it directly onto the stain. It is ok if you are not planning to wash the garment right away- I just throw it into the hamper & wash it when I need to. Works like a charm every time.

Harry Potter is my hero.

I am really looking forward to seeing the last Harry Potter movie. My best buddy Kim's kids have the Harry Potter legos, and her 4-year old daughter brought her the Harry Potter lego figure and said "Look mom, it's Aramie!" I can see that. The short hair. The glasses. The cape. Just kidding.

Join the Club

We've joined the country club. Kacey will now be able to swim in a pool where there aren't 100 teenage couples making out in the water, and I will be free to enjoy the monthly Border Patrol wives luncheon without having to drop the name of a friend who is a member.

I am in such a creative slump right now! I can't come up with a single project that sounds interesting and I don't have anything to blog about except joining the country club!

Lupus Shmupus

I found out last week that I have Lupus. It's an auto-immune disease. Basically, the antibodies in my blood can't tell the difference between foreign invaders and normal, healthy cells, so they just attack whatever & where ever they please. It all began a few years ago when I started having this terrible pain in palms of my hands. It would last for a few weeks, then go away for a few months. I hate going to the doctor, so I just tried to ignore it. The last time I had the pain was a few months ago, and it was worse than it had ever been before. I just cried and cried. My hands started going numb & the pain spread into my wrists, so I decided it was time to see the doctor. I assumed it was some form of arthritis, and my doctor said that she thought so too. She drew some of my blood to have tested. When the test results came back the rheumatoid arthritis panel came back negative, but the ANA panel was positive suggesting that something was abnormal. I would tell you what ANA stands for, but all of the sudden I can't remember. She referred me to a rheumatologist who ran some more specific tests and subsequently determined that I have Lupus.

The strangest thing to me is that my sister also has an auto-immune disease (MS). They are treated much the same. She & I always used to joke about how when we are old ladies we will buy a motorcycle with a side car and travel the country. I have to ride in the side car because I am a notoriously bad driver. When we learned that she has MS I told her that maybe I should drive. Now neither of us will be able to drive! We'll have to get an extra roomy side car & hire a driver! We will be taking applications in 40 years, so mark your calendars =)

The true meaning of Cinco de Mayo

And so it was on this day in the year 1862 that a small Mexican army defeated French troops at the battle of Puebla. Contrary to popular belief, it is not Mexico's independence day. That is September 16th.

It was also on this blessed day in 1978 that Matthew Alma Christopherson was born. This is a photo of him with our 8-year old niece Gillian. He has blessed my life so immensly and I am so in love with him. This is what love should feel like for everyone. Thank you, thank you Matt, for being my dream come true. Happy Birthday, honey.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

I try to make at least one batch (about 8- 8 oz. jars) of strawberry freezer jam every spring when strawberries are in season and less than $2.00/lb. at the grocery store. It is a little time consuming, but so easy and so worth it! I have also made raspberry and blueberry freezer jam, but strawberry is the best. All you need is about four lbs. of strawberries, 1 package of instant fruit pectin (found in the same aisle as JELL-o), and 1-1/2 cups sugar. Combine the sugar and pectin in a bowl, add the 4 lbs. of strawberries (they will need to be crushed), and stir for 3 minutes. Voila! That's it! Pour the jam into jars and let them sit for 30 minutes before using or freezing. Freezer jam has a much softer set than cooked jam, so don't get nervous when it doesn't get super thick and gelatinous. The wonderful thing about freezer jam is that it always tastes like fresh strawberries, unlike cooked strawberry jam that you buy in a jar. I'm going to try peach freezer jam next. Matt loves peaches.

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Mulberries growing on our mulberry tree! When I was a little girl in California, we had an elderly neighbor who had a mulberry tree in his front yard. It's branches drooped over the sidewalk & stained it purple. I remember taking a little bucket over to his house & asking if I could pick berries. He always let us have as many as we wanted, and I would eat so many that I would end up with a belly ache. Growing vegetables & fruits just makes me so happy. There is something so satisfying in being able to produce your own food, or really anything I suppose. Just like a little kid I want to take it to everyone I know & say "Look what I did!" We also have a pomegranate tree & a fig tree. The fig tree is still very small, & I don't think we will have fruit for quite some time. I am planning to make jam, syrup and pie filling with my fruit. Hooray for nature's bounty!

Lavender Cupcakes

I decided to try something a little different last week when I had a cupcake craving. I made a batch of vanilla cupcakes with lavender-flavored frosting. The frosting recipe calls for 1/2 a cup cold water, so I heated the water & steeped a couple of teaspoons of dried lavender flowers in it for a while. Then I strained them out of the liquid & let it cool off in the fridge. They turned out really good. I was amazed that even Kacey loved them. I guess she never met a cupcake that she didn't like, but she is usually not one to try new things, so I was pleased.
This post is so boring that even I don't want to read it anymore. More (interesting) stuff to come (I think).

WHAT??!?!!!

This isn't a picture of my floor. I WISH it was paint on the tile (or is that linoleum). Today I took my red wicker rocking chair out onto the back porch to spray paint it black. It turns out that the red doesn't match anything I have. Who knew. I put it on a big plastic drop cloth and began to spray. Once I ran out of paint I came inside. I had been painting in my bare feet, and proceeded to walk across my almost white carpet. I didn't think anything of it. Then I looked down and saw my footprints on the carpet. You can imagine my hysteria. I scrubbed the hell out of it, but it's still wet so I can't tell if I did any good or just smeared it around. This is my 2nd paint fiasco in a week. My dad was here for a couple of days, and he helped me paint my kitchen. It had this hideous dark green wallpaper on the walls. Dad & Kacey took the paper off the walls while Matt & I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. I decided to paint it a dark gray after seeing a house in a magazine that had a gray kitchen. My mixer is pink, as are most of my kitchen accessories, & the gray really looks good. What I didn't realize is that my kitchen cabinets are a very, very pale green color! Can you believe that all this time I thought they were an off-white?!?! How unobservant can a person be??? So, I now have black footprints in my white-ish carpet, and green cabinets in my gray kitchen. Excellent. My goal of having the tackiest house in Texas is finally within my grasp!

We are a happy family!

I know- I need to post actual photos. Since my memory card only has room for 9 pictures, they are all on Matt's camera. Maybe sometime before our 10th anniversary I will get them up. I haven't blogged for such a long time & now I feel like it will take a million posts to catch up on all my news. Instead of posting a million times, I am going to sum up the last month in one paragraph:

Got married October 1st and honeymooned in NYC, which was great. Drove from NY to TX with my new hubby, and met up with Kacey and my dad here in our new home. Love my house, love my big yard, love our new ward, really, really hate Kacey's new school. Kacey has at least an hour's worth of homework each day, and they are required to read a grade-appropriate book each day and take a quiz on it. Wouldn't be so bad except that they aren't given any time at school to choose books or to take the quizzes (which have to be done in the school library), so we end up spending at least a half hour in the library after school each day. I am staying home at present, still trying to find a home for everything. Life is good. My husband is a dream come true. My daughter is the love of my life. My dog sheds hair everywhere and it's gross. THE END.

Hip mom or school marm?

I just turned 32. I have a 7-year old daughter. I just bought a pair of jeggings. I swore I would never own a pair of skinny jeans, yet I purchased jeggings & they are AWESOME! So comfy. Obviously my legs don't look like the ones in the picture, but I still think they are flattering.

This is my question: at what age do I finally stop dodging father time & accept my true age? Instead of shopping at American Eagle, should I be looking through the Lands End catalog & ordering a sturdy pair of high waist, tapered ankle khakies? I wear lots of t-shirts. Should I be wearing button-down blouses that I tuck into my sturdy, high waist, tapered ankle khakies? Should I be listening to talk radio and weighing in on political issues instead of rocking out to Katy Perry (yes, I love her).

Going to college again as an older student was fun because I got to see what was trendy. The only trend that still hasn't managed to suck me in are flats (as in shoes). No one wears heels anymore. Sadly I have wide feet, so I own only 1 pair of flats which I seldom wear. It also helps that I have a young daughter. She's my little doll & I get to dress her up. And for the record, she also owns a pair of jeggings.

October 1, 2010

So here's the scoop- Matt & I are getting married October 1st at the Plattsburgh chapel. President Gutierrez is going to marry us, and the only guests will be my parents, Kacey, and possibly a few of the branch members. There will be no announcements- sorry. I will send everyone a Christmas card & sign it "Aramie Christopherson." Having my sealing to Joey cancelled is turning out to be kind of a nightmare, so we have decided to get married now so that we can start our life together, and then we will be sealed on our 1st anniversary. At that time all of our friends and families will hopefully join us at the San Antonio temple where we will be bound together for eternity! I am including photos of my shoes and dress. My dress actually has an ivory colored slip- not a nude one like in the photo.

Engaged!

Most of you have already heard that Matt asked me to marry him, and I said "YES!!!" We got engaged sitting in my car in the Olive Garden parking lot =) So romantic! The photo is of my ring. Matt picked it out himself & it is an oval diamond. I think it's beautiful.

We don't have a date yet. I wanted to have a fall wedding, but I am in the process of having my first temple sealing cancelled & it is taking longer than I would have liked. We talked about having a civil marriage & being sealed a year later, but a temple marriage is really important to both of us. We are just going to wait it out.

I am so in love with him, and Kacey adores him. He is wonderful with her. She cried last night when I told her to say goodbye =(

It's amazing how The Lord answers prayers. All I wanted was a good man who would love Kacey as his own, and I am getting so much more than I ever dreamed possible! I feel so unworthy of the tremendous flood of blessings Heavenly Father has blessed me with. Matt said once that he knows that the anguish we both experienced in our first marriages was worth it because of what we have now. How true that is! I love you, Matt, with all my heart.

Ribbon roses

While I was in Arizona, I met my style/craft guru. She is Hill's friend Myla. She is so cool and so unique. She taught Hill & I to make fabric roses for head bands. I got home & decided to give it a try with wide ribbon. It works great. The picture I posted is of some ribbon rose pins that I made. I used ribbon for the leaves as well. I just sealed the edges with a lighter.

Thanks, Myla. Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime! =)

Arizona

Well, I am back from my desert adventure. Hillary was kind enough to take this photo of me in her backyard.
I got to visit my sister, and Kacey got to visit her dad. She had a great time with Joey & his family. They went camping and went to the zoo. I was disappointed that Kacey & Darby did not get along very well at all. They are 3 years apart in age, and they are completely different in personality as well. Kacey is a little shy & reserved. She is pretty obedient, and seldom talks back. Darby is everything opposite of Kacey! Just a little ball of fire. It was so fun watching her in action. I would need 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep to handle that Tazmanian devil! My sister is a good, good woman.