Valentine's Cookies - MMM MMM MMM

I have been doing a lot of baking lately. As my friend Carrie Ann said, sometimes we need to remember that we don't live in a bakery. That cooking goodies for my own personal consumption daily isn't necessarily a good thing. Good thing Valentine's Day came alone so I had an excuse to make yummy cookies.
The first photo is what Maddy calls Premortal Cookies. They are Sugar and Butter.
I did make a double batch which filled my 6 qt mixer bowl.








After letting the dough cool in the fridge it was time to roll out and cut out some hearts.

Then some lovely pink frosting, some sprinkles and they are ready to go.

The recipe is:
2 Cups Butter
2 Cups Sugar
3 Eggs
2 tsp vanilla
6 cups Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Mix sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir in Dry ingredients. Chill. Rill out to 1/4" thick. Back at 375 degrees for 8-10 min

Frosting:
1/4 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tablespoon milk
food coloring

This is a single batch. Sometimes I don't need at 6 cups of flour...5 is plenty. It just depends on how humid the air is that day. If you put in 6 cups and it is still sticky, chill it. If it isn't sticky you can go ahead and roll them out. Just be sure either way that you flour your surface and rolling pin first. More often than not, I double the frosting as well to match the one batch of cookies. (Yeah I like frosting.)

ENJOY!

Valentine's Day Brunch

We had a Valentine's day brunch. Just Rick and me. (Yeah like we have anyone else living in this house that we excluded. hahaha)
I made omelets. Let me tell you though, I make them at least once every 2 weeks. I thought I would share some photos of my tasty food since my life is food and genealogy. =) Mine is the one with the "devil's fruit" aka tomatoes. I should also mention, omelets are the ONE and ONLY way I will eat eggs. Seriously...I think they are nasty and I only like them this way because I can add to much cheese and garlic salt to hide the flavor. I would like to thank my friend Thom, who probably doesn't read this, for making omelets when I worked at England. I knew he was an incredible cook so I tired them. Well I am hooked!

Professional Genealogist

I was talking with a friend tonight about becoming a Professional Genealogist. I had another a few months back suggest I do something similar in putting books and such together. I thought I would approach my friend on here and get some feedback from you.
I was thinking some of the services I could provide are:

~Converting family sheets to electronic files (You know those BIG pages and BIG books we used to keep all our genealogy in?)
-Charge by per family?
-Charge by per marriage?
-Charge by per page?
~Adding photos to electronic files
~Preparing names for the Temple...finding out what work needs to be done and printing off the cards
-Charge by per ordinance?
-Charge by per person?
~Adding new people to a tree
~Finding out stories/immigration/emigration (yes they are different and I can tell you if you would like, but it will cost ya.)
~Providing Official documents such as:
Marriage Certificates
Death Certificates
Census Records
~Finding Headstones
~Providing all information in an electronic format
~Providing printed information

So my friends, would you hire me to help you with any of this? Please share any thoughts on other things someone might want to find and if you think this is even something worth pursuing. I am open to any and all ideas.

Potato Soup Recipe

I decided I needed some nice warm soup for dinner. I have been unable to find a good mushroom bisque like the one at Zupa's. (My favorite!) But I did come across this really easy potato soup recipe.
I made it while doing laundry and playing on the computer. Also, I only used 3 cups of milk and I used 6 potatoes since I wanted it to have more chunks and be thicker. It has a great flavor due to the butter and cooking the onions with the potatoes. I also threw some cheese on top of mine.
I don't like ham but you could easily add some ham or bacon too. Be warned though, it is VERY filling!

Easy Potato Soup

Ingredients:

4 potatoes
1 qt. milk (4 c.)
1/2 to 1 diced onion
4 tbsp. margarine
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. (heaping) flour
Dash of pepper

Directions:

1. Cut potatoes into small pieces and cook in salted water, with the onion.

2. In a heavy pan melt the margarine over low heat. Stir in flour and cook until bubbly.

3. Slowly add half of the milk. Add hot, cooked potatoes and onion mixture.

4. Use a potato masher to break up potatoes a bit. Add the rest of the milk and the salt and pepper.

5. Cook over medium heat until hot. If it is not thick enough, shake 1 tablespoon of flour with 1/2 cup cold milk and add to the soup, stir frequently, garnish with a sprinkle of dried parsley

Boring and a New Job

I am sorry that my blog has become so mundane lately and that I don't post very often. The reality is that my life has become a bit monotonous. I am enjoying it immensely but since it consists of family history and stories I think that most people don't want to read about this so I haven't posted.

I will mention this though, Rick has a new job. This is his third week of working for the Church and he loves it. It is very structured and organized. He thrives in situations like this. There is training and uniforms. Rick is managing a group of I think 10 people on a custodial staff. He is in charge from 1:00 - 9:30 of the Joseph Smith Building, LDS Business College at the Triad Center, a "home" next to Triad (I can't remember the name but it is the red brick building between Triad and the Delta Center), a building on state street and a building in Bountiful.
He has full access to all of the tunnels under Temple Square which I think is pretty cool too. Maybe someday I will get to check them out. Did you know that they are carpeted and have elevators and all in them? Not just sealed concrete like the conference center parking garage.

I haven't been successful at finding a job. I applied to 15 jobs on Friday last week. (Yes I counted last night.) But hey, the right one will come along. :)

Life is good.

Couples Survey

♥ What are your middle names? Mine is Anastasia, His is Arnold (his mom's maiden name)

♥ How long have you been together? We have been dating 4 years on Valentine's Day and married just over 2 years

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? Just over a year

♥ Who asked who out? Rick asked me out - 3 times before I said yes

♥ How old are each of you? I will be 33 in March, Rick is 49

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most? Hmmm, probably mine

♥ Do you have any children together? Names, Age? Nope

♥ What about pets? Names? Thank goodness, NO!

♥ Did you go to the same school? Nope

♥ Are you from the same home town? Yes

♥ Who is the smartest? Me, duh. No wait, him, he wanted to go out with me

♥ Who is the most sensitive? Depends on the situation but we are probably pretty equal across the board

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? We don't really eat out, Rick likes my cooking so much he complains about most every restaurant out there

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Cancun

♥ Who has the craziest exes? RICK!!! Let's not even get started about her

♥ Who has the worst temper? Neither of us have tempers

♥ Who does the cooking? I do

♥ Who is more social? I do, but I still like to just be a home body most of the time

♥ Who is the neat-freak? RICK! But I have mellowed him out some

♥ Who is the more stubborn? Neither really is that stubborn

♥ Who hogs the bed? Neither but we do NOT touch at night not even hands

♥ Who wakes up earlier? We usually wake up together if one of us doesn't have to go to work. We go to bed together too

♥ Where was your first date? We went to Chili's for lunch on Valentine's Day

♥ Who has the bigger family? Rick (the included photo is Rick's parents and siblings/spouses ONLY)

♥ Do you get flowers often? Not so much but I have had some incredible ones from Rick

♥How do you spend the holidays? Hiding out? No really we usually spend time with family

♥ Who is more jealous? There is no jealousy between us

♥ How long did it take to get serious? A few weeks, we did know each other for a year before I would agree to lunch with him

♥ Who eats more? him

♥ Who does/did the laundry? Rick is more anal about it so if he isn't too tired he does it

♥ Who’s better with the computer? ME I have to remind Rick to check his email

♥ Who drives when you are together? Rick usually does

A Baby Blessing

Most of you know that Rick's family isn't active LDS or just isn't LDS. His younger brother happens to be married to one who IS active. She raised her girls in the church and they are still basically active. One is married and has 2 children. Baby 1 was blessed by his uncle and Rick's niece asked him to bless baby #2, who we fondly call #1 seeing as his name is Ryker.
This was Rick's first baby blessing. It was such a fun experience.

Twilight - Includes Spoilers!

Alright I finally saw Twilight - It was ok. I liked the book so much more. There definitely were parts that were great. I loved it when Edward puts his arm around Bella when the first walk into school together, when he has on his sunglasses and mentions that he is already breaking all the rules. Yeah I think that was my favorite scene. I thought his running up the hill...LAME! Yeah I have issues with the running. Also, what's the deal with the car? Yes it is a silver Volvo but it isn't the S40 or S60. It so should have been a 4 door.
I am not so big on how old Esme and Carlisle make me feel. Seriously Esme is 1 year older than me in real life and she seems like she is 10 years older. Also Carlisle...he was in Scorpion King and Can't Hardly Wait. I had a really hard time watching him be some serious character since I watched Can't Hardly Wait just last week and he is a total jerk in that movie.
I loved the Cullen home. That was more than perfect in my opinion. Emmet is great and Jasper isn't even the least good looking. Alice and Rosalie...they were all good but dude, Rosalie has a HUGE butt. Seriously, check it out in the baseball scene.
I think they needed more of Edward and Bella's bonding but whatever.
In the end, I am really and excited to see New Moon. Even though I liked it least of all the books. I thought it was decent enough. The filming over all seemed to be a lower quality than many movies out there but that too was to be expected. I guess they wanted it to look that way.
I enjoyed it and will watch it again I am sure at some point.

Something I Need to Get Out

This is a difficult post for me to write. I have been thinking about it for some time this morning and think that in the end it will help me and that is what matters.
I don't know if many of my friends who read this realize that I have suffered from "depression" for most of my life. Not only that but that I have been on medications for most of that time too. Seriously, since I was about 17. I was told to go off all my meds last August when preparing for the IVF. After Rick and I were discussing and we decided that I would stay off them. As most of you know, I am generally happy. Because of being off my meds my emotions range on a scale from 1-10 from 3-9 now rather than just 4-6. I feel like I am alive. Rick told me that he would rather have me cry everyday for a little bit and be able to get those 9 from me than just have me numb to life anymore. I agreed with him.
For years my mom told me that I had to be on them. I remember trying to go off them at one point in time and she would yell at me. She told me that I had no right living in her home without being on them. She would call me a bitch all the time. (She still does but that is another story.) I remember my doctor telling me, you can't change a person's personality with meds. It may calm the traits but it will not change them. My mom was trying to change me.
I am proud of who I am. I think most of you would even say that you like me being who I am.
SO back to the issue on hand. Yes most of the time I am very happy and optimistic BUT I do have my days and today is one of them. I don't like feeling like this. I don't feel like it is me. I also hate being a complainer but today I feel like that is what I need to do to help me feel better.
Let me make a list...

I want to be a mother but I can't afford for it to happen. Even if I have a job it will be a stretch as it already was a miracle that we could afford to do IVF even once. I know that Heavenly Father is watching and has a plan and all that but you know sometimes I just don't like it.

I don't like feeling worthless. Not having a job is great fun. There are so many things for me to do that I am never bored BUT I feel like I am not contributing to our family. This is compounded by the fact that my old job owes me back wages and really I have no legal way to "make" them pay me.

For many years I had to be the strong one in my family. I did not feel like I was allowed to have feelings such as the ones I am having today. In fact, if I were to share these I would probably have them discounted by most of my family members as being selfish. I am reading a very good book right now and it is teaching me that it is ok to feel this way. I don't feel sad because of anyone else, just because. It will go away and I will be fine again, proably by this afternoon knowing myself, nevertheless, these feelings are real. I hurt. And I am not going to just brush them aside and discount them.

I guess I just need to cry today and get out the emotions. Please forgive me for rambling and complaining. It really isn't in my nature to complain, even though rambling is. :)

A Genealogy Tale

I realize that there are very few family members who read my blog and so you have no idea who I am talking about but I thought I would share my Family Ancestry adventure. I don't want to rewrite the email I sent to my family members so I have just copied and pasted it here.
For reference purposes...Mernie = Mary Jane = My great aunt and only sister of my grandma. She never married and never had any children therefore, my mom, aunt and uncle are her next of kin and I am the oldest of the next generation. I should also point out, we all loved Mernie but she wasn't always the easiest person to like so there are parts that are tongue in cheek directed towards my cousins who lived with her during the last few months of her life.

It has been 11 years ago since Mernie left us *sigh* I thought it fitting that I would have a Mernie Tale to share during this week of reflection of her life and how much we all miss her….

As most of you know I have been working on genealogy for more than a year now. Last week I finally took the next step in going to the family history library at my stake center so I could start seeing what Temple work actually needs to be done. There were a few gaps in information for Mernie, Grandma and Grandpa since they have died so recently (which have now been fixed). I came across Mernie’s record - was cross referencing it as one does and saw that in her endowment someone had “cleared” it for them to do her endowment. I thought, WHAT? She did her own endowment. This put me on a quest to find out when she took them out. So I do all the research I can short of going downtown. Still nothing. (For sake of the story…there is an old program called DOS (I don’t think it is in dos though.) Her information was NOT there. Then I moved on to Family Search. It too was not in there but the “cleared” was, just egging me on to do more research.

SO today I went downtown. First I met with a lovely librarian who had access to the NEW family search, which is NOT available on the Wasatch Front. (It probably won’t be until 2010. When the Church opened it up to the LA Temple and Vegas Temple districts it about crashed due to the overwhelming use. They figure they need to do some more updates before they can bring it online in Utah even though it has been mentioned in the Ensign several times now.)

In the mean time she recruited some others to come and help just in case. She pulls up Mernie’s record and it shows that her initiatory was done April 3^rd 2007 in the Timpanogos Temple and that her endowment was done June 13^th 2008 in the Provo Temple – not only did they do unnecessary work, they did it under the name Mary Jane Hair, they left off the Stewart. (Someone please correct me if I am wrong but wasn’t her full given name Mary Jane Stewart Hair?) First of all, the NEW family search is awesome! Because of the way it is set up and the information that is put into it, it will stop repeat ordinances being done. If it were up and running and had all of the correct information such as Mernie’s live endowment and someone held a card from prior to it coming online, they would go to the Temple, have the card zapped and be told, sorry this work has been done. In my research I can’t tell you how many ancestors had their endowments done in the Endowment House and then someone did them again in our life times and sometimes more than once.

I was then told, well since you knew her and you know 100% sure that she did her own endowment you need to go to “Special Collections”. I thought, alright so I headed down to basement #2, not just the basement but the DEEP basement. As I walked in I saw micro fisch. I thought, oh crap! The other problem was, I had NO idea what year to start looking through. So I sat down with the librarian and we start looking through this book and she said, you really have no idea? I said, “nope I think sometime in the 80’s but that is it”. She said, “It will take you hours and hours so I have a suggestion for you, you go home and call the “deceased membership records” and see if they can find it. And if you get someone who won’t look it up, wait a few hours or a day and call again because some people are really nice there and they will look it up.” She went on to tell me that there is no reason for me to spend the hours going through the micro fisch looking for this information when someone can quickly look it up and I can move on to those who need the work done, not that getting records correct isn’t important. I thought that was a great idea and came home.

I called and received the nicest lady. I explained what I was trying to do expecting her to transfer me to someone else and she asked her name. I gave it to her and she said yes, I have it in the deceased records. Then asked what information I needed, I said her endowment. The next thing I knew she was giving me the date, almost before I could write it down. October 18, 1979 in the Salt Lake Temple. I could have spent days and days looking through micro fisch and obviously never found it. In less than 30 seconds this lady gave me the information needed. She asked if I needed her baptism, which I didn’t but hey, she was all for giving me whatever I needed!

In the mean time, two people have updated/contributed to OUR family records and obviously didn’t know what they were doing. Their log ons are wjgriffin and medargan Obviously someone printed off a Temple card and took it to 2 different Temples to do her work and obviously they didn’t know her very well. While talking with the 3 who were helping initially I learned that not only does the Church want us to only work on our DIRECT line we are NOT to do Temple work for anyone outside of this direct line unless they have been dead for more than 100 years, this includes siblings of our direct line which I found interesting. So one could do a person’s grandparent and have them sealed to your great grandparents BUT you are not to do your aunt or uncle unless they have been dead for more 100 years.

I appreciate that someone wanted to help Mernie out as I am sure everyone does, but it is a bit odd that someone was even aware of her and I wonder what other ordinances have been done for our close family members that didn’t need to be done. (I haven’t found anything else like this though but it makes one wonder.)

I am sorry for the long email but thought that all the details needed to be included. Just so you all know as well, I have tons of great information I plan to share with everyone. I am working on compiling stories and photos of people so that they are just random names you hear growing up and know nothing about them.

Maybe I will start writing a monthly newsletter with these stories…hhhmmm maybe. ;)

As we come to the end of our tale, I hope you all take some time to reflect on Mernie and what she was to you in your life. Hehehe

Love

Michele

Guitar Hero

After our visit to Seattle we decided that we needed a music game in our home. My brother bought Rock Band and so we decided to get Guitar Hero. We decided this was the best way to go since there are only the two of us and we could just get guitars. Well Rick happened to buy World Tour for me...which makes it so we CAN add drums and a mic, eventually.
I have become addicted to the game. I beat it on easy in less than 10 days. I have now moved on to playing most songs on medium and tonight I even tried hard on my favorite song. I failed miserably on hard but still had fun. It is going to take some time for me to really become good at Hot for Teacher and Crazy Train even on easy.
The other thing that is great is that Rick plays with me every night. This is Rick who really does NOT like video games at all.
I thought you might like to see me in my costume... Yes, those are my Harry Potter goggles.

Videos on You Tube

Rather than trying to post my videos all on here I have started a www.youtube.com channel. It is under michelenell. If you log on to youtube, search for michelenell it will bring up a video - Probably Bellevue Botanical Gardens. You can theh click on my name to go into my channel where I have other videos posted. Right now it is public but once I figure out how to update my private settings, I will probably take it private. Enjoy!

Rock Band - Seattle Tour

I finally was able to figure out my video editing software so that I could break this down. Enjoy!

Love and Marriage - My 200th Blog!

I ripped this off...

What is your husbands name? Richard Arnold - Don't call him Richard he really does NOT like it. My sisters thought for months that he was Ricardo - he is ok with that. Arnold is his mom's maiden name and he is the only boy in his family with it.

How long have you guys been married? 2 years as of last month!

How long did you date? FOR-EVER - Valentine's Day 2005 until December 14th 2006

How old is he? 49 - he will be 50 this year - We HOPE we can go to Lambo Field for his birthday

Who is taller? Rick

Who can sing best? Our iPods- I am not paid to sing, I pay to hear other sing

Who is smarter? Me - DUH! No wait, he married me so he must be the smarter one

Who does laundry? Rick - Let's not even get into this...

Who pays the bills? I do

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? The right side while laying in it or while looking at it? If you are laying in bed, I am on the right - it is closer to the bathroom

Who mows the lawn? I mow and he edges. Then when he is done he finishes the mowing if we are at my mom's. When we did his sister's lawn - He mowed and edged while I pulled weeds. I am MEGA picky though if it is a big yard. I want my lawn to look like the outfield of a baseball park.

Who cooks dinner? I cook and Rick does the dishes

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I am usually the one who is wrong and yes I can admit it.

Who kissed who first? Rick totally kissed me first...well maybe it was mutual by then ;-)

Who wears the pants? He has one leg and I have the other. We just don't always face the same way all the time.

January Goings On

I can't believe I haven't posted anything on here yet this year...Oh wait, yes I can. I am now unemployed and not dieing of boredom at work anymore. I have things to do. Places to go. People to see. Actually - I have had 2 interviews this week. I really would like to get the one from Monday actually so please pray for me.
On another note, I started making a quilt back in September. I have had one thing or another come along that has made it go so slow. This week Rick brought over from his brother's house quilting frames. We set it up and it took me about 6 hours to get the entire thing done. First of all somewhere along the line I ended up cutting the back piece WAY too big so it was on the frame and so was the batting when I laid the quilt on it and I was way off. BUT this actually excited me. It meant I had room for a boarder so I spent about an hour of that time cutting and adding a boarder. After that I ended up not having too much extra. Good thing. This weekend I am going to get some black boarder and finish it off. Rick's sister in law is a major embroider. I am going to have her embroider in the corner something like my initials and the date. Afterall, it is my first quilt.

Today after my interview I went to the family history library at my stake center. I decided it was time to move on to the next step in organizing my information and getting information ready for ordinances. I learned a lot in the time I was there. 1st - Many things have been duplicated. It was interesting to see things being done for say my great great grandparents in the Washington Temple. I also saw that some people are just retarded - someone has a "card" in their possession to do the Temple work for my great aunt, Mernie. (She never married and never had children.) There is someone out there who obviously didn't know her. They have gone through the work to be able to her Temple work. Well let me tell you - she did it all herself. I know. When she was old and dieing I helped her with her garments. I know that she was wearing her Temple clothes when she was buried. I have a good idea of who did this too - all I can say is - Retard! It was all very interesting though and I will be able to get much of my file updated. #2 It is really cool seeing that many of Rick's and my relatives had their endowments done at the Endowment House. #3 The organization that I have been doing with getting birth certificates, marriages certs, etc all electronic is a great place for me. After talking with the ladies working at the library, I know that this is very rarely done. I am grateful I came up with idea and place for myself.

Now for the rest of what has been going on - I won't blog much about the awesome Utah game - Just post this fun picture of Rick taken at our very exclusive party.

Most importantly though I have the photo of my car. Yes this is MY car. Not some photo pulled from the internet. I fund a picture of Jeff Gordon, I had my mom who works for a company which can create stickers make this for me. Then I ordered the stick figures. I wish they had arms to wrap about Jeff - my mom didn't really have anything for stick figures - but I still think it gets the point across ---That I am a dork.