Holly vs The Mouse & Ruby vs The Toyota

This week was packed with quite a few exciting (and scary) experiences.

Our great friends, Andy and Erin (Redd) Buteau, were flown in from London because Andy was asked to speak at the USU Partners in Business conference as a representative of Google. He spoke primarily about Google Mobile (his dept.) and the growth and ubiquity of mobile devices globally. Quite fascinating, actually. He’s a great speaker and the place was quite full since so many are interested in hearing about Google from an insider’s perspective. 

On Wednesday we asked Jenny to do a quick photo shoot of our little family since it had been a loooong time since we did anything of the sort. Here are a few shots. Jenny does a fantastic job!

Andy and Erin invited Holly and the girls up for a few days to their cabin above Bear Lake. Holly and a few exciting experiences while she was there. 

First is the story of Holly vs the Mouse. A few glassfuls of water coupled with the natural process of the body required Holly to take a journey to the porcelain throne. Upon completing her royal duties, she suddenly heard splashing beneath her. She jumped up and discovered a poor little mouse swimming for his life following an unpleasant waterfall surprise. In a panic, her immediate reaction was to flush ... so flush she did. Little did she know that mighty mouse took state in the bowl-stroke and swam like a champ to avoid the pipes of death. She quickly recruited the household to brainstorm an alternative solution for the mouse’s eviction, and Myrna (Erin’s mother) grabbed some salad tongs and sent the little fur ball to his snowy white exile. 

The other main event was Ruby vs. Toyota.

All the kids were sledding down the snow-covered driveway and slid slowly down the hill ... then little Ruby tried out a new sled. Turns out it was primed with Clark Griswold’s sledding grease and found herself wedged under a parked minivan across the street, only stopped by her cute little noggin! Check out the video to see the event ... up to the point of Holly’s panic! She recovered quickly ... and hopped happily (albeit cautiously) right back on that sled. 

Friday was Foodie Night for the group we’ve been forming of peeps looking to be more educated about eating healthy, eco-friendly foods. You can get an update at this site: cachefoodies.blogspot.com

Lastly, we have new roomies at our home for a while. Wendy, her mom Barbara, and her son Nicholas moved in to our basement as they had just sold their home and needed a place to stay for a few months. Olivia and Ruby are excited to have a little amigo to play with who is so nearby.

And lastly lastly, our Recipe of the Week. 

No-Sugar Yes-Tasty Peanut Butter Cookies 

 1 cup unsalted butter

 1 cup all-natural crunchy peanut butter

 1 ½ cups honey / agave syrup

 2 eggs

 2 1/2 cups flour (preferably wheat flour)

 1 teaspoon baking powder

 1/2 teaspoon salt

 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3-5 chips per cookie of SunSpire All Natural Chocolate Chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Cream together butter, peanut butter and honey. Beat in eggs.

2. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir into batter. Put batter in refrigerator for 1 hour.

3. Roll into 1 inch balls and put on baking sheets. Add all-natural chocolate chip cookies (about 3) on top, if desired. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for about 10 minutes or until cookies begin to brown. Do not over-bake.

Regular is the new Ginormous!

We finished working on the "kitchen" in the basement. We think it looks soooo much better than when we first moved in. It used to look like a place to hide dead bodies. It's nice to have that project finished. Now no one will ever find the bodies :)

Adam spent part of Thursday, all day Friday, and Saturday in SLC attending a design conference. It was 200 female fashion and design bloggers, and a few token male designers like him ... but he should be used to being surrounded by girls by now. The conference gave him a free lift pass to Solitude, so he dipped into the deep powder for part of Saturday and refueled his adrenaline engine.

I joined him with the girls on Saturday afternoon. The ride down to Layton was scary through Sardine Canyon. As I was entering the canyon an ambulance and police cars raced passed me. When I finally got to the accident, it was very icy, snowy, and foggy. Someone had gone off the road and rolled their car upside down. It was helpful in reminding me to drive very slowly and carefully! We decided to go down to Layton so that we could redeem a Christmas gift from Wendy and Steve (Adam's sister and her husband). They gave us a gift card to a movie theater with babysitting included! Our girls had a blast playing with their cousins, and we had a fun date night at the Sonora Grill in Ogden, then at the movie, Sherlock Holmes. We had the gift card, so we had to get refreshments in the theatre. We asked for a "regular" popcorn and got handed a massive bucket of popcorn. How insane are we as Americans when the bucket in the photo is "regular" (as opposed to ginormous)? So, yes, we ate horribly (horribly delicious) processed popcorn (one of Adam's few "cheats" recently) ... and way too much of it.

My sister, Kristen, and I are still working with the Union Bilingual Preschool (www.unionpreschool.com) here in Logan, which is where are girls attend preschool. Part of that means that we must carry out fundraisers to help gather funds for financial aid so that children from lower income families can attend. This week we held a fundraiser at the Beehive Grill. They kindly donated 20% of their profits that night and we agreed to get as many people there as possible so that it would be a win/win situation for everyone. We raised $600 and everyone had a good time. Yea!

Recipe of the Week:

Cauliflower Carrot Curry

Steamed rice (preferably basmati rice)
1 medium head of cauliflower (about 2 pounds)
1 tbs olive oil
4 large carrots, peeled and cut in ½ inch rounds (you can also add potato)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves minced (or more to taste – be generous)
1 tbs Madras curry powder
2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and crushed
1 cup vegetable broth
½ cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup frozen peas
¼ tsp salt

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the carrots and onion and cook stirring often until the onions are golden, about 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the curry and cumin and stir for 30 seconds. Add the cauliflower, broth and coconut milk. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes until vegetables are just tender.Add the peas and cook until heated through, about 1 minute. Season with salt. Spoon rice into individual soup bowls and top with the curry. Serve immediately.
Source: On Rice by Rick Rodgers

Thought Smog

Neighbor Nan Schmidt gets a great photo from above the toxic air in our valley.

After a run on a red air day, the kids wrap Adam up in bibs and cloths to heal him.

The kids in the basement enjoying their inside playground.

Shot of our back kitchen area in the downstairs.

Hi all, we switched to a blogspot this week because we learned more about the Facebook rights of privacy and whatnot. It was not cool, so we are privatizing just slightly with a blogspot. We chose Thought Smog for two reasons. 1. Everything on earth was already taken. 2. We're really just dumping our muddled thoughts across the page with every post.

We also recognize that some of you may not care to get a weekly update on our familial events (no offence taken there, as we fail to follow many-a-blog ourselves). So, if you would like to continue to receive updates, subscribe, and you’ll get your weekly dose of whatever we can come up with.

This week I started teaching at USU again after a month long (it was lovely) break. I’m just teaching one speaking class called “Cross-Cultural Talk”. I’m excited about it as it is a large class with a lot of diversity. I learn so much from the students. I really love my job, and it helps take the edge off my craving for living abroad again!

Adam has been convinced to enter a contest through Prevention magazine, mostly to win the 5k to pay off some bills accruing with this new upcoming baby, plus $5k to the charity of his choice. The contest is to highlight 5 people in the nation who have lost weight and inspired others by living a balanced, healthy life and overcame a major personal challenge. He seems like the perfect candidate! We’ll see if they agree J

We spent a good amount of time fixing up our basement this weekend. We’ve been living in this house for 2 and a half years now, and we are still fixing it up! We are trying to make one of the rooms look more like a finished kitchen. Baby steps… baby steps.

Another room in our basement has been converted into a playground, of sorts. Because winter is 6 months long in Utah (shudder), we decided it would be worth investing in a swing and a rope ladder ($20 at IKEA) for the kids to play on. We got the idea from Sam (Adam’s brother), whose basement is even more of a swinging playground than ours (a zip line and what have you). So far, it has been a fabulous investment. It’s especially fun when we have a bunch of kids over like last night. We participate in a babysitting exchange with some couples in our neighborhood. Every 5 weeks we babysit a whole slew of kids (11 or so) so that we can have the other 4 weeks for date nights. It’s a sweet arrangement, but as you can imagine, it can be quite challenging at times!

Speaking of Utah winters, the air here is literally killing us! If you haven’t heard, our air was the worst in the nation multiple times this winter. We hold our breath most of the time, but now and then we can’t help but inhale the toxic vapors of death (gasp). It is no joke. We’re not fans, and my kids keep coughing. Bleh!

As you know, we are trying to eat more healthily, and so we are running into a lot of new recipes that we think are worth passing on – if you like that sort of thing. So… Recipe Of The Week:

Carbonara alla Tastyana (my carbonara recipe from the Italy days)

500 g. penne pasta

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (not the cheap-o processed stuff!)

1/3 cup Mozzarella Shredded/Grated

2-3 Bell Peppers (for aesthetic appeal, I use 1 yellow, 1 green, and one red) chopped

1-2 cups of chopped Ham or Bacon

6-8 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 white onion chopped

1/2 tsp. ground pepper

1 Tbsp. Dried Basil or 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil

1/2 Tbsp. Dried Parsley or 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh parsley

1 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. red hot chili pepper

2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Put pot of water to boil. When it comes to a boil, add 1/6 cup of salt (yah, it seems like too much, it’s not). Then throw in the penne pasta (Farfalle (bowtie) pasta works well too).

Chop up veggies and meat and toss in frying pan with Olive Oil. Add all spices. Cook until veggies soften a bit and meat is browned, then add the heavy whipping cream. Put on low for 5 mins until cream thickens a bit. (If desired, Carbonara often also includes 2 eggs stirred in at the end while still on low to ensure it’s cooked in)

Drain Pasta and toss into frying pan with the sauce. Mix. Turn off burner and add all the Mozzarella cheese while mixing to distribute evenly. Sprinkle Parmesan atop each serving and serve.

Enjoy!

From Foodies to Babies

by Holly

This week we had our first pseudo “foodie” night, where a few friends who had expressed interest in eating healthily (and what Adam has done to lose so much weight), got together for a potluck exchange of natural, real, whole foods. The dinner was amazingly delicious and we look forward to doing it again!

On Wednesday we found out that we are having another girl! I was more surprised than I thought I would be. I think I convinced myself that this baby was probably a boy because my pregnancy has been different from the first two. Apparently, having a different pregnancy doesn’t really mean anything, and Adam and I are consistent girl-makers. Does anyone have any theories about why some couples have only girls or only boys and others get a mix? Is there some significance behind it all? In any case, we are very excited about the idea and so are Olivia and Ruby! The baby will be no stranger to hand-me-downs (like our girls now). We are so grateful to older cousins who have generously passed along clothing, etc! So, anyone have suggestions for good girl names?

This may seem insignificant to some, but we are happy about surviving another week of teaching the 3 year olds at church. Mostly because we have triplet boys in the class who keep us jumping! Your suggestions on how to entertain 3 year old boys while sitting quietly in seats (let’s be honest, they don’t sit) are most welcome!

Clay Olsen (Holly's brother) at the foodie-fest friday night.

And so the blogin' begins

It's 2010, which we all know means that we're only 2 years from the end of the world (I'm sure you know the Mayans were omniscient). So we figured we ought to improve our familial and friendilial (my word of the day) communications. Thus, we find ourselves here to publicly post stories and photos reminding y'all that we're still slowing trudging down the endless path of parenting paranoia, spiritual bushwhacking, and just striving to slurp all the marrow out of life that we can. And maybe, if you're all willing, learn from you about how we can improve and learn from those experiences. So please feel free to comment, ridicule, and protest ... it'll make it more fun for us all.

And since this is the first post of the year, I may as well recap 2009 before we get ahead of ourselves. Here are our Top 10 experiences of 2009 (in no particular order):

1. Cancun, meet Holly. 

Holly's friend, Brooke, lives in Cancun, and Holly had been quietly hoping the stars would align so she could get down there. They did, she went, she relished. The weather was perfect, the food was great, and the tours were ... well ... mormon-y. It was muy divertido.

2. Moab in the Spring 

We took a long weekend down to the sandy stone walls of Moab in the spring. The fry-your-brain temperatures hadn't arrived yet, so the hike to delicate arch and through the slot canyons was superb Olivia (then 3 years old) made the delicate arch hike all on her own! Poor Ruby got left behind in Logan. On the way out we couldn't resist the monster sand mountain next to the highway ... We're still finding sand in strange places.

3. Olsen Family Camp 

Sounds less interesting ... but when you've got little monkeys as we do, getting out and enjoying the fruits of mama nature gets more and more difficult. It's quite ridiculous how seldom we make it out when the canyon/mountains are a sneeze away!

4. Adam is a Loser. 

Ok, we all know that! We're talking about weight ... sheesh. A total of 82 lbs lost during 2009. Think of 82 cartons of butter ... gross! Nice to shed that fatsuit and work toward a half-marathon instead (March 2010). The secret? There are none. Good old fashioned diet and exercise are really the only sustainable ways to be a long-term loser.

5. Set to 350 degrees and bake for 40 weeks 

Yup, number three is on the way and the first half of the prego progression is anything but pleasant for Holly. But now we're into the second half and a disproportionate figure is about all she has to worry about. That, and sleeping without having a little alien in the belly kick her all night long.

6. The Union 

Holly and her sister, Kristen, have been running Union Preschool, a bilingual immersion preschool here in the area. Olivia and Ruby have both been attending the school and habla the Spanish more and more. It's a pretty impressive program they've set up ... but as a non-profit, it's quite a task!

7. The Merge n' Move 

Over the summer my company, Advent Creative, decided to merge with another local branding and advertising agency, Digital Slant. Their office was slightly more attractive than our musty dungeon, so "we chose life". It was a good call. We're diggin' our new place and really enjoy working with our new peeps.

8. Published 

Holly has been working on getting some research published from her master's degree. It has dragged on for years, and she can hardly remember what the whole thing is about, but it's scheduled to finally be published this year. Let's hope that's the first part of the year!

9. T-day in L.A. 

November has got to be one of the most painful months in Logan. Our summer skin is shriveled by the biting cold and we've yet to be acclimatized to the new frigid temperatures. So, what better time to escape the cold and visit family in sunny Southern California. Amazing T-day dinner in L.A. with my sister and her family, then up to Santa Barbara to meet my brother and his fam for a game of soccer and some time at the beach. I tried some skim boarding ... but it was amateur at best. Regardless, it's quite tempting to make this an annual event.

10. A Royal Ball 

My brother, Sam, is a big dreamer. He does everything big, down to the last detail. For his 18th anniversary, he threw a lavish, opulent, fancy-dancy ball at the Grand America in SLC. It was a black-tie event ... so thank Zeus we have family with fancy tuxes and ball gowns that are our size. There was dancing (I vote myself the worst dancer E.V.E.R.), amazing food, and a fun stay at Utah's only 5-star hotel. A bigger-than-words thank you to Sam for putting together such a night. It's a rare event for us modest folk.

___________________

Well, there you go. These blog pups will be much shorter from now on. And if we keep to our new year's resolution, you'll be seeing 51 more of these this year. We'll try and do crazy, unexpected things during the week so we have something interesting to write about :)

Namaste and Happy New Year.

(A few photos included)

Ruby at Clay's wedding in the spring.

Olivia doing sand angels in Moab.

Holly and Olivia at Delicate Arch.

Ruby's disfigured face following the attack on mosquito mountain.

Gettin' situated for a quick family photo in Santa Barbara.