Time in Alpine

It's been two weeks since we've posted. The past two weekends were spent with family at Sam's house. It has been a great chance to be together and get back to the quality of relationship that we *should* have with family, but that so easily is replaced by busyness. Busy is the illusion of being occupied with important matters. Busy is (often) the enemy of a truly fulfilling life. And more than anything, Busy just might be the mask that regret wears so we can justify (if not glory in) his existence without ever recognizing his true identity.

My hope is, that I can rip that mask from his face and always recognize him for who he really is – to ensure my days are filled with important, rather than urgent things.

With that soap box well trampled under my feet, I'll get back to general updates.

This past week, Clay (Holly's brother and one of my partners at Advent) and I were asked to give a "lecture" on creativity to appx 150 interior design students at USU. We probably spent a few too many hours preparing, but if you heard the details of our presentation, you'd understand why we needed it to be so. It seemed to go over very well and we hope to give it more often, I think it has a lot of value for those in the creative field. See some photos of the "Making Of" below.

Olivia is back in soccer and doing less of the sweeping-the-floor-and-spinning-in-circles type of soccer and more of the kind that applies to the game. It's fun to watch. She's also in a tumbling class, which she loves. Essentially they just run around and do funny poses ... so what's not to love?

Both Ruby and Olivia are having a blast in preschool. A few days ago they made small loaves of bread at school, and they were so excited to come home, bake them, and eat them. They also participated in a fundraiser for their school by going out to eat at a local restaurant. At the fundraiser, the children auctioned off a collaborative painting that they made in order to raise money for recent earthquake victims - part of a service-learning project that they worked on. It was awesome. See photos below.

We had a great time last weekend in Alpine ... and had to come back for another dose this weekend. Not only is it a great place for conversation, Mac talk, and discussions about design, architecture and the like, but now there is an exciting new attraction for the girls. Sam bought two baby lambs and some chicks. They have a small stable on their acre property and Sam wanted to find a healthy/fun distraction for the kids, specifically 8-year-old Charlie. The lambs are named Snowflake and Oreo. They are only a week old, so they need several feedings a day and a lot of attention ... but they're pretty darn cute and friendly. The girls are loving it.

They are also loving the crazy attention that they are getting from their Aunt Kristen. She took them to a very girly shop, bought them magic wands, lollipops, headbands, sparkly shoes, and put sparkles in their hair. They were in absolute heaven. Adam and I never do that sort of thing for them. Then this week Kristen went and bought some dress-ups, and fairy-girly type things including paint and plans to paint a giant princess castle on a wall downstairs (much to the surprise of her 3 sons) so that her nieces could be in heaven all the time when they come to visit. It is truly adorable!

Recipe of the week: Au Gratin Potatoes

provided by our awesome sister-in-law, Jen Adair...

So, this probably isn't the healthiest recipe of all time, but it is all natural. It took some work to find a potato recipe without sour cream, cream of chicken soup and a whole lot of butter. And the best part, they are delicious with out all of that stuff!

4-5 Medium potatoes

1 onion or a bunch of green onions

salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. flour

2 c. milk

1 1/2 c. cheddar cheese

1. Slice potatoes and layer in a 9X13 dish (spray with cooking spray)

2. Layer sliced onions on top.

3. Melt butter in a saucepan, whisk in flour. Add milk and lastly cheese.

4. Pour mixture over potatoes

5. Bake at 400 for 45 minutes to 1 hour (till potatoes are soft)

Ingredients used: We use organic milk from Smith's marketplace, and I even used wheat flour for the recipe. We grated the cheese from a block, we found out that pre shredded cheese has additives to help it not to clump.

Unwelcome Perspective

I believe every strand and crook in the web of life is woven into an intricate pattern with perfect purpose and meaning. 

On Tuesday my sister and her husband arrived from California. All of my family, but Stan in Vietnam, was in Utah by Thursday. And in the middle of the workday, I don’t believe it was chance that my mom and cousin were at my office for a chat while Holly was hanging out with most of my other family when we got a bone chilling phone call from our sister-in-law in Provo. “Sam has collapsed and is being rushed to the hospital”. That’s all she knew at that moment and we were stunned as the memory flooded back of another call that came 4 years ago. The words were almost exactly the same. My younger brother Drew collapsed and died while running. It turned out he had a severe heart condition passed on from my dad. The following year, we were all tested for that same condition and Sam was tested positive and underwent surgery to have a defibrillator and pace maker implanted into his heart and chest. Its purpose is to restart his heart if it fails with a severe jolt of electricity sent from a small box under his skin. 

Nine months ago Sam got a letter in the mail from the defibrillator company stating that 2-3% of the leads (wires) that are implanted in people during the years he had his implanted were faulty. It was suggested that he not replace it as the surgery is more dangerous than the likelihood that the patient has one of those faulty leads. Afterall, there’s a 98% chance they don’t have one.

Well, it wasn’t exactly Sam’s lucky day this Thursday. He stepped onto the tennis court for a mild doctor-approved game of tennis with a friend and started hitting a few balls. He had previously explained his condition to his friend and said there is a very slight chance that his heart won’t be able to keep up and he’ll get faint, OR very rare instances where defibrillators will malfunction and send a shock similar to a horse kicking him in the chest. He explained that neither of the two are likely to happen, but just a warning. Good thing Parker had warning. He said he hit the ball to Sam and right as Sam was about to hit back, “it looked like an invisible horse kicked him in the chest and sent him flying into the air off his feet and onto his knees”. Parker knew exactly what had occurred. He ran over to Sam and although in severe pain and shock, Sam said “Call my wife, and if it happens again, call 911.” It happened again and sent Sam flying into his back. Sam was conscious and in his panic was asking himself if this thing was saving his life because his heart was failing or if it was malfunctioning and killing him. Unfortunately it was the latter. He started getting jolt after jolt in increasing voltage, as the defibrillator couldn’t sense a heartbeat (due to it’s malfunction) and so it ups the power and jolts the heart again. The defibrillator was going off every 20-30 seconds and was starting to inhibit his heart from getting the blood he needed, so his heart rate was dropping and he was becoming less coherent. He asked Parker for a blessing and suddenly the jolts stopped. 

He’s been in the hospital since and has a major (possibly open-heart) surgery scheduled for Monday. The surgeons need to go in and extract the faulty lead and implant a new device in place of the old one. This procedure is uncommon and there are multiple aspects through the process that make it a high risk surgery. This is all thanks to a poorly manufactured product that costs more than the average american makes in a year. 

We’re fasting and praying for him today and ask to keep him in your prayers as well. This is, as you see in the post title, an unwelcome opportunity for a new perspective. Although very unfortunate and unwelcome, it’s part of God’s elaborate plan. Without unwelcome  perspective, we’d become more and more blind, ungrateful, unappreciative, and so forth. It’s always painful, but what in life - that is worth gaining - doesn’t require resistance?

Happy Easter!

So, despite the cold weather and SNOW that came this week, Easter still came and we celebrated. It was a weekend filled with family - who could ask for more? We had small Easter egg hunts, delicious meals, and wonderful company to share them with.

On the Smorse side, we visited with Linda and Sasha, the Sam and Kristen, Ben and Stacey, Jenny and Tim, Laura and Sugata, and everyone's kids (plenty of good cousin bonding going on). It was great to see everyone!

On the Olsen side, we visited with Wade and Amber, Clay and Jen, Josie and Rick, and Kristen (whose husband is having the experience of a lifetime in NEPAL! Check out his blog postings as he documents the world-record Mt. Everest climb of Apa Sherpa for the next 2 months: http://apasherpa.net/blog/). Good times all around.

We are grateful to Wade and Amber for letting us come to their "farm" on the acre of land to experience true springtime-ness with their baby chicks, piglets, and pregnant goats! (see photos below). What a fun experience for the little ones! They loved it, and so did we. We really love getting our free-range organic eggs from them, and look forward to our share of the piglets (who will also be free-range and well-treated little animals ... their names are "ham" and "bacon" - I suppose so that it is very clear to the children what they will grow up to be!). We are all trying to eat more healthily in a way that is kind to animals and the environment. It's an adventure!

Recipe of the week:

Lemon Rice
(a great side-dish)

2 1/2 cups uncooked rice (preferably Jasmine or brown)
1 bunch of finely chopped green onions
1 lemon (use the peel for zest, and slice the rest in quarters)
3/4 tsp lemon pepper

*You may also add organic chicken broth or finely chopped zuchinni for variety

Place all ingredients into a rice cooker or equivalent.

Thanks for the recipe, Amber! (She made it up!)