Memories

Each day there is a moment where I miss NYC. Perhaps it's seeing a friend, running to Debbie & Lillian's to borrow something or to send the boys to say hello or show Lillian something, missing the beat of the city or the treats that we enjoyed there.  Thankfully --- we can recreate the latter.  The other things, we aren't really homesick for them, but there is a part in my heart that misses much of what was our life the past 2+ years.

Today, we must have all needed to do something about our NYC memories, as it seemed the afternoon was full of city trademarks right within our home way out here in the good ol' west.

To pay homage to the city that we just left we went all out & I made the copy-cat recipe for Banana Pudding (I call it Banana Mousse since it's SO thick!) from the one and only (well, not the only one as there are quite a few in the city!)....MAGNOLIA BAKERY

Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding (Mousse) Recipe

1 package instant vanilla pudding
1 1/2 cups cold water
1-14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
3 cups heavy cream
1 box Nilla wafers
4 ripe bananas

Put vanilla pudding mix in a bowl. Whisk in water and sweetened condensed milk. Once it's whisked together, refrigerate for at least 15-30 minutes, preferably an hour.

Whip cream with an electric mixer until it gets soft peaks. Fold the cream into the pudding base.  Be sure to mix completely so there are no more yellow streaks.

Slice up bananas. Arrange1/3 of Nilla wafers along the bottom of a pan or bowl (I like to make mine in a deep glass bowl we got for our wedding - it's almost like a Trifle bowl so that you can see the layers) and then top with half of the bananas. Top with half of the pudding mixture. Top with another 3rd of your Nilla wafers and the rest of your bananas. Put the rest of the pudding on top and then crush the remaining Nilla wafers until they're a powder and sprinkle over the finished pudding.

Cover with plastic wrap, keep in the fridge for at least 4-6 hours.  I just learned with this 2nd time of making it....that it really is that much better when it gets almost 12 hours to set....I'm eating the left-overs now and I like the consistency that the wafers have become with how long it has sat in the fridge to soften them up.  Oh this is divine --- it's almost scary that I know how to make it, as now I can have it anytime when in the city it would be a rare treat when I'd let myself stop and get this nectar of the gods! 

I had started the pudding the night before, however Madeleine & Bryson were so excited to help me finish making it, and then Bryson Jr. talked me into making Black & White cookies.  To make a long story somewhat short :)  I went in on Friday to his class as he had been Friend of the Week in his class.  I had already done a presentation just about Bryson on Wednesday - showing pictures and the two of us told about who he was and what he liked.  On Friday I got to go in again, and this time he and I did a presentation on what it's like to live in NYC.  We had talked about making the Black & White cookies to share with his class so earlier this week I had collected all the ingredients and then Thursday came along and it was a crazy day -- our van windshield wipers has stopped working when I was driving to get Jacob from school and it was pouring rain!  The older kids and I had to pull over and Bryson left work to pick up Jacob and pick us up so that we could run him back to work and then drive home.  We were off-schedule, cranky and the timing was not working in the first place to make the cookies...so that by 8pm when I started to finally pull things out and realized I didn't even have a cookie sheet (mine were old & nasty so I threw them out when we moved)....I just figured I'd find some at a local bakery and serve those to Bryson's class.

Bryson had really wanted to make these cookies for his class with me - that boy loves to cook!  As we have church from 9am - 12noon we had most of the afternoon to bake and play games...so after the pudding was finished we started on the specialty of almost every deli or bakery in the city, the famous
Black & Whites! 

And a funny part to this story - I found the Black & White recipe while browsing many magazine articles while at Dr. Lord's office (the Dentist Dr. Lord the first week we had moved here).  I came across the recipe and wondered why I hadn't tried them before - which I know why as our kitchen was so small in the city I really gave up most fun cooking...but now, with a kitchen that I can actually work in I knew I'd have to try these.  


I pulled out my iphone and took a few photos of the recipe, which I told this story when we got to Nana & Papa Lord's house for Sunday dinner when someone asked where I'd found the recipe.  Papa Lord laughed and said that was the difference between our generations - he would have asked for a photo copy of the recipe, Nana said she'd probably have written it down by hand & I pulled out the phone to take a picture....I wonder what trajectory path our children are on....will there be some gadget that can produce the item on the spot?  Probably not, but I'm sure it will exceed what I did in "copying" the recipe down.  

I made a few tweaks in the recipe - I doubled the recipe and even then I don't think it made near the amount I had expected.  I need to get a cookie scoop so that I can get even amounts for each mound.  The spoon worked fine, however some of my edges were really scraggly and it would be nice to have more of the moon look of a perfect circle for these cookies.  Also, I put a little more lemon zest into the batter...probably by just 1/4 tsp. but I liked how it picked up the lemon flavor and then also I squeezed fresh lemon juice into the white frosting mixture as it tasted too much like powdered sugar.  I didn't measure, but I'm guessing 1/2 - 1 tsp. of lemon juice according to what your palette likes.  

The frosting takes awhile, so listen to music you like or bake with someone that you want to catch up with and enjoy talking because you'll be there for some time frosting these cookies!  The key is to do the white first - if you have time let it set up and then do the chocolate....we didn't have time so we did them at the same time and I was surprised how well the dividing line worked between the vanilla & chocolate.  There was no problem  with that - the only issue was that the frosting hardens up rather quickly so I made it in 1/2 batches or someone else on a blog I read put a little butter in hers which kept the frosting smooth and easy to work with.

Either way - these are delicious cookies that are enjoyed....the biggest question is how you'll eat them?  White first - or black first - or trying to get the perfect mix of black & white in every cookie (this last one is attributed to Jerry Seinfield in one his episodes, which I'd love to find....the classic episodes (meaning the clean ones) are so true to living in the city, Bryson and I laugh with new appreciation for that show!

While we were busy making the cookies, Jacob had taken our last game of Blokus and turned it into his art masterpiece where he created his version of The Empire State Buildling (the building is in red, blue clouds in the sky and then some trees or the playground (at Madison Square Park) is on the left. It looks like in the eyes of a child the tallest parts of a playground are close to that of the tallest building in NYC!

We had a fun afternoon enjoying time together, and making some memories of our time in NYC.  We are definitely enjoying many of the perks of living in a home, and being by family - however it's nice to give into memories and recreate things we loved about one of the great places we have lived.  

I'll make a list/post soon of all the things we love about the changes and the things we do miss.....as I said we are more than grateful to be here, and yet at the same time We Love NYC!  

Sparkles

Jacob just came out from his bed & I was waiting for whatever new tactic he has to get out of going to sleep.

He sat on the couch and started to fidget & when I asked if he needed to go to the bathroom he jumped up and started banging his foot on the ground.

"Is your foot asleep Jacob?" I asked

"No!", he said, "I just have sparkles!"

Sparkles - such a better name for having your foot asleep. Why don't kiddos invent more words?!

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Author's Note:

Our home has a similar layout on the first floor as we did in our apartment - I'll take pictures eventually but imagine you walk in the front door and immediately is the living area and off to the left is the Master Bedroom with a small hallway and the upstairs bath and Jacob's bedroom at the end of the hallway...it's only a few steps from the Front Room :) I immediately felt so comfortable in this home on the walk through and since then everything has felt like it's in the right place. I love that it's similar enough to what we had in NY so the transition was easy, but it has a basement and doubled the square footage. What a great bonus!)

Now on to the story:

Jacob is now in his bed and trying to talk to Bryson & I out in the Living Room.

"Dad - do you have to go to work in New York tomorrow?"

"No buddy, I'm here working. "

"That's great! Dad, I like you here working."

.....I'm not sure that Jacob fully comprehends that we have moved

here and that we aren't moving back to NY. However, he does get that we have seen Bryson/Dad more in the past 3 weeks than we did in a few months back in the city.

That is indeed really great!

Merry Christmas!

It's been a month since my last post, which I very much dislike not posting more regularly....however our life has gone from the every day busy & crazy to all out, over-drive crazy!

We are moving to SLC, Utah in 5 days - we are packing the POD in 4 days. Life right now is in a holding pattern of Christmas magic for at least two days as we enjoyed a Christmas Eve & Christmas without packing any boxes. It was wonderful to just focus on the children and this important holiday - that was the deal from the beginning of last week when Bryson came home with an offer after his trip to Salt Lake. We talked about possibilities - he needs to work on January 3rd, but should I just stay here with the children while he travels back and forth, should we all just make the move & be ready for the New Year in a new state? We decided to take the opportunity to just jump - I've realized with our moves that whatever time frame we have, we'll take the full amount right up to the end in getting ready, saying goodbyes and preparing in whatever way we can on the moving side. There was no need to wait anylonger --- we knew that this NYC chapter is closing and it's time to open a new chapter in our life.

We have many feelings about this move and change at this time - excitement, sadness, anxiousness & relief....finding a job right now has been a huge blessing and we are really grateful that this job fits so many of the points Bryson wanted.

I have more thoughts - so many more & I didn't even touch on the drama and craze that was the PTA the last two weeks. It wouldn't be the school & PTA if I wasn't living in the middle of one of the most craziest times in that organization that I have every seen! I have told everyone I am writing a book on this experience there - I think it will mix the genres of comedy and tragedy, and it will be epic. I am not kidding when I say that many of us have stood with our mouths open many times this year at some of the scenes playing out, knowing that they can't write day-time drama like this....it's too real and golden for something to think this up!

As much as I want to write now - I need to pack. I'll continue to mull over my thoughts and feelings and get them ready to write down when I have some time after our move. We aren't sure quite yet where we will be living - we will stay with my mom and look for a home to rent in that area....because true to our life this adventure will most likely pave way to the next adventure which would be that we move to Logan with this company in the summertime. We were in shock when we heard that the owner of the company wanted to relocated up to Logan in about 6 months - however, the thought has really grown on us and if that is where we are to be than we will go there.

We are grateful that prayers were answered, and doors have continually be opened as we are preparing to move. We have been blessed and we know that we are watched over. We are thankful that the Lord has been mindful of our prayers and the prayers of our loved family & friends on our behalf. Those experiences as well will be written down - until then we will be packing, moving & trying to settled and unpack in a new place.

It has been the most wonderful and definitely the busiest time of the year!

very thankful

It might sound very materialistic...but today one of the greatest things I am thankful for is my wedding ring. I love it for all it symbolizes...however, I just love IT. And for having it back.

I haven't been able to find it for over a week. I went to put my ring on last week, and could only find my wedding band in my jewelry case. I looked through the little boxes where my other jewelry is housed, thinking I had dropped it into the wrong area. It wasn't there. I thought it might be in the car, up front where I dropped it into a water holder when I was putting lotion on my hands after church - however, I finally drove somewhere yesterday and the ring was not in the car like I hoped.

I asked Bryson (Sr.) if he were planning some surprise with my ring, and had taken it out to SL with him last week - that was about the last time I had seen it. He promised he hadn't - and I was partially relieved, but then frantic because I had no idea where my ring was. I offered the children $10 if they could find my ring. Where was it?!

Today, as the children were helping me to put up the Christmas decorations - they found a set of boxes that I have which stack inside each other and they decided to play a game where they put a treasure in the smallest box, and make someone open larger boxes first, then smaller sizes until they get down to a box that is jewelry size. I overhead Jacob getting excited about his turn to find something special to put in the boxes & then he turned them over to Madeleine to open.

She opened and opened and then I heard her say, "Jacob, where did you find a ring like Mom's? Is this a play ring?" I thought he had perhaps taken a play ring which I did have and put into the garbage last week and so I came over to their play over slowly - but then when I saw the ring Madeleine was holding, I exclaimed, "That IS the ring - that is my real ring!" I was so happy and a bit frustrated at the same time - where had Jacob had my ring?! I asked him, and he told me that he loved my ring so much, he had taken it and put it into his drawer. I tried not to think how easily it could have been lost by this point - but thankfully it wasn't lost and now the entire situation was figured out and I put my ring back on and gave Jacob a hug and also a reminder NOT to touch Mommy's jewelry! I gave him a $1 since the ring was returned....I just didn't realize I would be paying the person that had taken the ring in the first place!

Thanksgiving Day - Part I

Thanksgiving is brought to our family this year in 2 parts....Day 1 and Day 2. This option was given to us due to the fact that our family is sick. Again. and STILL! There is nothing like feeling and being sick to help you realize how thankful you are for good health!

We have been sick since Sunday - the crazy day when Bryson and I were sick, and Jacob was throwing up (see post from that day) and then Madeleine had the stomach bug on Tuesday night - we had everyone stay home from school on Wednesday as the coughing was going strong, and we hoped to have it clear the system so we could enjoy the parade, dinner and all the parts of a Thanksgiving celebration.

I went out last night to buy all the things for our dinner - yes it was the night before Thanksgiving and I was out trying to find food....I don't recommend that again, and yet with being in an apartment it's hard to buy food too much earlier! I was worried I had missed the chance for a turkey, as the grocery store I went to first was out, I called Costco to see if I could run by there to buy one - and they were out! I drove home by a different grocery store, and thankfully they had a few birds left. I had no idea turkeys could sell out! When I came home, the kiddos were busying to get ready for bed, excited to be up early so we could go to the parade. After they were in bed, Bryson and I were up talking and then started to pack up backpacks and getting out chairs for the parade. We decided on a plan to have him take Madeleine and stake out a place, and then the boys and I would follow a little bit after. We decided to have our Thanksgiving Dinner on Friday, so that we wouldn't have to worry about getting up even earlier to start the dinner, or to hurry home to finish it up....one event each day with how sick we all were sounded fine - and realistic.

Game plans are nice ideas - I'm just wondering if they work better on other families, because rarely do we actually do the plan that we talk about. Bryson work up feeling worse than the day before (he has some major swelling to his face, where the Dr. thought a saliva gland was clogged and a sinus infection - he gets at least one a year and they are terrible!) and so he decided to stay home and sleep in as the boys did not want to get up either....and I got up and went to the parade with Madeleine.

We left the house a little before 9am - there was no way at this time we would get great seats, let alone good standing room. We knew we'd probably not get close to the front at all, but we just wanted to see some of the balloons and check off from our bucket list that we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And now that we've been - I have to say that seeing it from home is SO much better! You get better views, you don't have to wander down the maze of NYC streets trying to figure out which are closed and which are open, and you aren't standing behind crowds that are about 10 people deep to catch a view of the parade!

The best view we had of the parade was a fluke - we hopped off the subway at 57th Street and walked over to 7th Avenue where the parade was coming down & after going up and down the street twice, we ended up on the walkway part of the sidewalk, where the police officers were insistent that people continue to walk - there was no standing! That is we couldn't stand until we got caught at the red light (there were letting the traffic cross in between times of the parade) and we waited there for the light and had the best view of the balloons and floats that were coming by.

It was hard to have to move on (yet there wasn't any choice with so many NYPD officers hovering over), when I had the feeling that we wouldn't get quite the same view at another spot....and I was right. We tried walking down multiple streets and we could not get close to the parade again....sometimes we were back about 1/4 of the block - like here...thankfully the zoom on the camera got a better view than we did!

We did think that this balloon of the world was so cool - it looked like it was just floating through the streets and that there were no strings attached. We loved this one!

We finally made our way over to Columbus Circle and went inside the Time Warner building, to see if we could catch a glimpse of the parade from upstairs...which the view wasn't close, but it was a very unique view!

I love these glass stars that hang from the ceiling - at night they light up into different colors for a light show to music - we need to come back at night to see the entire show, yet they are still magnificent hanging from the atrium ceiling at any time of day!

This was a piece of artwork on the top floor that Madeleine and I loved. It has major places from around the city printed over each other - it was fun to stop and see which places we love that we could find!

After we viewed the parade from all 3 stories and realized we just didn't get the view we wanted, we went downstairs to the basement to get a hot chocolate from Whole Foods. That set us back about 40 minutes, as the machines broke while we were there and they were trying to serve about 30 people their hot drinks and it was CHAOTIC! By the time we got back outside, we saw the end of Kermit going down 59th Street....

And then we saw the little Macy's men floating along which signaled the coming of....

Santa Clause! Thankfully there was a steel post near us that opened up, so Madeleine was able to stand on it to get a better view & we watched the jolly old man wave to the crowd and shout out 'Merry Christmas'!...at least I assume that is what he was shouting, we weren't actually close enough to hear him, so it could have been 'Ho, Ho, Ho!' as well :)

After we saw the Believe balloons floating by, people turned and started to walk past us, which meant finally the front of the parade route was finally open! Madeleine and I boogied right up to the gates and positioned ourselves where everyone had left & then I looked around....everyone was moving - what was going on? It took me just a few moments to realize between everyone moving away from the parade and no more floats or balloons or people walking along the parade route....that it was done. What?! I suppose the 40 minutes spent getting a hot chocolate had something to do with that!

Although the event did not go exactly like I had thought or we had planned....that is life. We have realized with a bit of a laugh, relief at lowering some expectations and perhaps a tinge of sadness with letting some ideas go to the wayside - someone(s) in our family is usually sick during most holidays. And unfortunately, with a day like today - having a glitch in the idea is hard because you can't really recreate the event next week, or month....it's a yearly thing! We have made our bucket list of things we really want to do here in NYC, and because our time here might be trickling down if a job offer comes through - we are working to get our items checked off in case there isn't a next year option for us. Just in case :)

We did miss the boys, yet it was nice to have some time with just Madeleine and myself....and it was a lot easier cruising through the crowds with just the two of us. Bryson doesn't have a lot of patience for crowds & the way I work to get to the "perfect" spot - the way Madeleine and I moved locations the entire time we were at the parade would not have bode very well...and the boys can get a little crazy (all the time) - so as much as they were missed, perhaps in the end we each did what we all really like to do.

And now we can say CHECK off for the Macy's Day Parade. And just a note - it is worth it to do it once. Once was great. And other years are really great watching it on the couch, and seeing everything close up.

Happy 1st Day of Thanksgiving ----

and tomorrow we will have Celebration Take 2!

kiss & tell

After Jacob gave me multiple kisses on the cheek - he looked at me and said,

"I give you so many kisses, maybe I'll marry you Mommy!"

I love this boy's tender heart!

better than the movies

You know when you watch a movie, and they show a scene where everything is so upside down and topsy-turvy and crazy that it's not really possible? Or, really it is possible - and you laugh knowing you could live out a scene like that at your house?

We had those scenes today - straight out of the best comedy ever, in fact better than the best comedy because it was real, and you can't script real life like this!

The day didn't start out very funny, in fact it was pathetic waking up feeling like your body was a piece of lead. Our throats hurt, nose was stuffy, head hurt and in all the kiddos colds from this week came crashing in all at once. The children were up and Madeleine had even gotten ready for church on her own....when Bryson and I realized we were so sick we couldn't get ourselves to church. I called our neighbors, and they were willing to have Madeleine go into church with them, and then she'd come home with another family that lives in the neighboring building. I tried to go back to bed, but the boys were anxiously engaged in battling things out and I stumbled out to the couch while Bryson Sr. slept for a few hours.

A little while after the boys had some breakfast (the mommy award this morning was letting everyone get their own cereal), Jacob was laying on the floor watching a show (okay that was the 2nd mommy award) and looked up at me telling me his head hurt. Then his tummy hurt. Suddenly he was dancing around and saying he needed to throw up - so we ran down to the bathroom and up came breakfast. I was blown away - no fever, he had been feeling better from his cold, but throughout the day everything came up from his little tummy and nothing was staying down.

The highlight to the sickness came during late afternoon, when we were trying to get dinner cooked, and still working on writing assignments for Madeleine & Bryson to be turned in tomorrow. Jacob started his dance around, he seriously dislikes going down the hallway to the bathroom alone (we don't have a large place, so I'm still not sure why he dislikes the hallway so much!), and suddenly he decided to run down the hallway which was the signal that this was serious! I heard the splatter of Gatorade hitting the floor and right after Bryson Sr. ran down the hallway and then I heard them both turning back towards the kitchen and that is when I saw a fountain shooting out of Jacob's mouth and then a few seconds later they were at the kitchen sink where I hoped there would be less clean-up than the previous two spots.

It turned out, that Jacob threw-up most of the liquid in the hallway and then when Bryson scooped him up, there was a 2nd surge that came up and that was what came pouring out and hit the wall and went all over the kitchen floor. It was the craziest 2 minutes we've had in our house in a long time....and of course the clean-up was about 100 times as long!

After that was cleaned up, dinner was eaten and we were moving onto the next phase of the night - Bryson Jr. came up to me and told me he wanted to act out a funny joke he had seen on America's Funniest Home Videos. He had a rubber band in hand, and was going to jimmy rig the water sprayer attached to the kitchen sink to try and trick Bryson Sr. I told him this might not be the night to play this joke - we'd already had a lot of cleaning up to do, and another time would be better to laugh at this joke. I didn't stay the course to find out what he was doing, as I was finishing up editing Madeleine's writing. However, I figured out about 20 minutes later what Bryson Jr. had ended up deciding to do ---- I went in to the kitchen and needed to rinse something off when I turned on the water and a different kind of fountain than before came shooting out of the kitchen sprayer, right past me, and onto the fridge where all my papers were completely soaked! I turned off the water and started to laugh - turning to Bryson Jr. who had come running into the kitchen when he heard my cry of surprise. He was laughing, and it helped me to remember to laugh through the moment...because it really was funny, and thankfully I didn't get wet....my papers were soaked but thankfully there was nothing super important.

We went on to wrap-up the night, and I popped into the kitchen to get Jacob a drink of water after another throw-up incident, when I turned on the water and got a shot of water right on my arm! That little turkey had rigged the water sprayer up again - AND I fell for it again!

In a way it was nice to find the comic relief in the situations of today - having most of us sick, and stuck inside a tiny apartment had some moments of disaster. However, when looking at the big picture I realized that there are my 'I Love Lucy' episodes on a daily basis, and it really is so much better to laugh about things than cry, or pout, or whine, or get upset. Still learning on this - but hopefully it's an uphill progression in learning :)