... that makes my diabetes want to destroy me. I'll try not to let it this time, but spending approximately 90% of the last 48 hours with a blood sugar above 250 kind of gets me down. The real problem is that I have no energy or motivation to do anything. Anybody know someone with a spare pancreas?
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
New hours, or Elijah's prophecy coming true
In the past few weeks, I have discovered an amazing new thing: there are extra hours in the day! 4:30-8:00 am is not a myth! Wow. Seriously a revelation.
So, I've been going to sleep earlier and getting up earlier - usually I'm in bed by 9 (!) and up before 5. It's awesome! I don't have to work through being tired, I don't late-night binge, the apartment is quiet while I do my homework, and I'm late to class less often!
Also, I'm turning into my grandpa.
This leads me to think of a whole new meaning of the prophecy of Elijah, of children turning their hearts to their fathers. Since coming to college I have discovered that my parents were right about a lot of things that I always thought they were mistaken about.
Here is a list of things I've learned from my parents and now do:
Getting up early and going to bed early
Keeping my fingernails short (otherwise you clack in class, and nobody likes a clacker)
Make the bed (for pictures...)
Save money (yes, I totally have gold bars stored under my bed)
Eat a healthy breakfast every morning (wait, what?)
Exercise often (or at least take pictures when you do)
Keep receipts (and file them when your purse starts overflowing)
And other things I have learned but am still working on implementing:
Keeping up is easier than catching up (otherwise you end up feeling like this at 3 am)
It's good to clean your room occasionally
You don't really need that many shoes
And things I'm still not sure they've figured out, but which I will probably admit I was wrong about a few years down the road:
You can have bad handwriting and still be awesome
Flip flops are great!
Sweats are the best!
Fiction rules the world
Anyways, still learning. I can't wait to corrupt my own children.
So, I've been going to sleep earlier and getting up earlier - usually I'm in bed by 9 (!) and up before 5. It's awesome! I don't have to work through being tired, I don't late-night binge, the apartment is quiet while I do my homework, and I'm late to class less often!
Also, I'm turning into my grandpa.
This leads me to think of a whole new meaning of the prophecy of Elijah, of children turning their hearts to their fathers. Since coming to college I have discovered that my parents were right about a lot of things that I always thought they were mistaken about.
Here is a list of things I've learned from my parents and now do:
Getting up early and going to bed early
Keeping my fingernails short (otherwise you clack in class, and nobody likes a clacker)
Save money (yes, I totally have gold bars stored under my bed)
Keep receipts (and file them when your purse starts overflowing)
And other things I have learned but am still working on implementing:
Keeping up is easier than catching up (otherwise you end up feeling like this at 3 am)
It's good to clean your room occasionally
You don't really need that many shoes
And things I'm still not sure they've figured out, but which I will probably admit I was wrong about a few years down the road:
You can have bad handwriting and still be awesome
Flip flops are great!
Sweats are the best!
Fiction rules the world
Food processors are essential to life
Anyways, still learning. I can't wait to corrupt my own children.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Wow, it's been a while!
Thank you for waiting so patiently for this post. I apologize for how long it's been. I will try to keep this short, and update more frequently! (Update: the short thing didn't work too well. Maybe next time.) First, a Christmas recap.
Christmas was wonderful. We stayed home for most of it, making food, playing games, watching movies, and having a lovely time. The three girls made the annual trip down to Manteca to finish up Christmas shopping, and while we were there we picked up the best present of the day - Grandma Houghton! She stayed for about two weeks, although sadly I wasn't there for the last half-week or so. That reminds me- we had Uncle Chris and Aunt Kristen over for the first few days of break, and they were wonderful houseguests. It was fun to see them, too. They were great contributors to the weekly family ping-pong tournament; boy did we have some hustling going on!
In the week leading up to Christmas, we made truffles - mint, raspberry, orange, and cherry. I think I'm missing a few, but oh well. My mom's truffles are the BEST. I love them. We also went to see Tangled, which is probably my first-favorite fairytale, contrary to what some may think. It is super-cute, and heads-up for next birthday, I want a copy of Tangled and a cast iron frying pan. Oh yeah.
The day before Christmas Eve, the high schoolers had a crazy party. We were busy all day making appetizers and desserts - not something I'm likely to complain about :) I also got to go grocery shopping with Dad. With my love of grocery shopping, it shouldn't surprise you that I had a marvelous time with him.
I really had a wonderful time catching up with the family this Christmas, especially Mom and Dad. I really love you guys, you know. It was fun to see how everyone had progressed, although a bit sad to know that I've missed so much!
On Christmas Eve, we went caroling in our Victorian masks, which is always fun. That is one of the few pictures I have of all of us, because Dad put it up on facebook. :)
On Christmas Eve we also made tea rings (very similar to cinnamon rolls, but more beautiful), and took them + gingerbread cookies + other assorted treats to the people we visited. It was mostly an effort by Dad, Mom, and Grandma. Next year I'm going to help more. We also made eggnog rolls, which I love. I did help with those, and I need to get the recipe and pictures so that I can post them on my food blog.
On Christmas morning things went as usual, if a bit more orderly than in years past, due to increased age of the youngest few... :) We had our family friend Julie over, and it was wonderful to see her. She has since moved to England, which makes me very sad. She knows me quite well, and she gave me a beautiful length of silk for Christmas, as well as leaving me many of her kitchen supplies when she moved. I miss her already!
For Christmas, Santa Claus gave us some family gifts. Sadly, I don't have the picture of us all wearing our new swim caps and goggles. But here's a picture of the matching Land's End vests (picked out when they were on sale in November... :)
For the next week, Dad was off work and we were all at home together all week. I LOVED it. One of my favorite things in the world is just spending time with family. During that time, we took our first family pictures in ten years and I spent some much-needed quality time with my dear Tess, the only really faithful blog-reader I have besides Mom (*sniff* she is just so wonderful).
We had the traditional New Year's Eve appetizer party, which featured homemade focaccia, leftover black bean and mulligatawny soup, bacon-wrapped dates, cocktail sausages (when Mom says we have cocktail sausages, you'd better believe we have COCKTAIL SAUSAGES), crackers with my homemade jalapeno jelly (from October!), and pomegranate punch. We had other things too, but I can't remember what... :) The middle kids went to a church dance in Modesto and Dad, Grandma, and I had Dungeness crab. And guess what? I actually liked it! Enough that I even learned to crack open the crab on my own to get to the meat. Whoa. It was pretty much awesome.
On Saturday morning, I had a train to catch at 11:30 in Sacramento. Mom packed me a wonderful lunch/dinner and then I drove down with Dad and Grandma. We went for a walk along the river when we arrived an hour early, and then I had to catch the train. The fact that I met an old friend from girls' camp at the station and we sat together held me together, but it sure was hard to say goodbye to everybody and go back to Utah!
We got into SLC at 4:30, and I drove back to Utah in 5 degree weather, exhausted beyond belief. In spite of my best efforts I slept through church and had to go to another ward's sacrament meeting at 12. Ah well. The only problem was, that night I discovered that school didn't start until Tuesday! I could have left a day later! Sad story, but it's probably good that I had a day + to unpack, grocery shop, and sleep. Anyways, that was Christmas. I'm still sad that it's over. You should all email me or comment so I don't feel so un-familial-ized! I love you all!
<3
Eliza
Christmas was wonderful. We stayed home for most of it, making food, playing games, watching movies, and having a lovely time. The three girls made the annual trip down to Manteca to finish up Christmas shopping, and while we were there we picked up the best present of the day - Grandma Houghton! She stayed for about two weeks, although sadly I wasn't there for the last half-week or so. That reminds me- we had Uncle Chris and Aunt Kristen over for the first few days of break, and they were wonderful houseguests. It was fun to see them, too. They were great contributors to the weekly family ping-pong tournament; boy did we have some hustling going on!
In the week leading up to Christmas, we made truffles - mint, raspberry, orange, and cherry. I think I'm missing a few, but oh well. My mom's truffles are the BEST. I love them. We also went to see Tangled, which is probably my first-favorite fairytale, contrary to what some may think. It is super-cute, and heads-up for next birthday, I want a copy of Tangled and a cast iron frying pan. Oh yeah.
The day before Christmas Eve, the high schoolers had a crazy party. We were busy all day making appetizers and desserts - not something I'm likely to complain about :) I also got to go grocery shopping with Dad. With my love of grocery shopping, it shouldn't surprise you that I had a marvelous time with him.
I really had a wonderful time catching up with the family this Christmas, especially Mom and Dad. I really love you guys, you know. It was fun to see how everyone had progressed, although a bit sad to know that I've missed so much!
On Christmas Eve, we went caroling in our Victorian masks, which is always fun. That is one of the few pictures I have of all of us, because Dad put it up on facebook. :)
 |
| Not the best picture, but that's what I've got. You get the idea. |
 |
| Dad holding the tea rings, and Grandma in the background! When they're done, the tea rings are much bigger. They're decorated with glaze and chopped maraschino cherries. We eat them every year on Christmas morning. Yum. |
For Christmas, Santa Claus gave us some family gifts. Sadly, I don't have the picture of us all wearing our new swim caps and goggles. But here's a picture of the matching Land's End vests (picked out when they were on sale in November... :)
 |
| Where's Dad? |
 |
| Also, Levi got shot in the eye. I told him he shouldn't have given Dad new nerf bullets for Christmas... |
 |
| And finally, all of us with classic books from Grandma. I got my favorite - Jane Eyre! |
We had the traditional New Year's Eve appetizer party, which featured homemade focaccia, leftover black bean and mulligatawny soup, bacon-wrapped dates, cocktail sausages (when Mom says we have cocktail sausages, you'd better believe we have COCKTAIL SAUSAGES), crackers with my homemade jalapeno jelly (from October!), and pomegranate punch. We had other things too, but I can't remember what... :) The middle kids went to a church dance in Modesto and Dad, Grandma, and I had Dungeness crab. And guess what? I actually liked it! Enough that I even learned to crack open the crab on my own to get to the meat. Whoa. It was pretty much awesome.
On Saturday morning, I had a train to catch at 11:30 in Sacramento. Mom packed me a wonderful lunch/dinner and then I drove down with Dad and Grandma. We went for a walk along the river when we arrived an hour early, and then I had to catch the train. The fact that I met an old friend from girls' camp at the station and we sat together held me together, but it sure was hard to say goodbye to everybody and go back to Utah!
We got into SLC at 4:30, and I drove back to Utah in 5 degree weather, exhausted beyond belief. In spite of my best efforts I slept through church and had to go to another ward's sacrament meeting at 12. Ah well. The only problem was, that night I discovered that school didn't start until Tuesday! I could have left a day later! Sad story, but it's probably good that I had a day + to unpack, grocery shop, and sleep. Anyways, that was Christmas. I'm still sad that it's over. You should all email me or comment so I don't feel so un-familial-ized! I love you all!
<3
Eliza
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