A Tale of Two Parties

I LOVE throwing parties. It might be more fun than eating chocolate and watching chick flicks.

MIGHT.

I think I inherited my love for party throwing from my two grandmothers. I grew up loving to attend parties in both of their homes. Their styles are very different, but equally enjoyable. Grannie Gates still throws large scale classy, multi-course dinner parties for 20+ people at the age of 80. Pretty impressive! Grandma Celesta (Dailey) throws anything from bonfire/wiener roast parties in the back yard, to tail-gait parties on the mountain, to huge breakfast parties that would not be complete without homemade biscuits and gravy and eggs cooked in bacon grease. YUMMMM. They BOTH throw amazing parties, and they are both known far and wide for their hostessing skills.

Following on in a great tradition, I have gathered lots of ideas over the years, and have enjoyed throwing all kinds of parties from barn dances and pool parties in the summer, (complete with jaws projected on the big screen), to creatively themed birthday or holiday parties in the winter and everything in between. It is something I just love to do! Here are two of the most recent:

Party #1-
As mentioned in a previous post, Otto, Elijah and I drove home to Colfax the middle of October, and spent the weekend with my family. Because it was my parents' 30th wedding anniversary, Laura, Grandma Celesta and I put on a production that did our best to mimic the original event from 30 years before. Here's how it turned out:

 Their wedding colors were red white and blue, since those are the french colors. Their wedding dinner was based around a french theme, since they both served missions in France, both speak french, and went on their honeymoon to France. So, Grandma bought a large bouquet of red roses for the table, with blue ribbon draped around the base.

Red Tablecloths, white plates, blue ribbon, red menus written in French and English.

Baskets with apples and cheese (copied from pictures of the original dinner) 

Notice the french flags my sister made. Those were our addition, not from the original dinner.

Blue Ribbon with pictures from the original wedding and dinner hung up. Specifically as many pictures as we could find of the food and decorations from the wedding dinner. 

French bread (with the flag again) which was the item of food responsible for me nearly chopping my finger off.

Photo album from the wedding displayed (courtesy of Grandma Celesta)

Grandma's "Cremebouche", a fancy french desert that they served at their wedding dinner. Doesn't it look delicious? It was.

The moment of arrival... first with mom, then dad following. I love this picture of my dad... rarely do you catch him in such a candid moment. He looks thoroughly surprised in this picture! (Note: do you love how I am holding pressure to my bandaged finger that I had just sliced to pieces? Otto tried to convince me to go to the ER, which I later did, but don't EVER ask me to miss out on a good party, especially when it's one I've planned.) 

 

 After a dinner of apples and cheese, french bread, three variations of quiche, and cremebouche for desert, we went to the ER. After THAT... we gathered in the living room, sang a song that was sung at their wedding dinner, had a short discussion where each child and in-law shared thoughts on how mom and dad's marriage has affected our marriages, or our desires for future marriages, and what fond memories we have of mom and dad's marriage/relationship over the years. Ben, Shayla and Robin had all written down their thoughts and sent them, so they could also be a part of the evening. We closed with a slide show that I had made for their 25th anniversary five years ago, that I had added onto for this occasion. It was a wonderful evening, and I think Mom and Dad were genuinely pleased, touched, and surprised.

Happy 30th Anniversary Mom and Dad! Here's to another great 30 years to come! 

Party #2:

The 3rd Annual Shill Family Halloween Party!!!

Decorations:

Halloween lights on the mantle...

Orange balloons with black ribbon, tied down to half pint jars full of candy corn.

 

Witch hat cookies

Lime Sherbet/7up punch garnished with oranges, limes, raspberries, and dry ice of course...

Cute little napkins for only one dollar!

Pumpkin bread bowls to serve the soup in!
Dinner consisted of: Corn/Potato/Veggie Chowder and/or Potato Soup in bread bowls. Green Salad, and Punch. 

Otto hard at work helping me get ready (while I took pictures of course)

The guests:

Dave and Melissa... possibly one of my favorite costumes of the night!

Greg and Lisa- Can you tell Greg is an Aggies fan?

Nate and Windolyn, and their little cowgirl and cow! So cute!

Jon and Kristin- GREAT costumes!

Not pictured are James and Ashley, and Bret and Laura who came later.

The Games:

Bobbing for apples (in our kitchen sink) was Otto's idea. (Of course). Poor Dave... he just looks defeated in this picture. In fact, I'm not sure he even had a chance to get his head wet. Ha! Go Melissa!!!!

Poor Otto... losing to an eight year old....

...and to Greg......

Third time's the charm! GO OTTO!

Did I bob for apples? Of course not.

Once everyone's heads were soaked, we moved on to a more civil game that entailed a combination of charades, and taboo. Much fun and many laughs:

We wrapped up the evening with a dessert of spice pumpkin cake and hot apple cider. The perfect dessert for a fall holiday.

But of course the highlight of the night was my little Eli:

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!!

We're going to Medical School!!!!

Last Thursday, October 13th, 2011, Otto submitted applications to medical school. While it felt like that submit button was a long time in coming, looking back at the last year, it is really quite amazing what he has accomplished.

Last October at this time Otto was submitting applications to MBA programs. In the course of one short year, he made a decision, took 9 core science pre-requisites and respective labs, built up dozens of hours in shadowing, volunteering, research, and leadership in every club on campus. In addition, he studied for, and took the MCAT, and somehow had time for his wife and brand new baby. Ten months after a final decision was made, he put in his applications. Who does that? Who pulls that off? My Otto.

So here we are... living the charmed life. And it hasn't been for a lack of hard work, challenge, fatigue, doubt and fear. None of that is close to over; in fact we're diving into the deep part, head first. But the charmed part comes from overcoming all of that together, and looking forward to great challenging things ahead.

This week I created a fun way for us to track our progress. It also seems to be a necessary part because keeping track of 22 schools and a 5 step process is quite the challenge. Our living room decor has now changed slightly to include:

The process is long and consists of several components including Primary and Secondary applications, interviews, etc. Matriculation rate to any given school averages about 1% of total applications.

It's incredibly competitive, as it should be. Now we can only trust the many evidences we have that we have been directed this route, and that we will end up where we are supposed to end up.

That doesn't mean it isn't fun to speculate...

Choosing 22 out of 130 something schools was one of the most difficult time consuming process I have ever been through. At the end of the day, here is our final list: (If you can't read it above)
1. Boston University
2. Drexel University (in PA)
3. Hoffstra University (in NY)
4. Loma Linda University (in CA)
5. Medical College of Wisconsin
6. New York Medical College
7. Northwestern University (Chicago)
8. Oakland University (Michigan)
9. Rosalind Franklin University (Chicago)
10. Tulane University (New Orleans, Louisiana)
11. University of Arizona (Phoenix)
12. University of Arizona (Tucson)
13. University of California LA (UCLA)
14. University of California SF (UCSF)
15. University of Cincinatti
16. University of Indiana
17. University of Maryland
18. University of Minnesota
19. University of Utah
20. University of Washington
21. Virginia Tech Carilion
22. Wakeforest University (North Carolina)

So please weigh in, where do YOU think we will be in a year? (Vote on the poll to your right!)

Fall is in the Air!

About the time of year I get over being depressed (and am finally out of denial) that summer is, in fact, over for another year, I remember that Autumn is really quite nice too. As long as it doesn't rain. Or snow. Both of which, have already happened in Utah. Booo.

Perfect solution? Road trip to Colfax, that blissfully peaceful and calm part of the world where all is well and troubles melt like lemon drops. Does it rain and snow there too? Of course. But that's beside the point.

So, Otto and I braved our first cross country road trip with the baby and spent a delightful weekend with my family. We packed a crazy amount of activities into one short weekend, including a 30th wedding anniversary celebration (pictures to come) and a trip to the Emergency Room. (Awesome). Also included in this fabulous weekend, I learned a new skill making food from scratch, which always makes me incredibly happy. Partly because of the homemade part, but mostly because of the food part.

We spent Saturday morning as a family learning to make our own apple cider. Here's a step by step of how we did it. If you're not interested in that, skip to the end and look at more cute pictures of my baby. If you're not interested in that, stop reading my blog.

Step 1:

Friday afternoon, we drove to St John (don't worry if you've never heard of it, neither have most people who live within 30 miles) to pick up apples from some good family friends. Their family does this most years... they drive to the orchards and buy the apples for about 16 cents/lb and then sell them at about 18 cents/lb to anyone who wants them. A lot of times they have cider making parties with dozens of friends, sometimes that last several days in a row, and if nothing else, they can make their own cider/applesauce/canned apples to their heart's content. I can't wait until I have a place big enough to be able to do that someday! Cider making parties! How fun!

Otto kept commenting on how much fun it was, just shoving apples into boxes. Nothing like a little fresh country air to make for a good day.

Step 2:

Getting all set up. This machine does both the grinding and the pressing. Otto and I were so excited about our new hobby that we decided to go out and buy one the next day. Then we remembered:
#1- We (still) have no money
#2- We live in an apartment (and will for approximately 30 more years)
 Oh well. We will buy one in 30 years then!

Step 3:

We poured the apples into large buckets full of water and just a few drops of bleach to clean them really well. One of us dumped the apples in, another of us fished them out and put them on the table for the next step. Otto may or may not have thought it was funny to chuck them into the water and spill bleach water all over me.

Step 4:

Next, we sorted through the apples, cutting out any spots where the skin was broken and bacteria could have entered. Doesn't this look appetizing? Thank you Laura, for being such a fabulous hand model.

The sorting process...

... with much help from cute little munchkins (for about 5 minutes until they lost interest and found the trampoline) was followed by...

Step 5:

Attempting to place the apples into the grinder without chopping your fingers off. Luckily, we were successful.

While one was feeding in apples, another was at the wheel grinding.

After the grinding step, the apples end up looking like this:

Step 6:
Wrap the cloth over the apples, and secure the lid, then use the wood piece (or metal baseball bat ha!) to turn the press and press the apples.

 The result is.....

And then, all that's left is to...

Then...

And Voila!!!!!
We're happy....

.... and so are the cows

So, I know what you're thinking. How did I have time to help when I was so busy taking pictures???

Well. For your information, I helped with every step. In fact, I even took one end of the baseball bat and walked around in circles with Otto at one point, after he may or may not have dropped it on my dad's head. And even with all of this strenuous physical activity, I still had plenty of time for this:

Finally, here is my favorite photo of the day: (it helps when you have such photogenic subjects to shoot)

 

Fall is in the air! And doesn't it feel great??

Top three discoveries that make my life ah-MAZING this week

In my quest for improvement in efficiency, overall happiness, cheerful babies and.... awesomeness, I have come across a few tips that will most likely cause all of you to thank me for the rest of my life, simply for sharing them with you.

Find #1: Does anyone else HATE cleaning the microwave? Am I the last person on earth to discover the hot water and lemon juice trick? Simply put hot water and lemon juice in a bowl, set it in the microwave, and turn it on for 1-2 minutes. Somehow all of that nasty junk that usually takes FOREVER to scrub off wipes off in a matter of seconds.

It might be one of the most magical things I have ever experienced. Thanks mom. Sorry (once again) that I didn't listen to you sooner.

Find #2: Living Social's daily deal of the day: 2 tickets for the price of 1 (ten bucks) to the Deseret News home show this weekend. Mmmmm I love me a good home show. It's so I can get all kinds of good ideas for the home I will be able to afford in approximately 50 years.

Anyone want to go? https://livingsocial.com/deals/134541?ref=conf-jp&rpi=30682509

Find #3: ..................

THIS

I know what this looks like. It looks like I torture my child by putting him in a straight jacket. I actually had a major moral debate about this (with myself) before trying it, especially since he usually screams when I try to swaddle him now that he's bigger, and he ALWAYS has slept with his little hands above his head. As you can imagine, I was quite certain the straight jacket would be cruel and unusual punishment for him. As a result, I did not give in until he refused to go down for a nap for THREE hours one day. In desperation, I decided to give it a try. But here's the deal: he has never gone to sleep faster, or stayed asleep longer... ever. As it turns out, he loves it. Not only did he take three 3-4 hour naps in the last three days, but he slept for ten hours last night... for the first time since.... he stopped doing that a month and a half ago.

What? We didn't have to get up at 3 and again at 5 last night??

Beautiful. Truly, beautiful. Thanks Breanne Ballard!

Side note. I just went in to take this picture of him, and woke him up. (As you can see). Now he is talking to himself in the other room. Oh the irony.

Other side note: He put himself back to sleep in less than 3 minutes. Straight jacket wins again.

So.... your turn. What are your amazing finds this week?