New Blog!

A few months ago, I had an exciting morning. On the way to work, my blackberry started beeping, and I watched my yahoo email address being taken over by someone--this person changed my password, forwarded all me emails, sent all my contacts an email about me being beat up in London and needing money, deleted all my contacts, and tried to access my facebook acocunt as well. I could do nothing until I got to work.
By about 10am that morning, I decided I needed to delete my yahoo email account entirely--a sad moment, since I had had that account for about 10 years! Fortunately, I had already set up a gmail account to use for work, so I had a new email address ready to go, and had even imported all my yahoo contacts and emails before I knew there would be a problem!
Long story short, this blog is under my old yahoo email address, and in order to blog under my new email address, I had to create a new blog! I did import much of the old blog into the new one, so you can still see pictures of my awful jello salad, Chrismas parties, us building the shed, etc... I will be deleting this blog eventually, so please save the new one! Here is the new blog web address:

http://theplatthouse.blogspot.com

Christmas 2010 - Part 1

This week both Scott and I took Thursday and Friday off. Since we will both be busy in a couple weeks when our anniversary comes around, we decided to spend a night in Omaha before going to Scott's Mom's house for Christmas. We got a room in the Element by Westin hotel in Midtown Crossing. This is a brand new hotel (opened in November) in a new trendy area. It was very nice and modern! Since they were pretty empty, the upgraded us to a room with a full-service kitchen area.This was the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in! They had a booklet there that gave prices for all the bedding and items...the queen size version of this mattress is only $1395...
The bathroom was really cool! I really like the raised sink:

And the shower with the giant rain shower head was amazing.

On Friday we drove to Scott's Mom's house in Hancock. We were happy to be coming 30 minutes from Omaha instead of 3 hours from Oskaloosa, as it was very snowy. We hung out all day, played some wii, did some reading, and played with our new Christmas presents to each other (I gave Scott an ipod, he gave me a nook).

Today Shawn & Audrey (and Wesley and Seth) drove out and we had a nice Christmas lunch, followed by a wild game of dominoes and present time. Melanie got to spend a little time with us also, and was pleased to receive the last two books in the Twilight series.

Mom liked her lotion and body wash:

I got the wonderful job of slicing the meat:

I made a delicious pear-cranberry pie with a pastry cream filling and a crumble top. It was really good!

I also made stained glass jello...well, I tried to anyway. I am not very good at jello salads. It did not set up right and form beautiful squares with shining jello "windows." Instead, it just looks like a bunch of slop. It still tasted ok.

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

We had our annual "A Christmas Story" party last weekend. We had a slightly smaller group this year...which worked out okay because we all had pretty comfortable seats while watching the movie. I always borrow the projector from work, and we watch the movie on the wall so it's a "big screen." Cami and Meagan drove out from Iowa City for the party...it was great that they could make it this year!
After the movie some of the people left, and the rest of us played some wii on the big screen. Here is Jacob, Meagan, Cami, and Jodi playing some wii tennis.

We also sang some karaoke...

Mike fell asleep in the chair shortly after the movie ended, and managed to sleep through all of the wii tennis and karaoke. Scott tried to give him a chance to sing too...

Thanksgiving 2010

This year for Thanksgiving we got together with the Evenhouse family on Thanksgiving day, and then went to Scott's Mom's on Friday. For the Evenhouse portion, I made both a honey glazed ham and a turkey--I've never actually made a turkey start to finish before, so that was exciting!

Here is Uncle Time with Rhea, Abby, and Garion.Olivia, Garion, Colleen
Kendall having some tummy time...with Lynn, Garion, Hannah, and Carrie.

Jacob joined our family for the holiday, and Olivia decided he was her best friend for the day. She made him draw a bunch of pictures, and then asked him to identify which rabbit was the mommy, and which was the daddy.

Here we are sitting down to eat. It was pretty crowded around two tables! Jacob took the picture from the top of the steps.

Scott, Garion, and Jacob

Here is Scott moaning about his food baby...

Scott and I finished up our Christmas shopping on Friday morning (we braved the crowds, and we survived!), and then headed to Western Iowa for the Platt family thanksgiving.

Nathan and Esther

Grandma Fender (Scott's Mom) with all the grandkids: Wesley, Nathan, Esther, Seth, Melanie, and Hannah

Scott, Melanie, Colleen

Weekend with Abby

Scott was gone last week, so my niece Abby came over Friday night and spent the night at our house. Abby and I watched "How to Train Your Dragon" and ate pizza, then Abby went to bed and I waited up for Scott to get home (aka: slept on the sofa until about 1am when Scott came in).

On Saturday morning Abby requested bacon, so we had bacon and eggs. Then Abby and I went to the store to get stuff for Thanksgiving, and Scott spent the day outside raking up leaves.

I had to make a pie for the pie auction at our church, and Abby helped! We made a pear cranberry pie with a pastry cream on the inside. I really wish I could have tasted it, as it was a new recipe! Here is Abby rolling out the top pie crust (you can see the bottom of the pie and the filling behind her) And here she is pinching the edges. She had never made a pie before!
Finally, brushing the top with milk and putting slits in it.

This was a beautiful pie--Good job, Abby! I will have to ask the family that bought it at the auction how it tasted.

After our baking excitement, Abby and I put up the Christmas tree and all the decorations. It was great to have her around for a couple days!

Portland, OR (or the mountains in my mind)

This posting is entitled "Portland, OR" not because we are enjoying a wonderful vacation there, but because Scott is enjoying the inside of a hotel conference center there this week. He is learning something about acidification of food, and got to visit a pickle factory today (gag! puke! vomit!). In an incredibly ironic twist, a number of the health inspector professionals (including Scott) developed a bout of food poisoning last night, sending a few of them to the hospital...and fortunately only sending Scott to the bathroom. Scott did bring the camera along this time, and we'll see if he managed to get out to take any pictures. That can be difficult when attending a conference.

Scott has been gone for 2 out of the last 3 weeks for work, as well as one overnight trip in the middle "home" week. I have been so busy that it has hardly hit me that he was gone, as I have been busy at work, and running around like a maniac at home. We don't intend to get this busy, but between church activities, occassional visits with friends, and spending over 2 hours a day in the car commuting, I barely even have time to cook supper. I enjoy being busy, to a certain extent, but this week all I want is to not have to work, but to spend all my time at home cleaning, organizing, cooking, decorating, and listening to Christmas music. I am looking forward to the upcoming holidays.

Tomorrow night my niece Abby is going to spend the night here with me (Scott will get home late). On Saturday she is going to help me bake some goodies for Thanksgiving and possibly even put up Christmas decorations. I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with her!

Once again my pictures aren't lining up...I need to check my settings, I guess.

I have very cold feet, and in the winter I can get into bed and be warm and cozy everywhere except for my ice cold feet. And they will remain cold for hours. This week, I bought some scrap fleece, and made "corn bags" for Scott and myself. I am sure you will appreciate the fabric. I hand sewed the fleece, then filled it with feed corn. Heat it up in the microwave, throw in in the bottom of the bed, and voila! Warm feet all night long!

Tonight for supper I am making Holiday Tortellini soup. In this first picture, you can see the chicken broth simmering with wonderful smelling bits of bacon, onion, and garlic.

And here is the final product. Added tomatoes, spinach, and delicious tri-color cheese tortellini.

And just to make it extra specially good, here's a shot of from scratch oat bread baking in the oven. Should be tasty!

In other news, you may remember that a couple weeks ago the 60 mph winds knocked over our windmill and bent it a big. Scott tried to straighten out the blades, and it was ok until the 40 mph winds hit today. Today we took it apart and put it in the shed for the winter. Here is what it looks like: