The artichoke: a mystery wrapped in an enigma

Last night, for the first time in my life, I cooked an artichoke. I have to say that I figured it would be very good because I love artichoke hearts on pizza and in salads and whatnot, but I had never had a whole artichoke and I must say I was a little nervous about cooking one myself. So last night, I got out my three favorite cookbooks and read in each of them how to cook an artichoke. They all said something different, so like any good cook would do, I combined all three instructions just to make sure I covered all my bases. So I washed and trimmed the leaves and cut down the stem and top leaves like it told me to do, and away I went. Let me just say the cooking was the easy part. Once I got it out of the pot, I set it in between Chad and me to share (this was not the only thing we were eating for dinner!). Chad at first looked at it and said he would not try it, but I finally coaxed him enough and he said it was good. I have never been so confused as to what part of a vegetable I should and shouldn't eat. I know you are supposed to scrape the meat off the bottom of the leaves with your teeth, but I think I did something wrong because there wasn't much meat to scrape. Then, after all the leaves were gone I took out the stringy stuff (the choke, apparently?) and what was left was the heart, I think. I couldn't quite figure out the whole thing, but I think I will be trying this again because I liked it. So, is there anybody out there who reads my blog and is good at preparing artichokes that can tell me how to eat it? Until I figure out a different system, I guess I'll just be buying the already prepared hearts in the jar.

Cold and dry

Well, it's cold here (it's been in the single digits most nights for the past few days), but it's dry. I heard on the news last night from our weatherman that Texas is getting "hammered" with weather. I am trusting that my family in Texas is staying inside and avoiding the icy roads.

Also, I had some technical difficulties when adding Erin's new blog link to my page, and now it appears to me that all my links are at the bottom of the page and I don't know how to fix it. Blogger is more difficult because when you are editing your template you actually have to type amongst the HTML code and I am never sure if I'm going to do it right or not. It's been 5 years since I've done anything with HTML code. Maybe I'll just change templates and start over again.

Chad has a busy week. He worked yesterday, is in Phoenix today for a class to study for the flight paramedic exam (will the tests ever be over for us?), Thursday and Friday he will be teaching a class for Wizard a few hours away, and Saturday he works again. All this while working on his senior project...what a busy guy!

That's it from here. I know it's pretty boring stuff so don't feel like you have to comment.

You ask, I deliver

So, there have been more murmurings about not enough posts and I was trying to think of interesting things to post about that I wouldn't mind the whole world reading. Here are a couple of other pictures we took on Christmas. I thought maybe someone would be interested in my new dishes. I love the colors and get excited about which color plate I am going to pick to eat on. Lame, I know. I loved my dragonfly dishes but they did not like being used so much. The bottom bowl is purple in case you can't tell. My screen is kind of weird so it looks black to me. The other picture is me with my new sewing machine. I'll let you know when I learn how to use it and actually sew something. I've got a "how to" book on its way to me. The last picture is of the new coat Chad gave me. It came in handy on our backpacking trip. Somehow I didn't get any pictures of Chad with presents, only video. And I can't do any of that fancy video uploading nor would it be very interesting.

bouldering

look at her go!!!! she's like a spider!!!

Backpacking

Keeping up

I guess I am now the person in charge of keeping up with the blog since Lesley is too lazy. Just kidding. It is our 3 year anniversary today. Lesley is working and I am starting to get sleepy since I was woken up at 4:00 for a call and haven't had a chance to sleep since. Any who......here are some pics, cause I know that reading blogs is boring. Some are from San Diego, our backpacking trip, and then others are random. Enjoy.

We're back

Well, it's been a while. You'll notice there are no pictures in this post. That is because I left the camera & cable in the car and I am too lazy to go get it, and it is too cold. So you'll see pictures later. Here's an update of what we have been doing the past couple weeks. Chad worked 48 hours Monday and Tuesday of last week, and Wednesday we went on a 16 mile backpacking trip in the Juniper Mesa Wilderness. The weather was perfect during the day--sunny and in the 30s. You may think this is cold weather, but it was actually nice when we were huffing and puffing and the sun was shining on us. The really cold part was when we camped on top of the mesa at night and it got down to 11 degrees. The water in our Nalgene bottles was freezing as the wind was blowing. We snuggled in our warm sleeping bags in our tent, and I wore the new down jacket Chad got me for Christmas. Then, it was too hot. Hard to strike a happy medium! But, better to be warm and be able to get cooler than not to be able to warm up at all. The backpacking trip was fun except for the blister I got on each foot...the one on my right foot was actually on the bottom of my heel. I didn't even know you could get blisters on the bottom of your heel. Well, if you haven't gotten one of those, you haven't lived.

We got back from our trip and spent a restful few days at home. Chad worked Christmas Eve and came home Christmas morning. I had made breakfast, so we ate and then opened presents. Chad got a ton of DVDs and CDs and some gear, and I got a brand new sewing machine, dishes, CDs, cookware, and the jacket I mentioned earlier. We lounged around Christmas Day and took all our boxes & wrapping to the recycling bin (I couldn't believe how many boxes just the two of us accumulated for Christmas alone), and got ready for our next trip. The 26th we drove to Vegas to spend a couple days with Emily, Joey, Riley and Josey. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them, and our nieces are just adorable. Then Thursday we drove to San Diego to see the Aggies play in the Holiday Bowl, and we won't talk about that game. It was fun anyway, and we got to see the Aggie band play twice. As usual, the Aggies won at halftime even though we didn't win the game. Being there made me excited to go to even more A&M games when we get back to Texas.

And so now, I am in my classroom, planning what I will teach my students over the next 20 weeks. Looking at a new year is always exciting, especially this year for us and all the unknowns it holds right now. In the next few months we will know where we are moving, what our jobs will be, etc. Sometimes the thought of moving and getting new jobs is scary and daunting, but these next few months for me I think will be very exciting. Keep us in your prayers as we look at making some pretty big decisions...and look for pictures in the next few days.

New Pics

Here are some new pics of me at work. After 3 weeks of our base being back open we had only done 2 calls.....until yesterday. Yesterday the crew did two calls and today we have done one so far. The holidays are always a little less than happy for some, which makes them busy for people like me. Anyways, enjoy and be safe on the roads this holiday season.



P.S. No comments allowed about how funny I look in my hemet.


About to take off















Our pilot Bob flying us over some Indian ruins on the way back home from PHX.






























Me in the air betwee PHX and Prescott

Oh the weather outside is...

Snowing, kind of. As I sit here writing this post there are a good number of flurries outside, but they are mostly tiny little snowballs (think Dippin Dots, the ice cream of the "future") that really just roll off everything and don't stick. The weather is supposed to get a little worse tonight. We were going to go backpacking tomorrow but Chad is working instead so we will leave on Wednesday, for two days only. We both decided that 2 days is plenty in the cold weather. Tonight is supposed to get to 16 degrees...brrrr. Okay, the snow has turned into fat flakes now. My favorite.

Anyway, not much new here. I did get tickets to the holiday bowl where the Aggies will play the Golden Bears, which as far as I can tell do not really exist in wildlife. I have never heard of a golden bear. So it's the matchup of the two mythical mascots. Anyhow, they are ranked #21 and #20 respectively, so they are pretty well matched. It should be a good game. So this week we're backpacking, next week we'll be in Vegas and San Diego, and then we'll be back home to start work again. :( That's about it from here. I knew I hadn't posted in a while so here it is. By the way, look for some pictures from our trips in the next couple weeks.

the Element: off-road

Here are some pictures from the weekend before last. There is this historical Stagecoach stop that is about 20 miles from Prescott down windng mountain dirt roads. I have been wanting to check this place out ever since i say it on a Forest Service map right after we moved here. Anywho, we set out in the Element and had quite the adventure. Using only a less-than-detailed forest service map and a giant orange box of a car, we set off in search of Palace Station. we ended up a a few roads that, although they weren't labeled 4X4 only, they should have been. One was barely wide enough for Ele (our car, and niece i suppose) to fit through. The area was gorgeous. Its like having Blue Haven in your backyard. Well, we mad a wrong turn and ended up a mile frm the top of one of the major mountains in the area that has a fie look-out tower at the top. I bet you can't do that in texas (arkansas maybe). we decided that we didn't have any pressing matters at hand so we hiked up to the top. Afterwards, we realized where our wrong turn had been and we began our journey back towards Palace station. Shawn called my wife (as he often does) as we were leaving the top, which surprised me at the fact that we got such great reception. When we finally arrived we were greeted by a sign that basically said: Palace Station. Look at a distance but do not trespass. People live here. Please respect their privacy. After driving all day on these horrible raods we couldn't even explore. It was a cool trip anyway

That was one sharp curve. I'm glad I got insurance on the rental car.

The beautiful Lesley at the top of Mt. Union.

Finally

Here are the pictures we promised, although you probably don't care about them now.

This is Lesley when she was a pateint for a nightime scenario with the Wilderness Emergency Care class I was teaching this semester. She was ejected from a bus that rolled over on mountainous terrain. She landed on a stick which implaed her back and gave her a severly collapsed lung. She also had copious amounts of cold, wet blood on her back, and laid in only a t-shirt and jeans in 25 degree weather. Then my students took FOREVER to find her. I finally had to lead them to her (I was supposed to be in the van crash, but i was uninjured, lucky for them)

A close up of her wound.

YUCK!!!!!!

My wonderful students doing a great patient assessment on Lesley. (They have no idea that their patient is the teacher's wife at this point.)

Trying to get Lesley, who is now truly shivering, into a sleeping bag.

They are so serious!!

Test

The Aggies are playing in the holiday bowl. If anyone knows how I can get decently priced tickets please let me know!

Help

Okay, So I am actually ready to post pictures, but all of the buttons are missing above this window...in other words there is no button to click to upload pictures. Any help would be appreciated.

Our Thanksgiving

Hey guys, well I'm not able to post any recent pictures quite yet, but it is coming. It would take too long to explain why. Anyway, we had a good Thanksgiving break. Tuesday afternoon right after school/work we left for Vegas and were there until Thursday. We had fun seeing the sights and eating at bad buffets. The Vegas buffets were definitely an experience unlike any other. If you have never been to one, let me explain it for you. First, you stand in a line to pay just like any other all-you-can eat place like Gattitown or Golden Corral. Then, after you pay, you are herded (and I'm not using this word by accident) into 2 other lines, for optimal crowd control. After a table comes open (even if there are numerous tables open), the host comes to you and lets you through the rope barrier (picture an exclusive night club, only not exclusive and not at night). He leads you to your table (surrounded by many other empty tables) and says "everything is self-serve," as if previous customers have made the mistake of thinking that all those people standing in line at the buffet were waiters getting the food that the diners had custom-ordered. Anyway, it was a funny experience. Other lessons learned in Vegas:

1. Be alert. You may be walking down the street, trusting the people in front of you to continue walking as well, when they stop abruptly to read a map or talk on the phone, not realizing that other people exist on the sidewalk as well.

2. Vegas is not a place for children's eyes. Lots of other people did not seem to think this was the case.

3. It's possible to be very sore simply from walking on a fairly level street for a good amount of time, if you did not plan ahead and wear the right footwear.

So Thursday we got back home in time to have Thanksgiving dinner at some friends' house. The food was great, but it was even better that we didn't have to come home and cook and clean. Friday Chad had to work a 12 hour shift, so I was left to my own devices and decided to take a stroll around some of the shopping places. I got some Christmas decorations and a couple of other things and put up our Christmas tree on Friday as well. The local mall on the busiest shopping day of the year reminded me of other malls on regular days of the year. This makes sense, given that our mall is usually quite deserted. Friday I also watched the Aggies beat the Longhorns, which was pretty exciting 1. because they were actually showing an A&M game on a network in Arizona, and 2. because the Aggies haven't beat the Longhorns since before I became a student at A&M. I wish Colt McCoy hadn't gotten hurt in the process.

Chad is at work again today and I am about to leave for church. By the way, we didn't get any pictures in Vegas so the ones I post will be when I played victim and a couple ones from a hike we went on yesterday when we took a wrong turn.

Not again...

Well, I just received in the mail my 3rd jury summons in 3 months. I have not actually gone to jury duty yet, so I guess that is why I keep getting called. Maybe I will actually get to sit on a jury this time.

Today Chad and I are going on a little trip to Las Vegas and we will be back in town on Thanksgiving day. Not your traditional Thanksgiving, but it will be fun nonetheless. I have pictures to post of when I was a patient for Chad's class and I flew out of a rolling van and a stick punctured my right lung. It was gross, and the wound looked very real. I'll post those pictures when we have pictures from Vegas to post as well.

Everything else is going well. Chad is officially finished with one of his classes and is busy writing papers, papers and more papers.

Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Este mundo es LOCO!

Here is an article that I thought some of you might be interested in. I found on the usually liberally fluffed arena of MSN news. http://men.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1127694&GT1=8784 .

Also, we have some great pictures from last night when Lesley was a patient for my Wilderness First Responder class that I have been a teaching assistant for this semester. I am sure one of us will post those later. (one of us meaning Lesley). She was an incredible patient!!! Well...I have a ten page research paper to start because I have another 5 page paper that i will have to type between Thursday and Tuesday ( I guess I'll have to fit it into the 36 hours I'm working this weekend).

Chad

Okay, I'm on

Caving in to peer pressure (also known as the bandwagon technique which is one of the persuasive techniques I am teaching my students this week), I have switched to the blogger beta. Apparently it is better, and I hope it is because I can't switch back. I hate commitments like this. Anyway, you can't comment on my blog if you have the old version so you need to switch. Since Emma and Emily are my main commenters and they both switched to the beta version, I felt compelled. Comment away!

Chad's Soapbox

Hey everyone. I have been making a lot of life changes lately and have begun to put some of my convictions into action. Soooooo here is some stuff I think everyone will be interested in. I am writing a research paper on how the current dismal state of America's physical, mental, and social health is, in large part, due to our growing disconnect with nature. Naturally our kids are feeling the brunt of all this because they are subject to a much chasm between mature and their culture than we were. This is one of the big reasons why I have become an adventure educator, and much of my knowledge on this topic comes from reading Last Child in the Woods : Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. Anyone who has kids or works with kids should read this book! You will love it! (for some reason I think Joey will especially like it) If you have a great library system like we do then you can check it out. If not, then it is worth every penny that you will spend on it. Here are some other cool resources:
www.cnaturenet.org
www.playingforkeeps.org
www.playingforkeeps.org/site/documents/statistics.pdf

Also I would like for everyone to continue to pray for my future in Adventure Education. I have gotten approval for my senior project to be the drafting of a business plan for a nonprofit AE program. I will then use this plan for a proposal to the Blue Haven board of directors for the establishment of this program under the umbrella of CBH. I you know of any waelthy benefactors that would like to pay me >$35,000 a years to do this then PLEASE let me know!

On another note, there is a great burgeoning program at Prescott College called the Centaur Leadership program. It train people to use horses for therapy to just about any population of people you can think of. It is really great work and has been started by one of my favorite instructors here. I am mentioning this because they now have a fund-raising program that everybody can help out with. If you go to this link www.prescott.edu/cls and click on the Amazon.com link then they will get 5% or more of the money you spend. It is an esy way to help a good program.

I have officially stepped off of my soapbox.

P.S. Anything that is underlined is linked to an internet site. I'm so tech savvy.

Birthday pictures

This sign was waiting for me when I got home from Texas. What a sweet husband!

Mom in with Kellen and Bonnie "posing"

Blowing out my turkey cupcake

Kellen asked for "number two" because this one got messed up
Close-up of my birthday cake

I had a good birthday. My family threw me a little party in Texas and then when I got home Chad had cleaned the house and had a happy birthday sign and a present for me. We went out to eat after church. 25 is pretty good so far.

Good weekend

This weekend I went to Texas to visit my family since I had a long weekend. It was a lot of fun to get to visit them for a few days since Chad had to work a lot of the weekend. Here are some pictures of Kellen and Bonnie. Mom bought Kellen a farm set with animals and he just loved it. Everytime I told him to say "Cheese" he would put one of the animals in front of his face and say cheese. He was very excited about the animals. Bonnie liked the farm too. Good job mom!