Shawn's Baptism

My brother-in-law Shawn got baptized on Saturday. It was really awesome. He is married to Lin's sister and is the same age as me (our birthdays are the same week even). It was so awesome to witness this special event and see the support of our family as well as his family even though they aren't LDS. My in-laws are AMAZING! There are a lot of us in the family (7 kids, 5 spouses 1.5 grandkids). It is awesome to see the support and friendship between everyone. Everyone tries to attend Jake's basketball games, everyone came to watch me in Christmas Around the World, and everyone was there for Shawn's baptism. It was great to feel the spirit and realize that someday Carly and Shawn can hopefully go to the temple and be sealed. I am so blessed to be married into a family that I truly love and consider family. I know so many people that don't really get along with their in-laws and I am glad that isn't me.

Sorry its been so long!

So it has been a very long time since I last wrote; I have had a lot to write about but no time to write. Things have been crazy in our life right now. School is INSANE I knew that 15 credits would be difficult (I have done it before) but my classes are in some ways ridiculous.
First off two of my classes are practically the same. Over the course of the semester we work in groups to write an intervention/marketing plan. That is the basis of our grade. Along the way we turn in worksheets that help us work through the process of forming these plans. This idea actually is exciting to me because it feels more like what I would potentially be doing for work rather than just lectures. In my social marketing class it is going pretty well. My teacher designated a topic (Reducing Morbidity in Hispanics with diabetes) and we have gone through research and segmentation to come up with our target population. Currently we are working on coming up with our solution to the problems of our target population.
In my methods of health promotion class we are basically doing a similar project but we picked our own topic based on a recent publication from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They published the Six Winnable Battles in December. My group is focused on the battle of Obesity and from there we have narrowed in on environmental influences in low income areas. This project is not working nearly as well. This is the first semester my teacher has done this project and while it is a great idea and he has great intentions (trying to get us published as undergrads on a brand new subject) it is so overly organized that it is unorganized. . . .We had these worksheets to do which were beastly. They were super detailed and confusing and while he thought they explained his intentions none of the groups did them how he wanted. After we had struggled to complete a worksheet we would have a lecture where we learned the purpose behind the worksheet. Unfortunately it always seemed to me that if I had known the intention BEFORE I had done it I would have done it differently because the way we did it wasn't helpful in the scope of things. So then the next worksheet would be handed out and it was like starting over when it should have been building on the last one. I just feel like this class is very backwards. Our teacher wants us to find and understand what he wants when we all feel he should just come out and tell us his expectations.
On top of this project and worksheets we have reading, reading write-ups, thought papers on video segments, and of course the midterm. If it were up to me we would just focus on the project so we could do a good job. So while I like those classes they are wearing on me.
This past week has been especially hard. I don't normally like to talk about my health problems because I hate being asked if I am okay and frankly I don't like talking about it. This past while however my medications have been off. I have been thinking my thyroid medication was off but my doctor's office phone number "is unallocated" according to the operator. Since I don't really know what that means I have been unsure whether to just find a new doctor or if there is a new phone number. I don't know. Finally Valentines weekend I started having problems. I thought I was getting the flu but I never really did, I just felt crappy. Then my blood calcium level plummeted. This meant my hands started to cramp up, I had digestive problems, and overall I just felt achy and twitchy. Monday I stayed home from school and I decided I had to find a doctor. I called up the Springville clinic to see if they had anyone that could regulate my medication. They did, so I made an appointment for Wednesday. Tuesday I forced myself to go to work and school. The cramps and pain would go in waves, but I was having a hard time holding a pencil and I couldn't type. Wednesday I went to the appointment and they drew my blood. It takes a few days to get the results so nothing very helpful yet. After the appointment it was downhill for me. My symptoms started getting more constant and more severe. Finally I called urgent care to see if there was anything they could do to get my calcium level up. When I originally had this problem the nurses taking care of me just had me taking extra calcium but online I had found things that said for severe symptoms IV treatment is necessary. The nurse told me to go to the ER. So at 9:30 in the middle of a snowstorm Lin drove us all the way to Timpanogos Hospital. As we drove I got worse and by the time we got there I was having a hard time talking. They put me on some anxiety medication while they waited for blood test results. This helped my cramping some but I also ended up needing oxygen because I felt like my lungs were cramping. My calcium was super low (3.2) It is supposed to be between 8-10 normally. They put me on a calcium drip of some sort and said I had to stay laying down because getting that much calcium can cause heart problems. So after two 30 min treatments  and 6 hours later we left. We got home at 3 AM and I got up at 5 to go to work because I  had no way to get a sub that early in the morning. My boss let me leave as soon as I got the breakfast food out and the lunch cases full. That afternoon I was feeling so much better. Low calcium can make you depressed so it had been a very rough week mentally as well as physically. On Saturday I found out that my Thyroid level is super high which would cause my calcium to be lower because  the thyroid hormone takes calcium out of the blood to put in the bones. Basically I just haven't been able to keep up with it by taking supplements and slowly my calcium has been slipping lower and lower. So now that we know all of that hopefully we can get some maintenance going on. So in answer to all of your questions, "Yes I am fine. It was rough, but we are working it out."
I have the best husband though. He spent part of that ER visit sleeping on the floor of the hospital until we were the only people in the ER and the nurses gave him the bed next door. He has been great to take care of me, not mind that I haven't cooked or cleaned, and have been super irritable all the time.
We had a  make-up Valentines date on Friday. We cooked steaks, fries and made home-made ice cream. He has been amazing!
So on top of that fun excitement I have 3 midterms this weekend. My methods one was crazy hard but it is done, my Environmental health class is take home, open note, etc, but I haven't done the reading so those questions take some searching, and my social marketing one is on Tues/Wed. So much for a nice long weekend.

Week 5

We have moved on to. . . . . Spain!

The first week in February I made Pork with Orange and  Peasant Potatoes. The potatoes were delicious. Basically just a fried scalloped potato but delicious nonetheless. They were fried with fresh garlic which gave them great flavor.

The recipe for the pork called for either chops or ribs. I went with ribs because they were on sale. One thing I  learned (or attempted to learn) is how to de-pith and orange. I didn't even know what the pith was. . . I still am not perfectly sure either. I know it is the white part, but I kind of think it includes the thin skin around each slice as well. I don't really know. So after looking online for instructions Lin and I worked on de-pithing the oranges. I definitely need practice on that! The pork was yummy though. Basically it was browned and then the orange slices were placed on top and the whole thing was steamed until the pork was done.

The oranges because surprisingly bitter ( I think just the skin was) but the pork had a sweet, orange flavor. Overall it was pretty delicious.

(This is the only meal I have had the time to make this month so a few weeks were missed)

Week 3 & 4

Since I am working to catch up I am going to post these two weeks together.

On Jan 22 I made Beef Stroganoff which is a common Russian dish and a Beet Caviar appetizer. I love beets but I felt like the seasoning the recipe called for overshadowed the earthy taste beets have. It was much to strong, so I didn't like it much and Lin doesn't like beets at all. So probably not making that again. The Stroganoff was delicious. Nothing too different from how I learned to make it originally. A lot of people around here seem to use ground beef but in the real thing you use a cut of meat (I used flat-iron) and cut it into pieces. It tastes a lot better that way I think.

The next week I made Chicken in Garlic and Sourcream. It was also delicious and as Lin said, "This is the most likely to fit in our usual meal selection" The only thing I would have done differently from the recipe is use skinless chicken. The skin didn't really brown up and it was kind of soft and blubbery. Yuck!

So that wraps up our month in Eastern Europe!

Week 2-- Eastern European

So I know this is a late post but last Monday I made another world dinner. This time we had Sausage and Cabbage soup and Vereniki/Pierogi. The soup would have been super delicious but I unfortunately got the gross sausage at the store. I have gotten it one time before and we didn't like the flavor. It has a very heavy spice in it (we think it is anise, and/or rosemary). It kind of tastes like licorice. While I was at the store I was debating which sausage to get remembering the previous experience, well out of a 50/50 chance I picked the wrong one. So minus that detail the soup was delicious. I didn't like cabbage growing up, but this was good.
The Vereniki were the best part though. They are basically a dumpling (or similar to an Asian pot sticker). I made the dough and then decided to use the mashed potato filling. The filling had caramelized onions, garlic and mashed potatoes. It was so tasty! I ended up eating most of them (Lin thought they were really good; I was addicted). So they are definitely going on the make again list.
I am sorry that I didn't get any pictures, we were mostly through eating when I remembered and there weren't really any Vereniki left and I just didn't take any pictures.

Week 1- Eastern Europe

Today was my first day cooking food from my new world recipe book. The month of January is all going to be from Eastern Europe and Russia. Today's dinner consisted of Mushroom & Cranberry Chicken, with steamed broccoli and carrots, and kasha. The chicken was pretty good. It was technically braised (a term I have never actually used in my own cooking). You sear the chicken and then cook it covered in liquid. The mushrooms were shitake mushrooms which I still don't know if I like they have an interesting taste. If you don't know what kasha is it is known more commonly here as buckwheat groats (not to appetizing sounding so I prefer kasha). According to the author buckwheat is used because in the northern countries rice and wheat don't grow so they use buckwheat which is actually a grass. Kasha is a common staple food and is basically porridge.
Tonight I made the recipe for plain kasha. It was definitely plain, kind of like eating bland oatmeal with a slightly bitter flavor. Overall not the favorite of the night. Both Lin and I want to try it again however with one of the other flavored recipes (with cheese (cottage or ricotta) or bacon and onions). It was quite filling and really healthy because it isn't polished like white rice. If we can find a way to make it a little more flavorful I think we will adopt it into our regular meals maybe to replace rice or potatoes sometimes.

Overall I would call week 1 a success. Definitely different tasting but not terrible.

Around the World in 80 Meals

Ok so the title of this post is a little wrong.. . . but for Christmas I received a cookbook from my dad that contains "The Best Recipes from Around the World". It literally has over 1000 (not 80) recipes from almost ANYWHERE. I am so excited! This post is either going to make you think I am crazy, obsessed, nerdy,or a combination of the above.
The plan is that each Saturday I am going to make a meal from this book. It has already taken some serious research within the book (its like a textbook) to plan out what to make. I know if I don't plan it out before hand I either won't have the ingredients I need or won't have the time to do this during the semester. I have planned all the way through the end of the semester. Each month is a different area. I have decided this will also be a great blog topic. Each week I plan to blog about the experience and the results.
So I hope you will join me on the Skinner's food trip around the world.
Bon Appetite!

Christmas

I have to admit I wasn't too excited for Christmas. For some reason I just wasn't in the Christmas spirit. Our Sunday Christmas program the week before Christmas helped a lot. It was beautiful. We definitely have the BEST ward choir I have ever heard. The spirit was so strong. That really helped set a better mood for Christmas.

In the end the holiday turned out wonderful. We spent all of it with family which was greatl. Christmas eve was spent at my sisters house with her 3 darling children, and my mom. The rest of the family was out of town this year. It was a small party but fun none the less. We stayed entertained by the kids.

Lin's excited morning face (ok it was staged)

The presents! 3 of the biggest ones are actually gifts for other people ha ha but it makes it look full under the tree

Christmas morning was just me and Lin. We had a great time opening the presents we got each other. Then we headed out to Lin's mom's house. We hung out there for the afternoon with all the family. It gets kinda crazy cause there are ALOT of people(14) in their small house but that is part of what makes it fun. After that we headed to my dad's house where we hung out with all the boys (my half brothers), my dad, and my sister and her family. It was fun to see what the boys got and watch my nephews and niece open their gifts from grandpa. Lin got a gag gift which was really funny. He has been getting into rock climbing and I suggested to my dad to get him a chalk bag and chalk. Here is what he opened up.

Inside is a few pieces of used sidewalk chalk. Lin didn't know what to think. He didn't really care it wasn't real but he didn't know what to say either. Finally my dad pulled out two more presents which turned out to be a chalk ball and a real chalk bag. It was great. We also got what I would say is one of the best gifts I have ever gotten. It is a cookbook of the best recipes around the world, but I will talk about that in another post.

We ended up staying at my dads until midnight playing Greenday Rockband with the boys and a board game we got from my in-laws, To Tell the Truth. It was a lot of fun.

One of the greatest parts of Christmas was reading scriptures this whole week (we kinda cut it short on Christmas because it was almost 1AM when we went to bed) we have been reading the New Testament and just read about the Garden of Gethsemane. It was kinda interesting to read about that instead of the typical Luke 2. It gave a greater meaning to His birth which was already on our minds. 

Winter Wonderland!

We FINALLY got some great snow in Utah. I don't remember having this much fresh snow in a couple years. This is how I remember winter as a child. The trees lined with snow, laden down. piles of snow on the sides of the street. YAY!

Pile from the plow and the bulldozer

I convinced Lin to come out and play in the snow with me. Yes we are adults, no we don't have kids, yes we were playing in the snow :) First we made a snowman due to the lack of coal we used rotten apples from our apple tree (gross I know but we didn't have anything else) Presenting. . . . Arnold

Yes those are abs if you are wondering. Lin had a great time carving them.

Because the snow was so incredibly deep in our backyard I decided to attempt to make a snow angel. It was awesome. It kinda looks misshapen because the snow was so thick and heavy.

Lin's hands were getting cold so we decided to shovel the walk then call it a day. Do to the perfect packing ability of the snow we shoveled the walk and then got in a snowball fight. Well I was throwing snow balls; Lin was using the shovel. . . Unfair. Then we each built snow forts in the front yard (thankfully the people that cleared our road put a pile in our yard) and had a real snowball fight.

Lin's wall

Behind the wall

Yes this was staged, hence I am not actually throwing the snowball anywhere :)

I claim the victory because I hit Lin more than he hit me and I got him in the face (while his eye was open, sorry honey!) I think all of our neighbors were jealous because they looked out their windows and another one waved as he drove past (I think he wanted to come play too). They all seemed to be enjoying the fact that we were acting like we were kids :)

After our snow day we went inside and watched a movie. We were both exhausted. Ha Ha I forgot how tiring it is to play in the snow.

Christmas Around the World --Celebrate!

I had the opportunity to be in Christmas Around the World again this year. It is such an amazing show. The dance my class was doing was Hungarian. The women were doing a botolo (bottle dance) and the men were doing a stick dance. The girls got to dance with bottles on our head, no gimicks, just balance. :) My teacher had us pull out the bottles at the beginning of October so that we could get used to balancing them before we actually had to dance with them. The bottles are big, thick, class bottles, with water in them. The first day we had them on it felt like there was no way were would ever be able to perform with them on. Eventually we got a little more used to them and by the time of the concert were were all really comfortable with them on. Our costumes were so beautiful. Mine was brand new. We were wearing accordion skirts which are really awesome when you spin but that meant we couldn't really sit-down while wearing them. This made rehearsals extra long.


One of the most amazing parts of the show for me, is the fact that on the first night (tues) of rehearsals in the Marriot Center the show is very rough, the rehearsal is incredibly long, and it seems like there is no way the show will be ready by Friday. The next-day we have tech rehearsals with costumes and lights; the show still seems very rough. Thursday night is dress rehearsal. Really it is a show because they film it so there are no re-dos. The dress rehearsal went well until the finale. . . .basically the finale (excuse my ranting) is ALWAYS utter chaos. For some reason they feel it is an awesome effect to have the whole cast run on (as fast as possible) into perfectly straight lines in one giant block on the stage.

yes it looks cool but it is horrible to get to as a cast member

 This is so incredible hectic especially if you have to get to the middle. All of the cast thought it was ridiculous (and yes we did something similar last year) Lucky me got to be in the middle near the front both times :p Anyway on the night of the dress rehearsal everyone ran in 8 counts too late. This confused everybody. The last 8 counts were this jazz-square step with arms in the air; when we got to that part the music stopped and so everybody slowly put their arms to the last pose. It was super funny and very awkward. So that was how we headed into our Friday matinée. Thank goodness we didn't do the finale because that show is shortened. It went really well and it is always fun to talk to the kids before hand.
Finally the Friday night performance! It is so exhilarating to perform. The anticipation, the adrenaline, the spirit of performing is just amazing. And magically, Voila! the performance works out on Friday night. I don't really know how it goes from the rough Tuesday to a full show on Friday, but it does, there really is some magic involved.

Opener Irish Party

Here are some pictures one of my friends on another team took during the dress rehearsal for me.

My team (2RB) we had a little confusion as to if it was a funny picture or not. . .. .

The boys pants looked liked skirts so they decided to be like the girls and hold them out ha ha ha

My director Jeanette Geslison (a long-time family friend)