Resolutions & Goal-Setting: 2017 Version

Let's quickly recap how I did in 2016 before I start listing out my ideas for the changes & improvements I would like to see happen in 2017.

The Good:

• Temple attendance - I didn't keep track but I'm pretty positive we made it to the temple every other month.
• Learning to cook new foods - I didn't do this exactly how I had envisioned it, but I started a food blog and experimented a lot with cooking during the year.
• FHE - still not as thought-out as I would like (most weeks we just grab the Friend and do a story or activity out of there and call it good) but the girls know what FHE is and how it is supposed to work and they love it, so I'm calling it a success.
• Reading - I listened to tons of audiobooks & podcasts and we read "The Wizard of Oz" and "Little House in the Big Woods" with Clara.  
• Photography - I definitely did NOT complete the photography goals I had set for myself, BUT I took a number of classes, attended a photography conference, and really improved my photography overall, I think.  Which was really the point, even if I am still not as skilled as I would like to be.
• Camping - we went just once, to Lake Siskiyou.  Better than nothing, I guess.  

The Not-so-good: 

I'm not going to be too hard on myself.  I know I set big goals and I know they won't all be achieved.  I do it every year and I'm kind of okay with this approach.  Also, I did really well on a lot of goals like scripture study and keeping a tidy house for the first four months of the year until my jaw surgery, when everything sort of fell apart for me.  It took me a good 2 months just to get all the wires & splints off and start eating normally again, and even longer to feel like I was recovered.  I'm still dealing with quite a bit of jaw pain that I'm hoping goes away once I'm finally out of the rubber bands that the orthodontist has had me in.  Not that any of that should really be an excuse, but I never got back into a consistent mode after all that even though I had periods of trying to re-implement a lot of what had been working well early in the year.  But I'm still grateful for those four really consistent months.

So, on to 2017!

It's funny - as I have been talking with friends about our resolutions & goals for 2017, so many of us seem to have similar feelings about the things that definitely aren't working for us and that we would like to change this upcoming year.  A big one is technology/social media.  I have been way, way guilty of over use and abuse of this and my goals reflect some of my concerns in this area.

Spiritual: to draw closer to my Heavenly Father.  

I know it isn't measurable & specific, but I don't really think that is the way to approach this particular area of life.  There are, however, specific ways I plan to achieve this, and many of them are just reinstituting previous goals that go on my list of resolutions annually, so much that I should just copy & paste this portion.  Or actually DO THEM so that they become such a part of me that I don't feel a need to include them!

• daily scripture study (personal & family)
• daily prayer (personal & family - although daily prayer is one thing we have always been really good about)
• monthly temple attendance (it's a big jump from last year's every-other-month approach but we did this the year before Clara was born and it was such a meaningful thing to me and really helped me feel close to my father in heaven and to Paul that I would love to attempt it again)
• do the 30 days of conference challenge before each session of conference (I did this for the first time before October conference this past year and loved it)
• improve my fasting (I'm a terrible faster and I want to approach it with gratitude to make it more meaningful)
• make the Sabbath day more meaningful by keeping it holy (I have been unintentional about this and want to stop doing things like throwing in a load of laundry on Sundays - it seems like a small thing but it is one small thing I can easily change)
• read the Ensign & the Friend cover-to-cover each month
• do 2-4 Young Women's personal progress projects each month, while I am serving as Mia Maid advisor

Mental: this is always my biggest category and I probably use it a little too broadly & generously.  It's more of an umbrella, catch-all, this-is-stuff-I-want-to-implement-to-make-my-life-&-mental-health-better category.

• no dirty dishes in the sink at night (there are no magical elves who will come wash them for me overnight.  Those dishes will still be there in the morning and I will be annoyed so I might as well just get it taken care of before bed)
• no laundry left on the floor to be folded (same as above - the folding fairies have yet to make an appearance at my house and I loathe that I letting clean laundry pile up waiting to be folded the next day.  Or day or two after that.  Trust me, the dishes & the laundry goals are definitely for my mental sanity)
• keep counters & flat surfaces clear of clutter (this goal is going to take some work - first I have to clear that clutter that is still gathering and find places for things.  It's sort of a work in progress that I hope to achieve throughout the year)
• photography - this needs it's own subsets for the mental goal, but I would LOVE to 1. take at least one photography class this year, 2. take a photo of each of us each month, 3. do a day-in-the-life project (I did one last January and loved it - it would be awesome to do one a month but we shall see), 4. do a 365 or Project 52 (probably not going to happen but I think it's a great thing to strive for)
• update our family blog once a week (I was terrible last year - I stopped taking photos of people pretty much after the surgery when I couldn't hold a camera to my face without terrible pain for a couple of months and then started my food blog and basically only photographed food for the last half of the year.  That really, really needs to change in 2017.  Not having photos meant I felt like I didn't have anything to blog about, which isn't true.  I miss having the record and journaling aspects of regular blogging and Facebook & Instagram don't cut it for me because I don't often scroll back through to check those the way I like to do with the blog)
• go see 3-4 live performances/concerts (I guess we always accomplish this with summer concerts-in-the-park and the Nutcracker each year, but I would love to do more plays & things with Paul and the girls)
• camping - at least twice, hopefully three times (this is for sure mental)
• take the girls skiing at least 2-3 times (again, this is as much mental & relationship building as anything else)
• read "Alice In Wonderland" with Clara

Physical: feel better in my own skin by improving my overall physical health through diet & exercise

• complete a 2nd round of Whole30 (I got 19 days into one last January before I came down with a bad cold and finally called it quits, but I love how I feel when I make better food choices and Whole30 really helps me get my cravings under control, especially when it comes to sugar & breads, which are probably my two biggest weaknesses when it comes to having an unhealthy relationship with food)
• get weight back to where I was in 2015 (I won't say what the weight loss goal was but I'm definitely not as fit and I'm feeling it) 

Social: connect with others by disconnecting myself from social media.

Social media is such a tricky thing for me because I use it so much for my food blog.  But that shouldn't be an excuse for failing to engage with others.  I hate that I whip out my phone in moments of boredom, or worse, as a way of avoiding or escaping social situations.  I'm definitely guilty of that behavior and I know it's rude and anti-social.  It's something I want to change in 2017.  

• no checking phone at bedtime (in fact, I have decided not to even plug my phone in to charge in the bedroom anymore.  I plan to just leave it in the kitchen to charge overnight so I'm not tempted to check it during the middle of the night when the girls wake me up, which they still do almost every night)
• no checking phone/computer/email/social media - anything - in the morning until after scriptures & prayers
• no phone at the table, in the car, or at social events where I should be engaging with others (this includes church.  And since the temptation is just too great, I plan to just leave my phone at home during church, in my purse while in the car, etc.  I almost never get phone calls anyway and texts are never urgent so I don't know why I feel so attached to having the phone in my hand all the time)

I know these goals are lofty and not very narrowed down, but I'm just going to roll with them.  2017, I'm looking forward to you very much!

Click Away in Seattle

Look at this, two posts in one week.  I'm on a roll here.  :)

Last year toward the end of the summer, I took my first photography class to learn how to shoot my DSLR in full manual, thanks to my sister-in-law, Deborah, who blazed the photography trail by connecting with an organization called The Photographer's Element.  That first four-week class was so much fun and I learned so much that I signed up to take another four-week class on composition.  I have really enjoyed taking pictures for years now and Paul is the one who really got us set up with a nice camera back in law school when we were doing so much traveling, but it wasn't until taking these classes that I realized what a fun hobby it is and how much there is to learn about what makes a good photograph and how to achieve one.

I'm definitely not much of a photographer and I have tons to learn and lots of practicing that I need to do, but I think I have come a long way in the past year.  And last October I learned about an organization called Clickin' Moms and their annual photography conference when they streamed 10 live classes from the conference while Deborah and I were in Yosemite.  We didn't get to watch those classes but we talked photography that whole week and took our cameras out trying to be really intentional about not only taking pictures of what we were doing and our kids, but actually taking interesting pictures.

When I'm looking through a viewfinder, and actually, even before I put the camera up to my eye, I'm now assessing things like the quality of the light, color and shapes and patterns, lines and space, emotion and meaning of the subject of my photo, etc.  Plus making choices about camera settings for background blur, where my focal point should be, how to frame my subject, and on and on.  There are so many different things to think about when shooting like this and I think it is the challenge and thought-process behind it that provides a lot of the reward for me.

Anyway, I decided last October that if it was at all possible, I was going to try to go to Click Away in 2016.  When they announced that it was going to be in Seattle, I knew I sort of had to do it.  I went all by myself, not really knowing anybody beforehand, but since I have really gone deep into this crazy hobby I have made some online friends and connected through FB with some Bay Area photographers who were looking for me at the airport since we arranged to go on the same flight.

Click Away was a total blast.  I feel like I learned so, so much from actually walking around photographing in the exact same light as really experienced professionals, getting to ask them questions (and hearing other people's questions), checking my settings against theirs and looking at the back of their camera screens to compare against what I was shooting - it was so different than an online class and I loved it for what a different experience it was.

I had 5 boutique classes that were small groups of about 25-30 women and 3 classes that were larger, lecture style classes in conference rooms at the hotel.  There were always lots of classes going on so I was able to pick and choose what interested me most and then I also got recordings of the live-streaming classes, which I haven't had a chance to watch yet but am looking forward to.  I did 1 outdoor observation & nature based class at the Seattle City Center which is a park area near the Space Needle.  Then I had 2 family photo shoot sessions - one in a park setting with trees, grass, etc. and the other over at Pike's Place Market in a more urban setting.  Unfortunately, I somehow deleted all of my images from one of those sessions, which is a bummer.  My other 2 boutique sessions were indoors in suites so that we could focus on indoor lighting and shadows, etc.

I don't know where Click Away will be next year and if I will be able to go again, but I absolutely loved the experience and I think it was so good for me to get away for a few days.  Paul took great care of the girls while I was gone and even took Friday off of work to take over my room-mom duties for Clara's Kindergarten class since it was their Jog-a-Thon.  I came home to flowers and a clean house and my loves who I missed a ton while I was gone.

Here are some of my favorite images that I took at Click Away.  This first set was from a class called "Uncovered Beauty" where we talked about observing shape and color and lines and really thinking and pausing before even putting our cameras up to our eyes so that we could be intentional in the photographs we were taking.

This next set of images is from an urban family photo session in the area around Pike's Place Market.  I love that we got to work with backlighting and some lower lighting in this session since we were moving around a lot.  I also got really lucky and avoided the rain that was off and on the whole time we were there.  Other sessions had to deal with the weather but it was always dry when I was outside.

That's our instructor, Elena Blair, in the middle in black.  

This next class was in the Presidential Suite where Obama has stayed (this was a big thing apparently) with Anna Larson in a class about using window lighting in small spaces.  The other women were good about rotating around each other so we could also practice taking pictures of our cute model family.  I loved both my indoor classes because it gave me ideas for how to take better pictures in my own home of my girls (something I have struggled with and consequently haven't posted many photos along those lines - something I plan to change).

My new friend Claudy & I practiced applying some of the lighting principals we were learning by modeling for each other.  Here is my image of here where I was trying to capture Rembrandt lighting (that little patch of light on her cheek on the shadowed side of her face is surprisingly tricky to achieve!).

And here is one she took of me that she sent to me afterwards:

My other indoor class was called "The Art of Darkness" with a photographer named Allison McSorley and she was maybe my favorite instructor of all.  I find darker images and deeper shadows really compelling and felt like I had a bunch of a-ha! moments while listening to her and getting to ask her my questions.  Our little models were hilarious and the youngest sister, who was 4, had me dying when she came over to me, smiled prettily, then pointed to my teeth and told me that she "liked my rings on my teeth".  

I'm just going to throw this out there that if anybody who reads this is interested in learning about photography, I think that Clickin' Moms is pretty wonderful.  And I would definitely recommend taking at least one or two basic classes because you can learn so much!

Going Under the Knife

A year ago, on April Fool's Day 2015, I had an appointment with an orthodontist to talk about getting braces to fix my teeth, which were getting more and more crooked each year.  I had braces for 5 years as a kid, but my orthodontist was super old and basically admitted that he couldn't get my bite just right and was retiring and we were moving so he just took them off, gave me an upper retainer only and sent me on my merry way.  At the appointment, after taking x-rays and examining my bite, the orthodontist explained that the only way to fix my teeth was to do old-school metal braces (I had been hoping for Invisalign) and surgery where my jaw would have to be broken and reset to correct my bite.

Then he showed me a simulation video of how and where the jaw would be broken and moved around.  And I started bawling and freaking out.  Then I went home and scheduled two more consultations with different orthodontists for a second and third opinion.

Long story short, they all said the same thing:  I had a "severe skeletal Class II malocclusion with a transverse deficiency problem."  Basically a terrible cross-bite and overbite that could be corrected only through surgical intervention, not just braces.  Because of my bad bite, my left joint in my jaw is "severely worn down from the open bite trauma" (this is all from a letter from the orthodontist I went with to my oral surgeons discussing treatment).

I got my braces on in May, which I blogged about back then.  It was all mostly funny ha-ha and the surgery was a far-off concept until a couple of months ago when we finally set a date for the procedure and started ramping things up with my treatment and meeting with the surgeons to prepare.

This Friday - April Fool's Day 2016, exactly 1 year from that first consultation about getting braces - I will be going in to have a 4-hour surgery where my jaw will be broken in 5 places, then plated with metal plates, screwed into a new position and wired shut for almost 2 weeks.  It's not going to be fun.

While I am wired shut, I won't be able to eat anything other than liquids.  And not even regular smoothies or milkshakes, which are supposedly too thick to get past my teeth.  We are talking chicken broth and apple juice that can trickle between my teeth because even if I COULD suck from a straw (which I won't be able to), I couldn't get a straw, even a small one.  At the class preparing me (and Paul) for the surgery, they said that we can try smoothies or shakes but first need to put them through a fine mesh strainer and I should be able to consume the resulting liquid.  So, yeah, that's going to be fun.  Also, no blowing my nose, sneezing through my nose, picking up anything more than 5 pounds or any kind of exercise for at least 6 weeks so I don't open up a wound or break sutures inside my nose or mouth.  Oh, and the vomiting blood and nose-bleeds that are side effects of the surgery for the first week.  It won't be pretty.

Once the wires come off, I will still have a splint in my mouth (sort of like a mouth guard that keeps my upper jaw in place but allows me to move the lower jaw) and at that point I should be able to move up to things like yogurt, applesauce, and anything soft enough to mush but not chew for another 4-6 weeks until the splint comes off and some bone has started forming between the broken sections of jaw.

The nurse explained that most people don't complain of pain after the surgery so much as feeling really uncomfortable.  All the incisions are on the inside of my mouth and they remove the nerves in the upper and lower jaws and set them to the side while they operate, then tuck them back inside when they are done.  Apparently doing that paralyzes or numbs them like when you get a cavity filled at the dentist.  Except instead of the numbness wearing off after one afternoon, it takes anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months (or longer) for the numbness (which will be my entire face below my eyes) to go away.

The other big part of the discomfort is from the swelling, which is pretty extreme for most people.  I will have to wear an ice pack that surrounds my face non-stop for the first 72 hours, and then 30 minutes of every hour for the next week after that to keep the swelling to a minimum.  And even at that, when they showed us pictures of patients who have been through the surgery before and documented their progress day-by-day, the swelling by day 5 is painful just to look out.  After that it is supposed to start subsiding and by 9 months after the surgery (sometimes 12), I should look how I am going to look for the rest of my life because all of the swelling will be gone.  I'm not exactly looking forward to looking like a chubby bunny for the next 9 months.

I hope it is worth it.  A big motivating factor for doing this now is that our insurance covers the entire procedure and all I have to pay is a $20 co-pay, which is amazing.  Each of the three orthodontists I consulted with said "please tell me you have Kaiser?" when they realized surgery would be necessary because of how good they are with the amount of coverage for this.  Also, I knew my teeth were just going to keep getting worse and worse and this would eventually result in more pain (it already feels pretty terrible) and they say the older you are the harder it is to recover from surgery.  But I'm worried about not being able to care for the girls, not being able to talk normally, what it will be like to throw up with my jaws wired shut (a major concern and one that we talked quite a bit about in the prep class), the recovery time, how I will look afterwards (both in the near and far terms) and so much more.  Thankfully my parents are coming to stay with us and take care of me and the girls and Paul while I am out of commission.

Wish me luck.

On Giving Low-Fives: My Most Embarrassing Moment

I have recently had occasion to relate my "most embarrassing moment" story and realized I have never posted about it on the blog.  We all have one (or should, shouldn't we?) and they get pulled out and dusted off to cheer us (or others) or to allow us to relive the embarrassment again in a safer moment and through the filtered lens of time.  I actually have two solidly mortifying experiences in my back pocket as my "most embarassing moments" but the winner is definitely the one that involved giving a senior law partner at a prestigious firm a low-five in close quarters, when he was not expecting one in the least because I completely misread a gesture (and apparently lost my mind for a second and thought that low-fives were a normal and reasonable thing to do in the legal practice or life in general for that matter.  I mean, of course, right?).

It was toward the end of my summer associateship at a big law firm in Palo Alto when I was invited by a litigation partner for whom I had done quite a bit of work to attend a large arbitration in San Francisco where there were something like 8 or 10 or so law firms representing various parties all with varying degrees of interest in the complex legal matter that was being handled.  Mine was a primarily observatory role with note-taking support for two partners from my firm and during the day the sets of legal counsel for the interested parties were shuffled between large and small conference rooms, first meeting in large groups and then 2 or 3 going off to discuss side matters.  I was honestly a little starstruck at the whole process and the views from the ump-teenth floor of one of the skyscrapers downtown where we were arbitrating and I had very little to do of substance besides just follow along and try to absorb as much as I could and keep up.  It felt sort of like a little gift to be invited along since I knew these partners didn't need me at all - like "take your daughter to work day", except, you know, I wasn't their daughter and I was getting paid.

So sometime after lunch I ended up in a small room with an older, kind of gruff partner from one of our main competing firms and his summer associate, and the partner from my firm.  We (okay, they) were discussing the merits of various arguments and points were being made by each side and (and this is where time slows down and a high pitched warning buzz fills my head) the senior partner from the competing firms makes a point while opening his palms at about waist level in a semi-"am-I-right-or-am-I-right?" kind of shrug which I (incorrectly) interpreted as an invitation for a low-five for no rational reason whatsoever.  Which I promptly accepted with an enthusiastic slap on his upturned palm (the instinct to connect the low-five before the hand was pulled away with a taunting "too slow!" apparently kicked in), thereby completing the low-five exchange and proving my social (and professional) ineptitude.  

The best part is that the poor old fellow didn't see it coming AT ALL and didn't seem to know what had just happened (neither did I).  I even had a time-slows-down-as-I-see-what-is-about-to-happen-and-can't-stop-it moment of alarm just before the slap.  The partner I worked for had missed the exchange while shuffling through some papers in a folder.  Or at least that is what I told myself afterwards, even though he kept giving me strange sideways glances for the rest of that breakout session.  The other summer associate looked scandalized (appropriately so).  But he also looked a little worried, like maybe it was normal for summer associates to act that way and why hadn't he been low-fiving partners all summer long?!!  I can't possibly be the only summer associate ever who overanalyzed these kinds of social exchanges this way.  So we all moved on like nothing had happened, while I sat there wishing I could shrink away to nothing.  

Even now I cringe just reliving that in order to type it up.  A week later I got an offer to come work full-time for the firm after graduation, so... all's well that ends well.

Most embarrassing moment Number 2 involves a boy and a crush and years of joking about it with my best friend who also had a crush on the same boy, until suddenly some guys who knew the object of our shared (and only partially joking) obsession who I did not know but who knew my roommate at the time were invited into my room and saw the boy's high school senior picture (which had been color-scanned out of the yearbook, enlarged and framed by the friend with the mutual crush on him as a gag 16th birthday present for me) sitting on my desk (as a joke!  A JOKE!).  And they were like, um, why do you have a picture of Greg* on your desk?!  Isn't he dating so-and-so...?  And I basically mumbled something about "oh, it's just a joke" and then ran out of the apartment in horror praying that it wouldn't get back to Greg (who never even knew I existed) and promising myself to get rid of the picture after the guys left.

So there you have it.  My two most embarrassing moments.  Now it's your turn to share.  

* Name has been changed because of the internets and me not wanting there to be a chance that somebody would do a google search that would lead back to this blog post.  Because that would lead to an unfortunate embarrassing moment of its own.

That time I auditioned for a reality cooking show...

So, this was me last September going to a live casting call for the show Masterchef, which premieres tonight.  The short story is that I not only made it through that first round but through multiple subsequent rounds until I found myself flying to LA in January to spend almost a week with 99 other hopeful contestants.

I never really imagined auditioning for a reality cooking show.  I mean, I like to bake and cook, but I have no training or anything like that.  But while I was walking through our local farmer's market with the girls one day late last August, I was approached by a casting recruiter who told me about the open casting call in San Francisco in a couple of weeks and asked me whether I had heard of the show and would I be interested.  I was wearing Rose in the baby carrier at the time and Clara was in the stroller, but I was intrigued enough to stand and talk for a few minutes while the agent took down my name and contact info and then asked me questions about what kind of food I like to cook, how I learned to cook, how often I cook, and what my sort of life story is (stay-at-home adoptive mom, former lawyer, Mormon), etc. and then took a picture of me.  Honestly I went home laughing about the experience but thinking that the likelihood of me actually making a dish and going in to the city to try out were slim.

Until I got a phone call a few days before the casting call from a producer in LA who said they had read the preliminary info the casting recruiter had sent them and asking whether I was still considering going to the audition and if so, letting me know I would be on their VIP list and could go straight to the head of the line and essentially walk right in with my dish.  I had imagined waiting in a line for hours with hundreds of other people and that hadn't sounded like much fun to me, but the thought of having a front-of-the-line pass was enough for me to think seriously about it, come up with a dish, and head out on Bart Saturday morning while Paul took the girls on a daddy-daughter date. 

So that's how I found myself at the front of a snaking conga line of homecooks from all walks of life with my signature dish of Spicy Honey Chicken, coconut jasmine rice, arugala salad with citrus-cumin dressing, and mango avocado salsa in a bag just waiting to be plated for judging and critique.  20 of us went in at a time and were given 5 minutes to plate our signature dishes before a professional chef (not one of the celebrity ones from the show) came and tasted each part of what we had made.  One of the funnest parts about the day was seeing what all these other people had made and hearing their stories and getting to know them.  The lady next to me told me that she had made her dish 20 times over the previous month so she could have everything down perfectly.  It was a shrimp tempura bon mi sandwich or something like that.  Another guy explained his dish made with pork's ear something or other.  One girl had a bunch of leftover panna cotta with berries that she let us all taste and it was wonderful. 

Then things got crazy.  I advanced to the next round, and then the next, then the next, then the next.  Each time I thought that there was no way I was moving on.  But just before Christmas I learned I had made the final cut and was invited to audition in LA in January with the other "top 100 homecooks in America" for a spot on the show.  A couple of very generous family members in the area said they could watch the girls during the days while I was gone and Paul would be home with them for the weekend so I went. 

I can't talk about what that experience was like other than to say that it was basically awesome and nerve wracking and I had fun and met such an interesting and diverse group of people brought together by a shared love of food and cooking.  We were told that 40,000 other hopefuls had auditioned that season for one of our spots and getting to know the other 99 who made it to LA was so much fun. I can't wait to watch the ones who made it through that final cut (I didn't) tonight when the show premieres. 

Mother's Day 2015

Paul and the girls gave me such a great mother's day this year.  On Saturday morning Paul took the girls to Orchard Supply to do a mother' day craft (painting pots and planting flowers) while I got a mani-pedi and got my brows waxed at the mall.  Then later that day we went out to dinner.  On Sunday the girls wore the new dresses that I made for them and we played croquet in the backyard with the croquet set that Paul and the girls gave me.  And then Paul made ribs, scallops, and green beans for dinner.  It was such a lovely weekend and I felt very special.

 

 

These are just a few pictures that I already posted on instagram, but I thought I would include them here too.  I have done quite a bit of sewing between quilts, crafts, and Halloween costumes, but I have never actually made regular clothes.  I got the urge to change that a few weeks back when I saw the cutest dress pattern for the girls.  Then I happened to go to Joann's the day that their patterns were all on sale for $1 and I picked up a couple of different patterns for myself.  I'm very happy with how the girls' dresses turned out despite some mistakes and imperfections.  Somehow either my measurements (most likely) or the pattern was off on my dress so I made it way bigger than I needed.  I tried taking it in but could only fix it so much.  It looks so-so but really I would kind of like to try again with different fabric and make some changes for a better result.  But all-in-all I'm pretty proud of how all three dresses turned out.

Rose fell asleep in Paul's arms in the foyer of the church during Sunday School.  This is how I found them after I finished teaching.

That is butter being grated onto the ribs.  Then they get drizzled in honey and brown sugar, wrapped in foil and set back in the smoker to finish.  They are beyond amazing.  Insanely bad for you, but SOOOOO good.

And just for fun, here is a comparison picture from last year with the girls.  Rose was so tiny!  I miss the look of the bangs but man I just cannot handle maintaining them. 

 

 

11 Years

4 degrees
17 countries
2 home purchases and renovations
1 ER visit (me when I cut my thumb)
Tens of thousands of student loans paid off (thank goodness that is behind us!)
10 (or more) visits to Disneyland
Hundreds of date nights
4 full-time post-graduation employers
1 marathon
9 national parks
2 beautiful and bright girls
11 incredible years

Goals for 2015

Resolution time!  Oh boy, first ... accountability for 2014.  Here are links to last year's resolutions in case you really care to see (post 1 and post 2).  Um, it was lousy.  At least if we are going by a strict, did I do these to 100% standard of accountability.  In my defense, this past year involved a new baby, a failed adoption, a job change, selling a house, buying a new house, and remodeling.  So, yeah, it was a crazy year.  So here is what I want to say about accountability for my 2014 resolutions:  they helped me do better than I otherwise would have.  No, I didn't read scriptures every single day.  But I did read the entire Book of Mormon this year and quite a lot of the Old Testament, too.  And while we didn't do FHE every week, we did it WAY more than ever before and on a pretty consistent basis to the point here I honestly think we can achieve a goal of weekly FHE for 2015.  I read quite a few really excellent books but I didn't keep track very well so I can't say for sure whether I met my 2-books-a-month goal.  My guess is that I was close but not quite there.  We did lots of date nights and special family outings so I'm going to say that we accomplished those goals.  Anyhoosier, enough about 2014.  Let's move on to 2015 resolutions.

So, first off, I want to say that these resolutions are not about overhauling my life.  I don't want a life-makeover at this point or anything.  Most of these are more about tweaking and refining some practices that I am already working on.  Not that I am saying I am so great or anything:  I just don't think making unrealistic goals that I have very little hope of achieving is going to do me a heck of a lot of good at this point in my life.

Spiritual:

* Go the temple quarterly.  I would love to say monthly, but, well, let's just say I'm hoping to take an underpromise and overdeliver approach to this goal.
* Daily scripture study.  Yes, daily.  I really, really want to get that one down. 
* Weekly FHE.

Physical:

* I think I've got the exercising 3+ times a week thing down pretty well.  But it is always in the gym.  So I want to set a resolution to get some exercise outdoors at least once a week.  It doesn't even have to be a workout.  I want to do Saturday morning runs outside some weekend or going for family walks in the evenings now that Clara has got some speed under her using her scooter or go hiking or play tennis or something.
* Lose weight.  I'm not going to be more specific about this on the blog.   
* Look into braces.  If I could change one thing about myself, it would be my smile.  Its super embarrassing to admit, but totally true.  This has a significant financial aspect to it that might make it a non-starter from the get-go, but I'm hoping 2015 is the year to get going on this.

Family:

* Date night with Paul 2x/month (or more - hopefully more, since we love date nights).  We are hoping to do more of these in SF and try out some of the amazing restaurants there.  We have had a bunch of recommendations from friends and are excited about this one.  It is so easy to get so caught up with parenting and work and life and forget to set time aside for each other without any distractions (not that I think of the girls as distractions, but you know what I mean) and it is important to us to maintain and nurture our marriage by taking time for the two of us to connect in a meaningful way. 
* Travel outside the U.S. with the girls.  This has been on my resolutions list for years, really, and hasn't happened yet.  But because of that we have got some decent travel rewards accrued AND if we are going to do this it would be nice to do before Rose turns 2 and we have to pay for her airfare also, so maybe 2015 is the year to make this happen. 
* Remodel the kitchen, living, and family rooms. 

Personal:

* Read at least one book each month, maybe two.  And read a variety of literature - something classic, some non-fiction, a play, YA, etc. 
* Find other avenues to expand my mind and talents - practice the piano more, listen to podcasts, try something new (I learned to do handstands in 2014 and LOVED it), learn to make panna cotta, go skiing, see  play, swim in the ocean, etc.  I know this goal is way underdeveloped and loosey-goosey, but I want to keep it flexible while I am figuring it out and seeing what I can do while maintaining other priorities and taking care of my little family. I like how this approach worked in 2014 because it opened me up to new possibilities of things that I otherwise might now have done, like performing in the Nutcracker. 
* Get more sleep.  Seriously, I need to focus on this goal.  I need start going to bed before 11:00 on a regular basis (10:00 is the goal). In order to do this, I have a couple of other sub-goals that need to happen - watch less tv, do dishes, laundry, living room clean up earlier in the evening so I don't end up staying up late to clean the kitchen/laundry/living room because it is driving me bonkers.

Happy Mother's Day

I am so grateful for all the wonderful examples I have had of the most amazing moms and women who have mothered me in one way or another.  I knew--like, capital "K" knew--growing up that I had the best mom ever, and I am even more convinced of that now.  And I have an absolutely wonderful mother-in-law who was obviously an incredible mom to her four boys. 

 

But I also think of my aunts - specifically my mom's three sisters - who always felt like second moms to me.  None of them ever married or had children but there is no question in my mind that they have been mothers, not just to me and my siblings by being at almost all of our most important life events like holidays, birthdays, baptisms, weddings, graduations, community theater performances, recitals, vacations, camping trips, etc., but to the countless other people whose lives they have touched as they have served and cared for and opened their hearts to extended family and friends.  I also think of my grandma who suffers from Alzheimer's and how much I love her.  And of friends and roomates and mission companions who have been and are examples of motherhood to me, whether they are mothers or not and whether they know it or not.  And I think about Kayli and Tabby and am filled with overwhelming love and admiration for them.  I think about Kayli's mom teaching me how to give Clara her first bath in the hospital and clipping Clara's newborn fingernails for the first time and opening their home to us when we were there for Clara's birth. 

 

The world is just so full of amazing women who are great examples of mothers and I feel very fortunate to know so many of them.

I certainly am blessed this Mother's Day.



Singing, a Minivan, and Clara's Imagination

I dashed into Sprouts on Wednesday night to pick up a few things for dinner (kale, Italian sausage, Yukon gold potatoes - I have a killer Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana copycat recipe) and realized while browsing the produce aisle that I was singing the song "My Girl" which was softly playing over the loudspeakers.  Like, singing "I've got sunshi-eye-ine, on a cloudy dayyyyyy" out loud and not with much subtlety and totally unconsciously.  As soon as comprehension dawned I felt super embarrassed and furtively glanced around to see if anybody had noticed.  That's when I saw that there was a man sticking apples in a bag singing "when it's cold outside, I've got the month of may" along too.  And a woman over by the onions doing the same thing.  It was like a flash mob in there and none of us were aware of our own involvement.  I went back to singing and shopping and thoroughly enjoyed the music.

We bought a new (to us) minivan last Friday.  It was the last day of January and Paul had it all planned out how that was the best day to buy a car because the salespeople were trying to meet end-of-the-month sales goals, etc. and would be more agreeable to negotiation strategies.  Anywho, we are now the proud owners of a 2011 charcoal grey Honda Odyssey Ex-L with leather interior, a dvd player, and those doors that open at the push of a button.  Paul is so pleased you have no idea.  I had to remind him more than once at the dealership to put his poker face back on because his smile was so big that it was painfully apparent how much he wanted that car even though he was telling the salesperson how there were two others for a  little less at dealerships not far away that we would go to if the pricepoint we wanted couldn't be met.  We got home late (almost 9:00 p.m.) but Clara was still awake with my mom who spent the past couple of weeks with us helping with the two little ladies.  Clara ran out to the car and immediately climbed inside the very roomy interior and started jumping up and down with her arms in the air shouting "hooray! hooray!" and giggling and smiling like a Price Is Right contestant who just won the showcase showdown.  It was awesome.  She loves her new view and even though I don't get all worked up about new cars, I have to say that the Odyssey is a pretty sweet ride and I have enjoyed how much easier it is to get the girls in and out this past week.  We can't wait to take it on a road trip and use all the cargo space.

My mom and I took the girls to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (pics to come) and when we got home that night Clara insisted on calling me "Mommy Walrus" and told me that she was "Baby Walrus".  There wasn't even a walrus at the acquarium and I was less than flattered.  I tried to convince her to call me something cuter like Mommy Sea Otter or Mommy Penguin but she flatly refused.  At least she didn't latch onto the hammerhead sharks that we saw. 

I forgot to mention in my previous post where Paul was painting Clara's nails how, during the manicure, Clara chided Paul for his lack of conversation skills. "You have to talk to me, Daddy!" Clara bossed as Paul quietly concentrated on keeping the polish only on the nail and not on the surrounding cuticles.  Paul and I were cracking up over that one and I can't believe I forgot to mention it.

A week or so ago Clara rediscovered her toy medical kit and has since repurposed the stethoscope into a monkey tail.  It was completely her own imagination - she picked it up, stuck it around her waist with the long part hanging down the back, and announced that it was her monkey tail and has played like that for days and days now.  I am so proud of the imagination this girl has. 

She also has been wrapping small quilts around herself (the kind I lay Rose on in the living room to change her diaper or for tummy time, etc.) and performing "Let It Go" from "Frozen" since she has transformed herself into Elsa with a "sparkly cape".  For a little bit I debated going to the Disney Store and buying her an Elsa costume (even though I'm trying to get her to back off this obsession with "Frozen" by not playing the songs for her as often even though she begs for them 100 zillion times a day) but then thought, "why sabotage her imagination?"  If she believes that a patchwork quilt is a sparkly cape, more power to her for being so creative and imaginative and who am I to cripple that by getting her the "real" thing?  So instead I helped her out by safety pinning it around her to free up both of her hands for her musical numbers. 

And speaking of musical numbers, yesterday when we got home from dropping Grandma Cece off at the airport, I carried Rose into the bedroom in her carseat and shut the door since she was sound asleep and I didn't want to disturb her.  Clara then realized it was the perfect opportunity to perform another favorite song from "Frozen" - "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?".  I was crazy lucky and she agreed to give me an encore performance - this time with my phone camera rolling - and I got it on video with only a little coaxing. 

Do you want to build a snowman from Amy Nash on Vimeo.

 

The latest update on Rose is that she is such a good baby and is doing really great.  Her sleeping is normalizing and last night she actually slept from about 9:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., which is completely ridiculous for a 3-week old in my opinion.  It was my night off (Paul gets up with the girls on the weekends) so I wasn't totally surprised though because Clara always, always, always slept best whenever it was Paul's turn to get up and apparently Rose is going to do the same.  But two nights before that she had a 5 1/2 hour stretch of sleep as well so maybe these good long sleep stretches aren't a total fluke?  Typically though she is up twice a night - once around 1:00 a.m. and a second time around 4:00 a.m.  And when she is awake she is super alert and has such good head strength already!  She loves to be held and is generally a pretty contented little gal.  I am planning more Rose-specific posts next week after her birth announcements go out.

 

First Date Night of 2014

One of my New Year's Resolutions is for us to go on dates at least twice a month.  I tried to schedule a date night swap with our friends for this past Tuesday/Wednesday but it didn't work out because they had other obligations.  But I REALLY wanted a date night, so I guess I resorted to drastic measures.

As I was chopping cilantro for the chicken flautas that I was making for dinner, I accidentally sliced into my thumb.  It all happened so fast that I didn't register the pain at first.  I have knicked myself and even sliced a little bit here and there over the years, but this... well, I pretty much went about 3/4 of the way through my thumb a little less than an inch from the tip.  It was gruesome.

Clara was watching "The Little Mermaid" and I didn't scream or cry out or anything.  I just quickly doused it under cold water to rinse off the first welling of blood, then realized just the extent of what I had done and grabbed a clean white dish towel from the drawer and laid down on the kitchen floor trying to draw deep breaths and keep it together so I wouldn't pass out.  Because I have totally passed out from blood, needles, and pain in the past.  I don't swoon or anything - it isn't romantic by any stretch of the imagination.  I am more of the eyes-roll-back-in-the-head-and-I-topple variety of fainter.  It's kind of one of those embarrassing things about myself that I don't usually share.

Thank goodness for cell phones because I had mine on the kitchen floor there with me and I called Paul while I lay there feeling beads of sweat form and drip from my forehead and down my neck (part of the whole passing out thing for me) and clutching my cloth-covered hand like the little chunk of semi-detached thumb on the top was going to drop off, hoping he was already on his way home from work.  When he answered I sort of stammered out what I had done but must not have been very coherent because he asked me to elaborate at which point I lost my temper and sort of bellowed at him to stop asking me questions and just come home.  Then I called my friend Christine who lives around and the corner (and with whom we normally do our date night swap), praying she would answer.  She did and she rushed over with her two kids in tow and loaded Clara into her car then gathered my wallet, purse, and shoes for me since I pretty much just stayed put on the kitchen floor pretending I was somewhere else and that I hadn't just done what I had just done. 

Christine made me feel better by telling me on the drive to the hospital that she had gone to the emergency room just a month before because of a bad splinter.  This was my first trip to an ER, ever, and I was pretty anxious, but I told her to just drop me off at the entrance and then take the kids home because nobody had had dinner and Clara had a bad cold and besides, I didn't want anybody there with me anyway.  And I knew it wasn't the most convenient timing for her anyway since her husband had things going on that night with work and church responsibilities that had made it so date night was a no-go for the week. 

Sure enough, as soon as I walked up to the intake desk and had to remove my dishtowel from my thumb to show them what I had done, I lost it and started wailing.  It was SO embarrassing and I am so glad Clara didn't get to see it or she would have been traumatized for sure.  I don't know if it really looked terrible (I couldn't bring myself to look at it) or if I was just freaking out the other people in the waiting room because they took me right back and checked me in without having me sign anything.  Very impressive service with zero wait time.  Way to go Kaiser Permanente Hospital.  The guy who helped me (I don't know if he was a nurse or a doctor or what) tried to put the dishtowel back over my thumb for me and I snapped and sobbed at him "DON'T TOUCH IT!!!" like some sort of hideous swamp creature.  He actually laughed. 

I would like to point out that I am THE WORST patient in the entire world.

Anyway, after that I shut my eyes tight and didn't open them again until an hour later when everything was over.  They told me that they were going to have to clean out the wound and I went ballistic when they sprayed a tiny bit of saline solution in it.  So then somebody (not sure who was really involved at this point because eyes were closed - there was a girl and a guy and at least the girl was a doctor for sure, maybe the guy too) had the brilliant idea to go ahead and numb my thumb BEFORE cleaning it since they were going to have to numb it later anyway for stitches or whatever.  I don't know why numbing or knocking somebody out isn't the first thing on ER protocol because it only makes sense to me. 

I knew that numbing my thumb would require a painful shot and I was full-on hyperventilating and full-body shaking when they came in to do it.  Fortunately, the shot went into the fleshy mound of my palm at the base of my thumb rather than into the thumb pad itself (which I had been worrying about).  I was told it would take 15 minutes for my thumb to lose all sensation, which turned out to be pretty accurate because they went back to work on it around 7 1/2 minutes (they told me how long it had been) and I started sobbing uncontrollably all over again (versus the pathetic keening I had settled into) because I could still feel them lifting open the wound to squirt saline solution into it.  They decided it would be better to wait the full 15 minutes before working on it any more. 

Paul showed up after I had been there for about half an hour and came in and tried to stroke my hair.  I kept my eyes closed but barked at him not to touch me (seriously, I mentioned I am the worst patient ever, right?).  He chuckled and stood off to the side while everything was finished up and at one point I thought to mention that he should take some pictures on his camera.  Because of course I would need photos.  He laughed and said that he was already doing it and I just hadn't noticed because my eyes were screwed shut still. 

The doctor(s) decided that the wound could be closed with superglue stitches or whatever that stuff is so that they didn't have to use traditional stitches which I would have to go back for to have removed.  So once everything was irrigated they sealed it up and Paul and I had about 20 or 30 minutes to just sit there while the glue dried and chat.  Paul texted Christine to let her know the update and she said that Clara was eating dinner and Johannes didn't end up having to go to the meeting that had originally made date night impossible so we should take our time and stop and get ice cream on the way home or something.  So when everything was finished we stopped by In-N-Out for burgers and fries (I was craving salt like crazy - is that a symptom of shock or something?). 

All in all, we had dinner, conversation, time alone with each other, and sort of an activity/entertainment.  We laughed, we cried, we went home.  So I guess the first date night of 2014 was a success.

Homemade Christmas Gifts from 2013

I am definitely the type of person who loves to make gifts for people for Christmas.  Not for everybody (because that is just impossible to have the kind of time to do that) and not just to say I made something, but I try to brainstorm and come up with something special to make each year for at least somebody.  In the past I have made aprons, bags, pajamas, stuffed elephants for nieces and nephews, calendars, and other things.  This year it was primarily cookbooks and quilts (and calendars too but I didn't take any pictures of those - they were through Shutterfly).

 

I have blogged before about Tastebook and how I have been enjoying this little project (I didn't mention I was doing it for a present but that was my intention all along).  I really loved trying many new recipes and revisiting favorites.  And I felt like my photography improved throughout the process, at least with regard to food photography.  I also liked the writing process - describing the dishes or the memory associated with it. 

We gave copies to our mom's, Kayli's family, and a sister-in-law who I thought might appreciate it, but I also printed a copy for us and an extra one for Clara.  When I was a kid we used to go to these big family reunions and one year both sides of my mom's family put out family cookbooks that my mom contributed too (like the ward relief society cookbooks you sometimes see - I have those too from a couple of past wards we have been in).  My mom bought a bunch of copies of these cookbooks (they were largely sold as a fundraiser, I think) with the idea that each of her kids could have one when they grew up.  I have my copies in the cupboard and totally use them or go to them for inspiration every now and then and I love them.  So that is why I went ahead and printed one for Clara even though she is only 2 1/2.  It can just sit on her shelf until she is ready to go to college and then she can take it with her.

I really love that there was a dedication page and we were able to use one of my favorite pics from Yosemite that we took this November when we were trying to get a Christmas card pic.  This was the runner-up pic for the cards but it felt too busy for a card but perfect for the dedication page.

It really was a labor of love.  I tried a bunch of new dishes and discarded quite a few recipes as not being worthy of being included in the cookbook.  It took from early April to the first week of December to finish it and Paul helped a TON not just with being my go to taste-tester but also in editing and proofreading to catch mistakes.  I also realized (to no one's real surprise) that I was WAY heavy on the dessert category and light on the salad and main dish categories so I had to make some changes there.  Which meant cutting some favorite dessert and bread recipes (The House of Nash Cookbook, Vol. II is already in production with the recipes that didn't fit in Vol. I).  The book is 100 of our very favorite recipes, things that we have made and loved and would absolutely make again, over and over.

If you are even thinking you might want to check out Tastebook and play with it, EMAIL ME so I can send you an invite, m'kay?  Because I get credits for people who I refer and then I can get a free cookbook and I am getting close!  :)  Here are a few pics of some of the recipes inside our book so you can see what the formatting is like:

There are a few downsides to Tastebook, though.  I looked into four different recipe book publishers before deciding on Tastebook and each has its pros and cons.  So here are a couple of lists about what I learned through the process with Tastebook.

Things I do NOT love about Tastebook:

1. You can't do more than 1 photo per page.  I was hoping to do at least a couple of full page photos next to a page with a recipe or maybe a couple of "step-by-step" series for things like how to braid a challah bread but those just aren't options with Tastebook (but which ARE available with a company like Blurb).
2. You can't use your own photo for the cover.  There are something like 16 stock images on Tastebook to choose from for your cover image, but that is it.  I didn't realize this until we got the printed books but they are premade covers and then the white title square is basically just a nice label that they stick on.  It speeds up the process from printing and constructing cover bindings for every book, but still, I would like a little bit of a nicer option.
3. You can only order your book with up to 100 recipes.  I figured that was because it would only have that much space, but actually you could fit way more than that in the binding.  Probably 50 more.  You can order the additional recipes to be printed, but they print separately from the original book so the recipes don't get included in the automatically alphabetized table of contents. 
4. It is a little pricey.  Not as pricey as, say, Blurb, but still, each recipe book that I printed came to $40 (although I got 30% off of that for ordering more than 3 books, which I think was a Christmas special but I am guessing they do deals like that every now and then). 

Things I LOVE about Tastebook (particularly in comparison to other recipe book publishers I looked at):

1. Everything is saved online.  I can access any of my Tastebook recipes anywhere, even if I don't have the hard copy book or my own computer with  me.  This means I can also easily share and email my recipes with anybody who asks for them.  Also, theoretically I should be able to easily print additional books in the future, should I want to.
2. They have an app which means I can even access all the recipes I have added to my Tastebook account through my phone.  Like when I am in the grocery store and can't remember all the ingredients for something I had a sudden hankering for.  Or when I am visiting family and want to look up one of my recipes.
3. The spiral binding.  Tastebook was the only publisher that offered it and I LOVE when a cookbook will lay open totally flat without cracking a spine or pressing pages down.  It has the added benefit of making it so you can add or remove recipes if you want/need to down the road.
4. Overall quality is very good - it is a very professional product.  Everything formats nicely and comes out consistent and the paper, printing, and image quality is excellent. 
5. Each book comes with plastic page protector envelopes in the back so you can add loose recipes that you print off or recipe cards of whatever to your book.
6. You can pull in recipes from other sources.  My sister and a friend created Tastebook accounts and have added some recipes.  I can grab their recipes (including their pictures and everything so long as their recipes aren't set to "private") and add them to my own recipe collection and even print them to my own cookbook if I want to.  There are some major food bloggers/sites (like Epicurious and Smitten Kitchen) who post all their recipes on Tastebook so you could just create an entire cookbook of recipes you pull from other sources (pictures and all!) without doing too much work, if that sounds like what you are interested in.

Anyway, the other major gifts that I gave this year that were homemade were quilts.  I made this one for Clara from a pattern called "Meet Me At The Manor".  The pattern was from a quilting magazine that published it in four parts, and I saw the completed quilt at a quilt store and fell in love with it.  The quilt store (called Prairie Queens, here in San Jose) had collected the four magazine issues and chosen the fabrics (I wish I could take credit for the color scheme and fabric selection for this quilt because it is just beautiful) and sold the whole thing as a kit.  None of the pieces were cut out or anything - it was all just folded pieces of fabric so I did all the work of piecing it - but I feel like I have to admit that I wasn't some sort of creative genius in making this.  I don't really care though because I just love how it turned out so much and Clara is really pleased with it and talks about "her special quilt."  She saw me working on it over a few months (I mostly sew during her nap time or sometimes in the afternoon I will set her up at the kitchen table with crayons or playdough or some artsy-craftsy project and she will play while I sew next to her) so it wasn't a surprise present or anything.

I could have done a meandering swirl to quilt it myself, but after putting so much time and effort into it, I decided I wanted it quilted professionally with a vine and berries pattern that replicated the fabric I had chosen for the backing.  Here is a closer picture so you can see the detail of the quilting itself a little bit better.

I learned A TON from piecing Clara's quilt.  There are a few glaring errors that I won't point out because nobody would probably notice them but it bugs me that it wasn't perfect.  But I did my best and I feel like my sewing skills (particularly my quilting skills) grew by leaps and bounds.

So I decided to tackle the project of making a quilt for Paul.  He has asked me to make a quilt for him numerous times and I have always said no.  I didn't know if he really meant it or if he knew just went into it and honestly, I don't feel like fabric choices for a guy's quilt are as fun as fabric choices for a girl's quilt so I don't think I was all that inspired to start out with.  But after doing Clara's quilt I thought that maybe I could come up with something for Paul and create a quilt of my own design just for him.  So I chose trout, reeds, and log cabins as a recurring theme (basically going for an outdoorsy feel because I knew Paul would love that) and then added in some blocks specific to Paul - an appliqued block of Half Dome from Yosemite that I drew freehand after looking at a picture of it online, a BYU block and a U of U law block for the schools he went to (again, both appliqued from something I drew after looking at their logos online), and a banjo block.  Then I arranged them on graph paper and filled in with traditional blocks like churn dashes and stars and pinwheels, etc. 

I showed him the design to get him approval, then didn't say much more about it.  When my mom was visiting in August, I took advantage of having somebody to watch Clara for me and went to the fabric store and purchased most of the fabric (and supplemented with a little fabric I already had in my stash).  Then I pieced the whole thing in September through November while Paul was not at home so it would be a surprise.  He says that he had no idea I was working on it and he had seen what went into making Clara's quilt and how long that took me so he got choked up on Christmas morning when he opened the large box it was in, thinking it was a winter coat or something, and saw it.  It was worth all the work and hours on it to surprise him and get that reaction.

I also had this quilt professionally quilted with a large, looping design that had flies for fly-fishing periodically stitched throughout.  The backing was a green and brown flannel.  I searched the internet for quilt blocks that had fish and reeds and banjos in them for inspiration but didn't find much that I liked so I basically freehanded my own while looking at pictures of actual trout and looking at Paul's banjo to make sure I was getting the details right.  They were all created using an applique technique that I had learned doing Clara's quilt.  When it came to choosing colors for the fish, I didn't even bother trying to get the right colors for a rainbow or golden trout or anything - I just used fabrics I was already using for other squares and pieced them in a way that "looked pretty" to me and I think they turned out pretty well.  If Paul has any criticism about that part, he has kept it to himself (which is probably a smart move, haha). 

Sorry for such a braggy post, but I just had to document these projects because they seriously consumed such a huge part of my free time during 2013 and I wanted to share them.  I absolutely loved making these quilts and creating the cookbooks.