...and something for my sister Merry

Merry Robin &Windy Dawn

I've always been close with my older sister Merry, Dragon Tamer and Mother Extraordinaire.  We shared a room almost all of my growing up years and I always looked up to her.

Last weekend while I was packing a few things to prepare for my move this weekend I found some baby teeth in a ziploc bag.  Gross.  But at least they were my own teeth.  Yes, my parents, ahem, I mean the Tooth Fairy, decided to save my teeth to give to me at an older age. Again, gross.  I thought this kind of strange so when I was handed an old ziploc bag years ago my first inclination was to throw them in the rubbish bin.  At the same time if felt strange to throw them out (I mean, I grew them all on my own!) so I put them in a drawer and promptly forgot about them.  I can't justify packing up old teeth with my move so I've decided to go ahead and throw them out, but not until I opened the bag and read my letters to the Tooth Fairy.

Much to my amusement all 3 of the letters that had been kept requested the same thing: that the Tooth Fairy would bring something for my sister Merry.  Hey, I'm always looking out for you sister!

Dear Tooth fary,
Can I have the monny in pinnys
and something for my sister Merry
Thanky you
for every
think Love
Windy
P.S. the dime is for you.
(Signiger)

Dear Tooth Fairy
My tooth is under
the danket on top
of thee dlue pillow
PS and please leave some-
thing for my sister
Merry.
Sincerely
Windy

Dear Tooth Fairy,
I am geting
toothless.
Please bring
a small present for
Merry. not money
Love,
Windy

In Which Windy Dawn Plays Auto Mechanic

Remember how I am always so stubborn and insist on doing everything myself? Remember the incidents with the headlight? Or how I changed my own car battery? This is one of those stories.

This weekend I had to perform surgery on my car. My headlight went out and I decided to replace it myself to save some money. I have done this before, but it was on my previous car. I began by going to the auto parts store. I did not know the exact bulb I needed but felt confident in my skills of looking up the make and model of my car in the big thick book that's always in the headlight section of the store. To my dismay the book had been removed. I went to ask for help and found a smug kid who proceeded to look up the number I needed while he made sure to speak to me in a condescending manner.  

By the time I got home it was dark and I knew I wouldn't be able to see well enough to replace the bulb so I waited until the next day to operate. When the time came I opened the hood of my car and located the low beam bulb (yes I know the difference between the low beam and the high beam!). It was far inside in a place I could not possibly squeeze my hand into. Seriously, how do grown men with hands bigger than mine work on such small cars? I pulled out the drivers manual and it directed me the tire area of my car. It had me remove the inside fender so that I would be able to get to the headlight by going under the car and through the tire area. I hope that makes sense. It was a bit of a pain, but I did it. I pulled out the old bulb and replaced it with the new one only to find out it wouldn't quite click into place properly. I pulled the bulb out to examine it more closely and discovered they gave me the wrong bulb for my car!

I had to drive back to Redmond (luckily my mom let me take her van so I wouldn't have to assemble my car to drive it just to disassemble it again) and I got the correct bulb. As my luck would have it the new bulb cost me $1.10 more. Lovely. At least the gentlemen helping me this time was pleasant and polite. And rather handsome too. I then headed home and inserted the proper bulb into my car and voilà! Everything worked perfectly. I replaced the inside fender and I was done. Are you impressed? Be impressed.

PS, does anyone want to take an auto mechanics class with me?

Chocolate a la Taza

I recently started reading a book called Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot and it's started me on a search for my own Chocolate Pot.  I never knew such a thing existed and most people I've talked to did not know either. After doing a bit of digging I decided to give my sister Merry a call.  As expected she rattled off everything I'd researched off the top of her head, and more.  My sister is just that awesome.

I plan to buy myself a chocolate pot, but it will have to wait until I can go back to Europe as I want to buy one over there.  In the meantime I've been looking at European styles of hot chocolate to try out.  Today was my first experiment and it turned out rather delicious.  Thick and sweet like I never knew hot chocolate could be.


Chocolate a la Taza 
Chocolatería San Ginés, Madrid, Spain


1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped*
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a saucepan, combine the mild and cream and heat over medium-low heat until very hot but not boiling.  Gradually add the chocolate to the hot liquid, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth.  In a small cup dissolve the cornstarch in a few tablespoons of water.  Add the dissolved cornstarch to the chocolate mixture and stir constantly until it is almost as thick as a pudding.  Serve immediately in warmed cups.
Makes 2 demitasse servings
*I used Theo's Chocolate

Source: Hot Chocolate by Michael Turback

My Shawl

Crocheting is an old lady hobby.  Without a doubt for old grandma ladies.  And me.

My latest creation is a shawl that I finished last week.  I wore this for the first time today when I went to church.  I like how it turned out, although (to be honest) I'm not sure it's really my style.  I'm not a shawl person, but I really liked the pattern and wanted to make it.  So here it is.

Just Keep Swimming

I recently returned from my Christmas Cruise in the Caribbean and I am now trying to adjust to living with no sun again.  In the meantime I'm slowly collecting pictures and videos from my friends who went with me on the trip.  I currently have over 1200 pictures, but I know there are more out there.

As I've flipped through the pictures I've noticed the recurring theme that my mouth is open in virtually every picture.  What can I say?  I was having mouth-wide-open-sort-of fun.

And now I must show you the best picture taken the entire trip.  Here it is.  Please Enjoy.

Picture taken at some beach found within a 15 minute bus ride from Tulum, Mexico.

Photo credit goes to Domini and her awesome camera.  It's waterproof, shockproof, and it shakes.  

And lastly, if there is any doubt, I'm the one on the right.

Christmas Gift Tags from Crave

I busy preparing for Christmas this week, are you ready?  I leave for my cruise this weekend, so I must have everything done soon!  I just printed off some gift tags I got (for free) from another blog I follow called Crave My Design that I am in love with and I thought I'd share here for any of my friends to use as well.  Enjoy!  And Merry Christmas!!

PS, be sure to check out her photography blog as well, I love her work!

Disneyland: How I Spent My Halloween

I know, you are all thinking, 'Halloween? Why is she writing about Halloween when Thanksgiving has already passed?'  Because I got busy.

This year I spent my Halloween (and the day after) at the Happiest Place on Earth.  You may know it as Disneyland and California Adventure.  I was really excited to go again as it had been about 18 years since my last visit.  Now that I've done it again I must say it is way better as an adult!  Err, wait.  Adult isn't exactly what I mean.  Don't act like an adult, just be old enough to wander off on your own.  That's about where I am in my maturity.

You might recall that I have a sister named Sandie.  She came along with me to frolic in the autumn mist sunshine.  Here is our tale, told mostly by pictures. (possibly videos in the future, not sure if I want those online just yet...)

 

 

We got soaked.  Many times.

  

Oh just wait till you see the video we made here!

This is the last picture taken before my chocolate frozen banana of goodness landed on my shirt.

 

Did you know there are apps for Disneyland?  They will tell you how long the wait is for each ride so you know where to go at what time!  (Thanks Brenda for all your tips!!)

 

 

We ended our last day by seeing the World of Color at California Adventure Land--Amazing! 

Brandon Sanderson

Friday evening I had the opportunity to attend a book signing in Seattle with Brandon Sanderson.  I had been looking forward to this event for months especially since I had never been to a book signing before and (more importantly) I absolutely love the books I've read by this talented author.

Brandon Sanderson was on tour promoting his newest book, The Alloy of Law.

It's always fun to have something personally signed, but what I enjoyed most about the evening was getting to know a little bit of Brandon Sanderson's personality.  He was funny and friendly.  He made an effort to give everyone time to ask questions in line as well as read to us some of his unpublished work and even do a question and answer session.  I'm twice as much of a fan now.

Brandon Sanderson is the dark-haired man with glasses sitting down in the background. 

Oh.  And he brought us cookies to have once we got through the line.  Butterscotch oatmeal cookies.  Mmm mmm!

Life lately, according to my Android pictures.

September went by quickly.  The beginning of September was busy with my birthday plans and getting my students lined up with the new school year starting.  Somewhere in the middle I got sick with pneumonia, but it ended great with buying tickets to go on a Caribbean cruise over Christmas break.  So I really can't complain. 

A couple of my Beehives made me a little birthday treat this year.  Thanks Torrey and Vanessa! It was absolutely delicious.

I had dinner with family, Tommy loves his soup.

Derek showed up everyone at our dinner with his mad chalk drawing skills.

Josh took me to another Sounders game, I think I have formed a crush on Kasey Keller.  

I made a Barbie Cake for Tasha's birthday (my mom made these all the time for me as a kid).

And you know how much I love Kerry Park and the Seattle skyline, right?  Last night I found myself in the neighborhood and decided to swing by to see the view at night with the beautiful city lights.

To (Most) Single LDS Men

I recently tried out eHarmony for the first time and would now like to share with you what happened and what I learned.  For those of you surprised to hear the news it is due to the fact that I did not want to tell people I joined an online dating website.  In the past I've had a number of friends tell me that I should try it out, my response had always been, 'That's not for me, but maybe I'll consider it when I get kicked out of the singles ward.'  And here I am. I've been attending the family ward for almost a year so when a good friend of mine mentioned she had just signed up I agreed to do it with her.  I decided a 3 month membership would be enough time to get a feel for how things worked and would then make a choice to continue my membership or not.

After answering what seemed like endless questions about myself and my personality I was then asked to rate how strong I felt regarding certain characteristics of potential matches.  Feeling passionate about my faith I indicated that all of my matches should be Latter-Day Saint (Mormon) men.  The website recommends starting out slow.  For example I would start communicating by sending 5 preset questions to matches I am interested in getting to know a little better.

As matches began to roll in I found myself a little shy as I was still learning how eHarmony works.  I did not send questions to matches right away.  My first communication was about 5 days into my membership and with a guy named Jonathan from CA who sent me his 5 questions.  Once I had this first communication on the website I realized just how casual and easy it is to make that first step.  At this point I decided I was going to get my money's worth so I sent my 5 questions to every match I received.  Every one.

For 2 and a half months I did this and never once received a response back from any of those guys.  Not one.  Jonathan remained the only guy who ever communicated with me on the site.  By this time I decided it had been a waste of my money and I would not be renewing my membership with them.

Then a thought occurred to me and I acted on it.  I went into my settings and changed one thing: I indicated a potential match could be of any religious belief.

The next morning came and I received my matches.  As usual I glanced through the profile and sent my 5 questions on to each of them.  On the second day I was already communicating with a couple guys.  Wow.  By the end of the week I had to go back into my settings and change it again because I was overwhelmed with the number of guys communicating with me that I did not have time to respond to all of them.  Again, wow.

How would you react if this happened to you?  My initial response: severe irritation at all LDS men.  I was ready to find the closest one and give him a piece of my mind.

I've had a few weeks to think it over and quite frankly I'm still irritated.

I've never been a girl that dates a lot, although I've had a few boyfriends here and there.  At times in my life there has been as much as 2 years between men asking me on a date.  Being an LDS single woman in my 30's I've had many opportunities to talk with and get to know other amazing single women in the church.  As I've done so I've been comforted and annoyed to find many other women in the same dating boat as me.  "Why don't guys notice me?" and "why do I never get asked out?" have been common questions asked by friends and myself.  Sometimes the questions are asked with frustration, sometimes it's barely audible between sobs.

In the world we live in it is all too easy to fall prey to Satan's lies.  He constantly tells daughters of God they aren't good enough, they aren't pretty enough, they aren't worth a man's notice.  Women, these are lies.  I know these are lies and yet even I have had times when I believed them.  Why shouldn't I believe it when Satan tells me I'm not worth a guys notice?  I have the evidence right in front of me: the last man to ask me out was a year and a half ago and he is now happily married to someone else.

EHarmony taught me this is not true, I am worth a man's notice.  There are men who do want to get to know me.  And there are men in the world who do actually ask girls out on a date.

This leaves the questions: what is wrong with LDS men?  Why don't they ask girls out?  I do not have an answer, although I am sure I've heard every possible theory on this from women who want to know.

In reality there is not a lot wrong with LDS men.  Most of the single guys I know are quality men, ones I look up to, respect and confide in.  It's just this one little thing.  Perhaps each of them has their own special little excuse for not asking girls out.  But that's just it--it's an excuse.

To (most) single LDS men I say it is time to start acting like a proper man.  No more excuses.  Just do it.