To tell you the truth...

To tell you the truth, I am utterly DEPRESSED! Today I had the most devestating blow ever. I recently picked up the hobby of Quilting, and I am by no means an expert quilter, but a budding apprentice quilter who likes pretty fabrics. Since my first quilt was completely free, paid for by my lovely quilter Mom, I decided to jump wallet first into the quilting world and purchase fabric, at a minimal discount, to create a Halloween themed quilt. I went to the store, bought the fabric, paid the choking amount, and then proceeded to "piece" the top. I finished the top and I left it out for a few days to admire the intricate Halloween prints melded together by the creativity of my quited pattern. Believe me, it is sooooo Halloweeny cute! (Yes, I know 'Halloweeny' isn't a real word, but it fits so nicely in my sentence, I went ahead and used it anyway. Besides, Shakespeare made up all kinds of wacked words.) What was I saying? Oh, yes, so I put the top on my mom's quilting machine so I could attach the bottom and the inside batting. I quilted about 3/4's of the quilt when the machine suddenly stopped. I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I changed the thread and replaced the bobbin thread. When I was under the machine replacing the bobbin thread, to my dismay, I saw the most devestating sight. The bottom of my quilt was marred with gargantuous nests of tangled thread. From one end of my quilt to the other, the underside of my almost completed masterpiece was a tangled nightmare, a nightmare that would take hours if not days to unpick and then restitch. DARN THAT BLASTED QUILTING MACHINE! I sat under the machine and cried, then called my sister, told her my story, hung up the phone, cried again, ate the only chocolate I could find in the house, called my mom and cursed her machine, and then walked away. In fact, the blasted, ruined, very expensive quilt is still nailed to the blasted quilting machine. BLAST DARN BLAST SON OF A ....

That is my story. But I guess as the saying goes, "Quilt not lest ye be marred with disparaging thread nests."

Easy Light Cookin!

I have to first start this blog off by saying Thank You to my Sister-in-Law, Shari. For Christmas last year, Shari sent everyone in the family the greatest gift ever! The gift keeps on giving! Every so often I check my mail box and there is another addition of Taste of Home magazine/cookbook. In fact, now that I think about it, I probably never got around to sending a thank you or even saying "Thank You." So, Shari if you read this blog, THANK YOU!!! I absolutely love this magazine and I cook many of the recipes in it.

Thus, this blog is about a yummy recipe that I found in this magazine. I am a veggie lover and I love finding recipes that are simple, but healthy. The following recipe is for red potatoes and it can be found in the most recent Taste of Home.
(I did alter the recipe slightly so I wasn't breaking the copyrighting laws.)

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

8 medium red potatoes
4 large peeled carrots (optional)
1 Tb. olive oil
1 tsp. dried rosemary (crushed)
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp cracked pepper

Cut potatoes and carrots up into bite size chunks and place in a bowl. Drizzle remaining ingredients over the potatoes and toss untill well coated. Place potatoes in a lighty sprayed, with non-stick cooking oil, 9 X 13 or jelly roll baking dish. Bake at 425 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Stir at least once during cooking.

This recipe is Yummy, so if you try it let me know!

THIS IS THE PLACE...

This is the place...well at least that is what Brigham Young said when he marched the pioneers into Salt Lake Valley. Apparently that is still true today. Because of the lack of employment and income to sustain a healthy family living in Hawaii, many younger families have packed up and headed east, namely, Utah. Earlier this week I got together with a few young moms that I knew in Laie. We visited at the park and discussed the cheaper cost of living here, but how much we missed the balmy weather and cool ocean swimming. It was fun to have a Laie reunion in Utah county. After a few more friends move out here there will be quite a large group of former Laie residents in Utah county. Here are more of my pictures. The picture of the mother and baby is a shot of my former bishop's daughter and grandson.

A Weekend in Washington Leads to Paranormal Surprises

We had a whirlwind of a weekend. We left late Wednesday night, arriving early Thursday morning, and we returned to Utah late Sunday night. Our weekend was a blast, filled with Candid Calabio favorites: Yardsaling, Eating Junkfood and Sightseeing. We found lots of great knicknacks at yardsales in the Washington area on Friday, then on Saturday, we drove to a popular tourist town, Leavenworth. While we were in Leavenworth, we found something much greater than what money could buy! For a moment I thought I was rendered into a holiday version of the Twilight zone, giddy with paranormal suprise! I was totally speechless...thus the picture will have to suffice.

Where else in the world would santa be sitting taking a break...OF COURSE, in Leavenworth, outside of the year round Christmas store.
The rest of the pictures are shots of my neice, my sister and her baby, cute Leavenworth scenery and then the two wild baby boys playing in the pumpkins. Eventhough I miss Hawaii, I love the fall colors that are coming out and I especially love Pumpkins!

I left...

My sister Rachel came from Hawaii yesterday to visit. After she arrived we got to talking about what she was going to do while she was here and we got on the subject of our sisters that live out of the state. Unfortunately, Nikki lives further away than Leslie, so she was immediately disqualified. We decided to take an impromptu trip up to Washington state to visit Leslie since Rachel has never ever seen Leslie's home in Washington...which is beautiful and organized down to every inch.

The drive was grueling. We left Utah around 7 pm, so we didn't arrive at Leslie's home until 6am Utah time. We are pretty exhausted, but the babies don't want to take a nap. So I am up with Theodore about to go nutzo! So if this blog doesn't make sense it is because I am functioning on little...very little, sleep!

My sweet, loving hubby stayed in Utah with George to work and make sure George attends school, but I will be back early in the week...it is quick trip!

Vampire or not, the bat's out of the bag...

It occured to me recently that artists, poets, writers, and other such creators, typically depict views of everyday life in ever-changing views...Not to get all philosophical on you, but a peculiar thought popped into my head today, and I simply could not dismiss it. My life is always coming across strage occurrences. For example, the filipino woman at Ross. I couldn't help but discover yet another strange occurence in my life.

Earlier this year I read the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer (and if you haven't read it, run out and do so now, then thank me later for the good read). The series is about a young woman that falls in love with a charming vampire. The book describes the vampires in every aspect of their lives: sensitivity to smells, burning desirous connection to one's mate, peculiar sleeping habits, and youthful physical appearance despite one's age.

Over the course of a few passing thoughts, I have come to the concrete conclusion that a certian person that stayed with me in Hawaii is the true life form of what Stephanie Meyer depicts in her novel...the person is a VAMPIRE!!!

The following person of which I describe shall remain nameless, but this person, if he/she reads my blog, will undoubtedly know who he/she is.

Evidence:
1. Sensitivity to smell: the person who came to visit me, repeatedly mentioned that Saimin, a local favorite that tastes like soup goodness, smelled strongly of fish! Only a person with acute sensory perception could dectect the fish cake in the saimin.

2. Connection to Mate: the person made repeated references that started like, "(spouse)would love if I did...", or "I will have to buy this for (spouse)", or "I wish (spouse) was here with me."
But the most distinctive phrase that solidified the conclusion that this person is a VAMPIRE is:
"My blood is boiling for (spouse) right about now" (Feel free to draw your own conclusions about this comment)

3. Peculiar Sleeping Habits: I snuck into this person's room when I thought he/she was sleeping, I was shocked to find this person lying flat on his/her back with his/her arms folded across his/her chest - a very un-dead position.

4. Physical Appearance: This person claims to have had 5 children, yet this person has a rockin' awesome body!

Draw your own conclusions, but the evidence is overwhelming in support that this person is a true vampire!!!

OH BABY!!!

Here are some pictures I shot of one of my BFFs and her newborn baby. I have known Aubrie since I was in high school. Eventhough we don't talk every day, I still get out to see her. She recently had her 3rd baby and I stopped by after the baby blessing to take surprise photos...Surpise, I am going to take your photo. For not having prepared, they took awesome shots. Here are a few of my favorite black and whites. I decided that I totally love to shoot babies because the pictures are soooooo sweet. Just a side note, I once went on a date with Aubrie's husband...AWKWARD! HAHAHA...just kidding...well not really...hahahaha

So sad...

This last labor day weekend we traveled down to Cedar City to attend the Kahuku/Bingham football game. We left Friday, and stayed at the Motel 6 in Cedar City. Suprisingly, it was impecably clean, no used nylons under the bed or used cigarette butts in the hall. (These references are in regard to a certian Calabio road trip taken through northern California, where a certian motel was utilized by much other than the Calabio clan)
Since the game was in the evening, we spent our free time venturing around Zion National Park, which I also have not been to since a certian Calabio road trip. The park was beautiful, and since the park is well equiped with easy access trams, we didn't even drive or van through the park. We took the tram through out the majority of the park and then we took a few hikes.
We finished the day by roaring it up with our fellow Kahuku and Laie friends at the Kahuku/Bingham game. In my opinion, the Red Raiders (Kahuku) played well...well at least the defense was impressive. In fact, the game was even 0-0 until the fourth quarter, which was devastating. Kahuku lost in the final quarter 27 to 0! Don't ask me how Bingham could stomp on Kahuku in such a defeating way...seriously don't ask, it puts me in a bad mood.
I hope your Labor day weekend was as eventful as ours.