Hellooooo Dolly!

So, I've realized that the last few posts have been a little disconcerting, what with the poisonous shrubs, peanut allergies and emergency room concussions. What this blog needs is something to brighten everybody's day and I've got just the thing.

This bar cookie that stands before you is known, at least in my circles, as a Hello Dolly and it is spectacularly delicious. Here's the backstory:

Back in the summer of 1998, I worked in the kitchen of the most awesome LDS girls' camp in the world: Oakcrest. We cooked 3 meals a day for approximately 400 girls, five days a week for 12 weeks that summer. Every meal was made from scratch. Fresh bread was made for every meal.

That summer was a defining summer for me. One I'll never ever forget. It was a lot of hard work, heavy lifting, some drama, a whole lotta fun and taught me about who I truly was: a daughter of God.

Another thing I came back with was a whole bunch of awesome recipes that had been pared down as much as they could, to sizes that would feed a family, and sometimes a whole party, rather than a whole gaggle of girls. The Hello Dolly is one of those recipes.

Many years have passed since that summer and I've moved many times. I only recently found my arsenal of Oakcrest deliciousness and I want to share my favorite with you.

I was lucky because I found the recipe right before I volunteered to bring a dessert to my friend's baby shower and, apparently, they were a huge hit. (I got stuck in rush hour traffic trying to get into San Francisco and back in time for the shower and had to miss it. Booo!!!)

So, without further ado, I present to you the recipe for Hello Dollies (which I've modified only slightly to suit my needs, but the taste and ingredients are all the same.):

Hello Dolly

2 c. graham cracker crumbs (approx. 1.5 packages if you're going to crush them yourself)

1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted

1/2 bag sweet coconut, flaked or shredded

1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips 

1 can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated!)

Preheat oven to 325*. Spray a jelly roll pan lightly with cooking spray. Combine the graham crackers crumbs and the butter till moist and spread into the pan to form the crust. It will be a thin layer, just make sure it's even and it covers the whole bottom of the pan. Sprinkle coconut evenly over the crust, then sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the coconut. Punch two holes on opposite sides of the top of the condensed milk and drizzle evenly over the cookies. Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool and cut into bars with a greased pizza cutter. Try not to eat the whole pan in one sitting.

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Think of these as a homemade but much yummier version of the Girl Scout Samoas (my personal favorite). The chocolate chips somehow manage to stay a bit melty for a while. The sweetened condensed milk caramelizes in the oven to a consistency similar to dulce de leche. Then, when you pair that with the savory taste of the butter in the crust... (insert Homer Simpson gurgle here)!

Enjoy these super easy cookies as much as my family does. These don't last more than a few hours after they come out of the oven in my home.

How Not to Spend Your Tuesday

Waiting.

Waiting in the ER.

Waiting in the ER for hours.

I think we were there for a total of six hours.

Let's start at the very beginning, because that's a very good place to start.

The morning started out like any other. Asher waking up at the crack of dawn, wanting breakfast and play time. Akiko waking up and sliding down her slide to start her glorious day. And finally, Moses stumbling out of bed with his hair sticking out in every direction possible.

Joseph was getting ready to leave for work and we stopped what we were doing so we could have family prayer. After the prayer, the kids attacked Joseph before he could leave for work.

This is how most of our mornings start. It's wonderful.

Well, the kids didn't want to let Joseph go, so he stood up with them still dangling on him, where he would walk a few feet to the couch and drop them off there. Unfortunately, Moses let go a little too soon and fell to the [carpeted] floor where he hit his head pretty hard.

Moses was pretty inconsolable for quite a while. He calmed down after a long while, but would start crying again if you did so much as look at him. This went on for, I think, an hour.

Once Joseph got him to stay calm for a bit, he took him into the kitchen to see if he wanted any breakfast. That's where Moses threw up the first time.

More crying.

I called the doctor to consult with the nurse. We ended up playing phone tag. Moses threw up a second time. Then he fell right asleep.

Finally got a hold of the nurse. She asked me to bring him in to urgent care, rather than wait for an appointment with his regular doctor.

Loaded Moses into the car. Akiko, who was extremely worried about Moses at this point, came along. Asher had gone down for his morning nap, so Joseph was forced to skip his train to work.

Got into see the urgent care doctor in record time. While she was checking Moses out, who was slurring his speech so bad even I couldn't understand him, he threw up a third time. She called the ambulance because she felt he needed a CAT scan.

I called Joseph to let him know what was going on because I was going to have to ride in the ambulance with Moses. Luckily, our clinic is only about a 20 minute walk from our place, so it would be easy for Joseph to pick up the car.

The paramedics showed up, again, in record time, and checked Moses out and we loaded into the back of the ambulance.

On our way to the hospital, which was just around the corner, the paramedic received instructions to go to a different hospital further away in San Jose, because, apparently it's a better hospital and they wanted to monitor Moses there. I learned later that the hospital we were sent to and Stanford's hospital are the two best in the area. So, I called Joseph and let him know the change of plans.

Moses threw up a fourth time in the ambulance, though, I really think that one was more related to motion sickness than the concussion.

By the time we got to the hospital, Moses was looking and acting a whole lot better than he had been at home. The doctors told me that since he's doing so much better, they just wanted to keep him there for a couple hours to monitor him and it would be unlikely that he would need the CAT scan. They only do that as a last resort for kids Moses' age.

That's when the waiting began. It was also a little past lunchtime at that point.

Moses cheered up a little bit with the toys and stickers the trauma doctors gave him.

Joseph showed up with Asher after a bit, so I took Akiko and Asher to the cafeteria, where lunch was just about to close up, so the pickins were slim. They also only accepted cash, so I was only able to get a paltry meal to feed my whole family with the $7 cash I had on me.

So, the ER is a rather depressing place, I've decided. And it smells like rubbing alcohol, sweat and clotted blood. Ew!

Asher was going stir crazy because he wanted to get into everything, so we couldn't put him down (nor did we want to) and Akiko loudly complained about every five to ten minutes about how bored she was.

Moses wasn't allowed to eat anything, in the unlikely event that the doctors needed to do any procedures on him, so he was starving. He hadn't eaten anything since dinner the night before.

So, we waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Joseph took the other kids to bring the car closer to where we actually were and to get some snacks for the starving children. I stayed with Moses while he dozed off again.

Remind me to tell you the story of Moses holding my hand when I was in labor with Asher.

After a long, long while, a nurse came in to check on Moses. Since he seemed better, she said we could probably get out of there soon. She left the room and Moses threw up for the fifth time. Sigh!

I tracked down the nurse and told her about it. She told the doctor. He ordered a CAT scan. More waiting.

CAT scan results turned out to be fine, which meant that he had no bleeding or brain injury, and that Moses just had a severe concussion. They told us that we would get our discharge papers and we could go home. Then we waited some more.

Six hours after we arrived at the ER, we finally left to go home. I hope we never have to visit the ER again.

The good news is that Moses will be fine, though this is not his first concussion. That one was also consulted with the nurse on the phone, but not bad enough to need to be seen. My poor boy has a knack for whacking his head, so I hope it never gets worse than today.

And that is how not to spend your Tuesday.

Ah, Nuts!

Yesterday we found out that Asher is allergic to peanuts. We had peanut butter on toast for breakfast and he broke out into hives all over his little body after eating it.

At first, he had gotten a little bit on his finger and rubbed his eye, so the whole side of his face started getting bumpy. Joseph thought that maybe he had been bitten by something, but it soon became apparent that he was reacting to something he'd come in contact with. Since it was before church, we got him into the shower to see if that would help. As I was drying him off, I started noticing bumps all over his arms and legs. I thought his eczema was just flaring up and just smeared his rx cream all over and got him dressed. We headed off to church soon after thinking no more of it.

At church, Joseph walks with Asher in the halls during Sunday school and Priesthood (you know how 12 mo. old toddlers are in class). Asher was rolling on the floor and his shirt lifted up and Joseph saw these huge red bumps all over his torso. He came in to the primary room to let me know that he was taking Asher home to see if he could help relieve his itching, because, by that time, Asher had started scratching all over.

Joseph had no idea how bad it was until he got home and took Asher's clothes off. Hives were everywhere.

Pictures aren't that great. Taking pictures of babies on the move is hard with a camera phone.

They look much worse in real life.

Poor little Asher!

After Joseph had picked Akiko, Moses and me up from church, and we talked about it, we determined that he had a bad reaction to the peanut butter that morning.

Since there seemed to be nothing else wrong with him, I decided not to call the doctor until this morning. If he'd had any breathing problems, we would have taken him straight to the hospital, which is only about half a mile from church.

I took him into the doctor this morning where our suspicions were confirmed. His hives were gone, but the redness where they were was still prevalent. We've got an appointment to go see the immunologist next week. I'm not totally sure what is in store for that visit, so we'll burn that bridge when we get there.

So, for the time being, Asher has to stay away from peanuts and I get to keep antihistamine with me at all times. 

I guess this also means no Mini Snickers for me while I'm still nursing. Nuts! Those are my favorite. (Pun completely intended.)

Happy Birthday Asher!!

One year ago, you joined our family.

We are so glad you did.

We love you so much.

Happy Birthday Asher!!

You're #1!

Dontcha Know That You're Toxic?

Joseph and I have been watching Monk lately on Netflix. It's hard to find a good crime drama that has endearing characters. Anyway, there's an episode where the killer murders his wife with a poison he derived from a plant called oleander.

It was mentioned in the show that it was a pretty common decorative plant in many gardens. Because Monk takes place in San Francisco, I became curious about the plant, since we live in the area, and did a little research online.

It turns out that everything about the plant, from the roots to the tips of the leaves, the bark, the flowers, the seed pods, everything on the plant is toxic. And by toxic, I not only mean simply poisonous, I mean deadly. It's poisonous from a little sapling and is just as deadly when it's a full blown bush. It's deadly in it's natural form and just as deadly if you dry it and crush it up.

It's usually most deadly if ingested, but some people with sensitive skin can break out into a nasty rash if they brush by it. At the very least, it'll give you a tummy ache, but in larger amounts, it'll give you a heart attack.

As I read, I kept thinking, Wow! I've never heard of a plant like this that's so dangerous in all aspects. And Monk says it's a common decorative plant? I was fascinated.

Then, I got to a section in the article where they show the pictures of the plant and its flowers and my jaw dropped.

I've seen that flower before! But where?

Akiko has a penchant for picking flowers for me, but she knows that she's not allowed to pick our neighbors flowers unless they're dandelions, of course. As I thought about where I'd seen oleander before, I realized, Wait a minute! Akiko has given me these flowers before! Where had I seen oleander?!

I ran out to our backyard, because that's usually where Akiko gathers her flowers. I checked every inch of our yard. I was fairly certain I'd know which plant it was right off the bat. There was one bush that seemed likely, but without the flowers, I wasn't certain. The bush had buds and a few of them were starting to bloom, but none of them had fully blossomed yet. I had a hunch, but I needed to do more research.

I searched online for more images and found some pictures of the buds and flowers in various stages of bloom. My heart started pounding. I was now 95% certain that we had a fatal plant growing in our yard.

I'm 100% certain now. Akiko confirmed it for me. (Observant for a six year-old, right?)

Almost fully blossomed. Beautiful, no?

So, there are a lot of things I like about the house we're renting. It's got a lot of character. There's plenty of room for our little family. The neighborhood is amazing. The yard is gorgeous and I don't have to take care of it (besides refraining my kids from outright destroying it).

On the other hand, there are a couple things I cannot stand about it. The kitchen cabinets are original, old, crappy and disgusting. The drawers in there leave sawdust all over everything under them. The house isn't insulated very well, which wastes heating energy in the winter and in the summer, the house literally becomes a giant sauna. Then there's the spiders. Nuff said.

I've been waffling about whether to renew our lease or not when the contract runs its course this coming fall, but I gotta tell you, that oleander sure puts the nail in the coffin.

With the older kids, I can just tell them not to go near the bush and exactly why, but the baby is what worries me. Fortunately, the bush is next to the gravel path that the baby doesn't like to play on very often, but now that he's really starting to walk, I feel that that barrier will no longer keep him away.

So, I will be keeping my eyes and ears out for another place over the next few months. I just really hope we can stay within the ward, if not just the school boundaries.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

My oldest brother actually took a vacation. I know. I was surprised, too. He brought his family along, too. Seriously. They went to down to Socal and spent a couple days in Disneyland and California Adventure, then drove up north to spend a few days with us. It was so fun having them here.

Since our trip out to Utah in May, I have no desire to travel anywhere for a while, so it's nice making everybody come to us. We've got lots of visitors scheduled for next month (Asher's birthday!).

Akiko was still in school, but I pulled her out for the day and we drove south to Monterey Bay and spent the day at the aquarium. Here are the highlights:

Danny and the kids overlooking the bay.

Ian, Akiko and Savannah getting up the nerve to touch some sea stars, cucumbers and crabs.

I told you they wouldn't bite.

Brave little Moses dove right in.

These are called decorator crabs. They take bits of seaweed and camouflage themselves.

"Hey Ma! The water's wet!" Asher Splasher doing what he does best.

Rays that we could pet... if they came close enough.

Leopard shark that you could also pet. Sharks are so misunderstood.

The kids and Terra enjoying one of the many ginormous tanks.

So, Ian and Savannah get along with my kids really well. They're all close enough in age that they played with each other spectacularly. I expected Savannah to fawn all over Asher, but I should have known better. Savannah only had eyes for Akiko. Ian, on the other hand, totally fell in love with Asher. The feeling was mutual.

New best buddies.

What aquarium is complete unless it includes the cast of Finding Nemo? This was the only good pic I could get though and somebody spilled beer in front of this display and it made me gag.

Eels kind of freak me out.

The cousins in a giant clamshell. Forget about trying to get them all to look at you at the same time. Impossible!

So, the next couple pictures need a little explaining. There was this eggshell and both the boys wanted to climb in it. I figured it was a great picture opportunity. Only the first pic turned out. I took, like, 20 pictures and it's really amusing to watch them in rapid succession, but here are the winners:

My boys. I accidentally coordinated their outfits, but I'm glad I did. They're so cute.

Moses found it hilarious when I imitated Asher, "Hey! How do I get out of here?!"

"No Asher! Stay in the egg!"

Here are my favorite things to see at any aquarium:

So. Beautiful.

See all the tiny shrimp it's feasting on?

Yay for cute little seahorses!

I forget the names of these ones, but don't they look so cool?

My favorite: the weedy sea dragon.

Posing with a giant replica of a birthing daddy. That's right. Male seahorses are the ones who carry and give birth. Can you see the little baby coming out near the swirl on Moses' shirt?

Flamingos. Beautiful. Picture doesn't give them justice.

Asher really loved the sea turtles.

Seeing these really made me yearn to go snorkeling and swim with them on Maui.

Akiko made friends with an emperor penguin. It's fake. But she loved that it was life-sized.

So, a word, if I may, for those that may travel to the Bay area. There are two aquariums in the area: Monterey Bay and the Aquarium of the Bay at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Admission is about the same to get into either, but I highly recommend skipping the one in SF and just go two hours south to Monterey.

We went through the entire aquarium in SF in 1.5 hours and it took us an entire day to get through the one in Monterey. It's pretty easy to do the math and find out which aquarium is not only more awesome, but which one also gives you the best bang for your buck.

Love. This. Place.

Pomp and Circumstance

I was hoping to post this the day it happened, but we were so anxious to kick off our summer.

Akiko has completed kindergarten! Yay! She is super excited for first grade, but I just want her to enjoy her summer before we have to start thinking about school again.

Graduation day! Recognize the dress?

The whole kindergarten had a little assembly for the parents in the cafeteria at first. They sang songs for us. Then we left to go to the individual classes for the graduation. Thank heavens! The cafeteria was soooo hot! And anytime I got a good shot of Akiko, someone would step right in front of me and block her. Grr! Anyway, I'm glad we didn't have to sit through 100 kids, that we didn't know, getting their certificates.

Mrs. P. was such a sweet teacher. She was so willing to help us with Akiko's work. Anytime we mentioned that Akiko was getting bored or that she found the work too easy, she would get a little packet together for extra harder work for Akiko to work on. It challenged Akiko more, but she's better off because of it.

Akiko! You did it!

 Akiko has very mixed emotions about the whole thing. She's sad that she won't see her friends over the summer, but she's excited for first grade. She is looking forward to the break, but she won't be able to spend a whole lot of time with Mrs. P. anymore.

We also got Akiko's final report card for the year. She started out pretty strong, but overall improved in all areas. Her report card is stellar. I hope she can keep up those marks for the next 12 years. ;)

One of the boys in her class was sitting next to us during our picnic at the park. Akiko read something off a wrapper she had been eating out of and the boy said, "Wow Akiko! You can read that? I can't. You're the best reader in the class!" I had one of those awkward mixed emotion moments where, all at once, I thought it was such a cute, sweet thing to say, and I was proud of Akiko, but I also pitied the other boy. I was all sorts of twisted up.

And to end it all, here's the cherry on top of Akiko's kindergarten sundae of awesomeness:

No surprise here, right?

We love you Akiko! Keep up the great work!