YouTube Tuesday: Under Pressure

I am probably doing everything possible to avoid doing what is staring me right in the face. We've got boxes. Lots of them. It has been a frenetic 2 days. Boxes came Sunday morning and unpacking began. I have found just about everything I was worried about.

My worry checklist for the last 3 months:

- Piano still work? Check
- Guitars not broken? Check, check and check. {that teeny check was for the ukulele)
- Computers work? Check
- Alabaster, glass and all things breakable intact? Check times infinity.
- My favorite chair not ripped or infested with some sort of moth? Ch-eck.
- 3 inch foam bed pad still in one piece? Check

Now that my fears have been assuaged, I'm finding it hard to regain the momentum I once had. Though I haven't unpacked the sewing machine yet. I fear that if I break open that box, the world will grind to a halt. At least the world of those that depend on me. My kids will be the ones running through the streets half-naked, starving and filthy whilst I am locked away in my own paradise, whizzing together projects I have had saved up for the past 4 months. I broke my own rule of "Thou shalt not participate in hobbies until thine boxes are unpacked" My fingertips are already sore from last night's jam session. But each instrument is tuned up & in fine shape. ;)

But I've got added pressure to get this place whipped into shape. Thursday is Thanksgiving. We are having 2 Marines, a family of 3 and our own family sharing the meal this year. I have my meal preparation very well orchestrated for a low-stress meal prep. But that means I need Wednesday for peeling, chopping, & baking. I really enjoy making *good* food. I love cooking for people. But when my house looks like a box barfing ground, it's not as easy. Breathe in, breathe out. I can do this. Just relax to the tunes of Queen. (i couldn't find the Milli Vanilli remake. but this video is the bomb. haha, bomb)



And while we're at it, I just had to put this one up, too. I was in the mood. My friend lent me her New Kid's on the Block cassette tape & I wore it out listening to them. And, odd fact for the day, NKOTB and Back Street Boys are touring together in Summer 2011. BSB, gag me. The New Kid's were the first & best boy band. Though Boyz 2 Men really had a good thing going. If I could turn back time . . . (no, i'm not posting a Cher video) Though really, it's seriously been 20 years?? I went to the NKOTB website. Danny did not age well. *shame* Though he never really did it for me. Joey McIntyre all the way! And a Wahlberg brother thrown in. Please ignore the Spanish subtitulos. This is the only "original" music video I found that could be embedded. Enjoy the era of when it was ok for boys to wear overalls & not be working on a tractor. Rar.

Icing on the cupcake

I popped by my sister's blog the other day & saw a glorious sight. Well, just about any time I pop by is a glorious sight. I love seeing what my little niece, Taylor is up to and what they are doing. Katelyn always has good activity ideas. She's the director of 4-H for their county in Montana. Last week, the teen chapter made some a-mazing treats.

Maybe I'm over-exaggerating, but anytime you combine:

1} kids
2} an activity
and
3} food

the results aren't always favorable. The treat either ends up taking way too much effort for both parties (mom or kids) or it's really fun but really messy, etc. You get the picture. But this treat, oh, this treat seems to be the trifecta of perfection.

Seriously attractive Thanksgiving treats and super easy. She said they're just chocolate cupcakes & sugar cookies. The turkey cupcakes just need:

- candy corn
- ginger cookie (pre-packaged, of course)
- twizzler string (for the wattle. though if that can't be found, I think red fruit roll-up would work)

And the corn starts as a sugar cookie. Then you just put frosting on and add:

- Reese's pieces
- green or yellow fruit roll-up

This looks so simple! I can even make time for chocolate cupcakes & sugar cookies. And my kids do know how to make both on their own! Double score! We're having a family with 2 kids and two Marines from the Naval Base over for Thanksgiving. This will keep them all busy whilst turkey preparations take place in the kitchen. Thanks, Katelyn for letting me steal this wonderful idea!

Ship tripping

I have found blogging a bit harder lately. With a laptop balanced on my knees, my office (and all the clutter that goes with it) is located wherever I park my bum. That just doesn't work very well for me. I'm like a moon that orbits a planet, my desk & computer are supposed to be the stationary objects and I come to them when I need to. Maybe because my laptop is a beast, too, at 8lbs. Just when I crack it open & plunk down on the couch, someone needs a jam sandwich or a nose wiped. I don't mind the sandwiching or nose wiping, it's the feeling of being pinned under an anvil & hefting it to a safe place multiple times in the space of 10 minutes that bothers me. I like laptops, I just like having a desktop better. I allows you to come & go without the physical workout! Though maybe I need more of that . . .

Ok, the promised trip to the USS Harry S Truman. You do know that his 'S' initial doesn't stand for anything. His middle name is S. This ship is also a Nimitz-class supercarrier. Need translation? Yeah, we did too. Nimitz class aircraft carriers are a class of nuclear powered carriers, of which, there are only 10 in the world. A supercarrier is the unofficial term for the largest type of aircraft carrier, usually displacing over 70,000 tons. {all this technical stuff is courtesy of wikipedia, since my memory isn't the sharpest. btw, think abt donating a little to wikipedia. they rock.}

The whole tour took almost 3 hours. It was not for the weak of leg or lung. Trotting up those narrow stairs and throughout all 10 levels of that ship we got quite the workout.

Top row, L to R: the chains for the anchor, Mairyn by the ropes, going up the stairs, on the flight deck, view of the tower.
Bottom row: Planes parked, solo plane, the tower close-up, the middle of the runway where they land, the cable that they 'hook' to land.



Top row: Eliza in the captain's chair, Mairyn's turn, the bell in the control room, Mairyn taking her time in the chair 'o' power.
Bottom row: *The* carbon copy of the note that ordered the A-bomb, Eliza steering, Mairyn too, the girls with Truman's bust.

Funny thing: The captain's chair. Our tour guides were Navy officers that worked on this carrier. They told us that we could sit in the captain's chair & that we should take advantage of it. They weren't even allowed to sit in it. Mairyn asked, "Not even if your legs are tired?" The guy said, "No ma'am, that's above my pay grade." They were serious! So where the girls are sitting is the view the captain, and only the captain, gets when he's commandeering the ship. Though after seeing the inner workings of this carrier, it's a team effort. I wouldn't want to park a 70,000 ton beast all by myself! Oh, funny thing #2: I told the girls to stand by the bust (for a picture) and they looked at me like I'd grown a third head. "What's a bust?" I then explained what a bust was and then they proceeded to ask, "Why would someone want a statue of their bust?" Both Mairyn & Eliza then dissolved into giggles. Probably because 'bust' sounds so close to 'butts' without actually saying it. They said it the whole way home. "Hey Eliza, wanna take a picture of my -bust-?" And I don't even have to imagine what it would be like if I had had boys instead of girls . . . . .


P.S.
I just looked it up. Top Gun was shot on the USS Enterprise and is the 11th heaviest supercarrier. USS Harry is the eighth heaviest. Just think if Maverick had had that kind of space to strut his stuff . . .

Got Tortillas?

Well, we do! I made tortillas from scratch. It sounds a lot more intimidating & time consuming than it really is. My kids inhale just about anything as long as it is masquerading on a tortilla. Tortillas are expensive here. But the kids just can't stop eating tortillas. I had to find a solution! I knew my mother-in-law had some good 'from scratch' recipes. In her ward (church congregation), she is the reigning guru on food storage. But what good is a basement full of wheat, beans and dried goods if you don't know what to do with it? That's when she started making monthly handouts of recipes for your food storage. Which basically equates to making things from scratch. The handout that began it all was, "Got Milk?" and it had guidelines on keeping powered milk, how long it's good for, how to store it & how to use it. The series blossomed from there and encompasses a wide variety of foods & recipes. I was visiting her ward once and the handout du jour was 'Got Tortillas?'. Oooh, homemade something! I like the end result, but am I willing to put in the effort needed? Well, I never got around to making them before we moved. Once we got here and found the price of tortillas hard to swallow (haha), I emailed my mother-in-law for the recipes. I have made them twice, so far, and can tell they will become a common item in my fridge again.

TORTILLA RECIPE

Ingredients

• 5 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons shortening

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 cups boiling water

Directions

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. Cut in shortening to resemble cornmeal. Add water slowly, mixing with your hands to make a soft dough. You may not need all the water.

2. Knead a few minutes on floured surface until smooth and elastic. Lubricate top with oil, put back in bowl and let rest, covered for 10 minutes. {Don't over-knead! I did that the first time & rolling out those suckers was hard!}

3. Divide into small balls the size of golf balls and proceed to roll out into size and thickness you prefer. I just pinched off balls one at a time, you don't need to make them all before you start cooking.

Rolled out dough, ready for the skillet

4. Cook on top of stove over medium heat using a cast iron grill or heavy skillet until top is slightly bubbly then turning on opposite side for a minute or two. (I used a regular old fry pan, worked just fine)

See? Bubbles! It's the simple pleasures, really.

5. Keep stacked and warm inside a clean dish towel. And I kept flattened, skillet ready dough in between two moist paper towels, to keep them from drying out while they waited their turn on the skillet.

They are very firm when they first come off the skillet.

But they soften up.

The tortillas are a bit thicker than store bought, but they taste even better! Seriously, from measuring the flour to heaping on taco meat & cheese, it took me an hour. And I made 15 tortillas, which lasts about one & a half meals for my crew. I noticed corn meal at the grocery store the other day & I think I might try my hand at some corn tortillas! I feel empowered! Who knows, maybe I'll even start making cookies?

One recipe I saw described how they should be a bit crackly & shiny! Yipee, just like store-bought!

I made a 'fancy one', just for the pictures. Fancy meaning I rolled out a tortilla & cut it out with a bowl, thus eliminating those rough, uneven edges. I ordered a tortilla press from Amazon a few days ago. That will make the process go so much faster! (and it was really cheap, just $16)

YouTube Tuesday: You want fries with that?

I'm a little late to the party. I always am. And not fashionably so. I won't even pretend that I *totally* know about the drive-thru raps everybody was doing a while back. Which in this digital age could be referring to last week. I just really like this song. And the drive-thru employee. He should *totally* get a raise. Or a promotion. Or a promotional raise.



p.s.
i'm also so jealous of this guy's guitar skilz. i wanna be like him. *grin*

Blame it on the rain

"The rain in Bahrain mainly clogs my drains."
~ Eliza Al-Hamd'olittle

Last night, I was running back to back loads of laundry. So that meant I was going in and out of the house all evening. When I dashed out for the last load, I noticed the stairs were wet. I thought the gardener had put a sprinkler too close to the house. Then I noticed the driveway was all wet, too. "Wow," I'm thinking, "He went all out and hosed down the driveway! I didn't know he'd do that for us!" I brushed past the suburban on my way through the garage & it was all dripping wet, too. I looked around inspecting little constants that don't change . . . unless . . . RAIN! I ran back inside the house to announce the news to Spencer. He didn't entirely believe me, but I don't blame him. He thought I was kidding.

This morning, the air was clean and a bit crisp. The humidity, ironically, seems to have been cut. Only a trace of the former thickness in the air. The horizon was piled high with clouds, backlit by the 6:30 am sun. The kids ran out to the bus & I ran back to bed. (I stayed up way too late last night) Jacqueline came in about 30 minutes later, gleefully announcing, "Mommy! It's raining and crashing!" I got up and saw that the raining & thunder had recommenced, just in time for Jacqui's school run.

Natives of Middle Eastern countries are notoriously afraid of puddles. I'm not kidding! If a garden hose overflows and floods the street in front, cars will avoid all wet surfaces and literally tiptoe their car around the pooling water. Now, part of me can't blame them for this paranoia; I've seen some potholes that would literally swallow a Vespa. But here, in Bahrain, they also seem to have an added neurosis of driving off of any paved surface. The road outside our compound has been under construction since we got here, and there are places where only one lane is paved, the other is smooth, dirt shoulder. They will *NOT* drive on it and if they do, will only proceed at a snail's pace until paved concrete is visible again. So combine the fear of driving through water & on dirt plus a country that has no water drainage system and you have a whole mess of problems.

The biggest problem? Half an hour after school started, the school called. There isn't any water at the school. Meaning no one can flush toilets or get drinks. Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. Another 'didja know' thing about rain in desert countries; everything is dirtier after the rain. Ironic, I know. But we go so long without rain, dirt and sand accumulate on every surface. And (usually) if it does "rain" it just spits for a few minutes from the sky and really doesn't wash anything. It moistens all surfaces enough to make, even leaves, muddy. This rain, however was very cleansing. My driveway is clear of all bougainvillea & plumeria blossoms and leaf accumulation. And the leaves are actually green.

See how the dirt all ran to the middle of the leaf on the left? And the leaves on the right, just dried mud.

I wish I would have put *blank* in my UAB

UAB: It's the first of your belongings to arrive at the new assignment. abbreviation for 'unaccompanied air baggage'. I think. Another acronym to remember.
Or 'Underwhelming and Broken' if we're describing my UAB shipments.

This week, for the Weekly State Department Blog Roundup, the theme is "I wish I would have put {fill in the blank} in my UAB' being hosted by Jill at Run 2 New Places. I have peeked at some of the other ladies' submissions & I think mine is going to be downright pessimistic compared to theirs.

You see, UAB and I have never been good friends. Our first pack-out, I followed the guidelines down to a 'T'. I got plastic salt & pepper shakers. I put preferred non-perishables in, like a Sam's Club size package of toilet paper, diapers, paper towels, etc. I also put in things that would be immediately applicable; plastic plates, cups, forks, spoons, etc. I also included some nice touches of home, something to hang on the wall like sturdy picture frames. Also our desktop computer tower & screen. I mean, c'mon, a computer tower is pretty sturdy, right? Wrong.

Our UAB arrived seven weeks after we arrived at post. And one week before our HHE. I barely had time to unpack the UAB before the rest of our things exploded in the apartment. Stee-rike one. When the UAB arrived, we were asked to inspect the labels on the boxes where we had signed our name, to verify that they were still intact and therefore un-tampered with. Lulling us into a false sense of security, the labels were perfect. The contents? Trashed. Our desktop was the first casualty. The motherboard was pretty much the only thing we could extract. My picture frame, my decorative IRON picture frame, was bent and unable to hang flat against the wall. Of the things I shipped myself, the toilet paper and plastic salt & pepper shakers were pretty much the only things to emerge unscathed. Though the toilet paper rolls were ovals.

Most recently, we received our UAB here in Bahrain. I had learned my lesson through the two previous UABs and put nothing the least bit delicate in it. Still, they managed to screw up my shipment & pack it mostly full of weights, yes, gym weights, 2 laundry baskets & a bathroom rug. Oh, and the kid's folding picnic tables. None of the area rugs, plastic kitchenware, shower curtains or anything else useful that I had *specifically* labeled with their blue stickers. The kid's folding tables? Ruined. The bench is popped off of one & the other has a nice long gouge in the table top. The boxed up, unused exercise bike? Cracked case. Usable, but abused.

So you can see why I'm not that trusting of the UAB shipment. You know what I did this time? I mailed myself all my little comforts of home.

- at least one good kitchen knife - can opener - vegetable peeler - a screwdriver - utility scissors - apron - dish towels - small cutting board - whisk - spatula - batteries - small plastic mixing bowls (2) - a ruler - and various other notions that I can't live without.

What did I pack in my last UAB? (if they hadn't screwed it up)

- exactly what is in the welcome kit.

Comforters, pillows, sheets, towels, tablecloths, lap blankets, shower curtains & rings, hangers, bathmats, unbreakable plates, cups, bowls & cutlery. {pack enough dishes so that if you *need* to go a day without washing any dishes, you can make it through}, area rugs, select pots & pans, plastic colander/strainer, toaster, spatulas & cooking spoons, toys & books, and anything else that is pretty sturdy that you want.

Bottom line: Mail anything you can't live without {for 6-7 weeks} that can fit in a flat rate box. The UAB is not the savior of your household's sanity. Our HHE's have always arrived {mostly} unscathed. {Never anything damaged as seriously as it was in the UAB.}

Oh, and btw, we've been in Bahrain 11 weeks, still no HHE. We have a tentative arrival date of Nov. 22. Thank you, Lady in D.C. that forgot to file our paperwork until we'd been in country for almost a month. Gotta love the State Dept. Ma'asalama, my peeps.

Out of Synch

I'm just not feeling it today. Or this month, for that matter. Try as I might, I stare at my screen, willing prose to pop from my brain, to my fingers & assemble itself into coherent thought. I have at least 4 *really* good blog posts I want to put up. I even have a good, no, great step-by-step recipe!

That last paragraph took me an hour to get down. I feel like one of those screen saver balls bouncing around the screen, aimlessly plowing straight as an arrow to the other side of the box. I have the feeling of being purpose driven, but the mission hasn't been revealed to me. Time seems to slip right through my fingers, but it can't move fast enough.

We just got our vehicle two days ago. One caveat**: It's been sitting in the Embassy Motor Pool parking lot since the first week of October, but two days ago was when all the paper pushing & money shuffling was done. Here she is:

Baby Beluga asks: Does this driveway make my butt look big?

It feels so good to be up above the crowd again. I really only feel comfortable driving the biggest outfit on the road. I've felt like I was in a roller skate these last 3 months; surfing right along the asphalt. She is huge; Spence shaved the paint off the right door handle parking her the first night. But I don't mind. Within 12 hours of receiving Ellie (our 4-runner we drove in Egypt), I backed up & scraped a nice Morse code along the passenger side door with a metal pole. Then we remained unscathed (through any fault of our own) for the rest of our 4 years. So maybe this is a good omen.

I promise to compose & post. I really really really want to get them up. We had a fun weekend; the older girls & I toured the USS Harry S. Truman, an aircraft carrier, actually a supercarrier! I got a picture of the refrigerated pork & beans! And . . . I made tortillas from scratch. Yep, it's been an eventful time. Also, we have a tentative arrival date of two weeks for our long awaited household goods. *phew* I'm going to go take a nap.



**Ooh, caveat. Another word you can type with one hand!