What have we done?

This is Dylan's bedroom right now.

Dylan's bedroom looks like this very often so I am used to it. The normal routine is that on occasion I venture downstairs, discover his bedroom is a mess, tell him to clean it up, he then cleans it up and the cycle is repeated. I think it's a pretty typical teenager/mom routine. The mess is not neccessarily the problem today. What's really bothering me is the EXCESS!
A closer look reveals sheer excess everywhere you look. Books and movies line shelves.

Change covers the desk.

A pen holder is knocked over revealing what 20-25 pens?

Baseball jersey's adorn this wall.

Golf shirts decorate the other with the shelf above showcasing several baseballs.

The hat collection outgrew this rack and continues in the closet.

The desk drawer is full of golf balls and fireworks with another large bin of golf balls sitting on the closet floor.

Not to mention the mounds of clothing, which I really can't figure out because we are not clothes hounds and I rarely buy clothing for Dylan anymore anyway.



Then there's all his hobbies with equiptment at various other locations outside of his bedroom: Baseball, golf, snowboarding, paintball, mountain biking, car stuff, camping, electronics etc.
This is a 17 year old kid who has more stuff than most people of older generations accumlated in a lifetime! I'm really feeling sick. All I can say is that the cleaning and dejunking starts now because at this rate I'll never get him completely out of here.
Now I understand why the last few boxes of my old stuff arrived at my new house just as soon as I got married. The last dusty box still sits in the basement 20 years and 4 moves later. Man I love my Opus penquin and juggling balls.

Congratulations, it's an Aggie.

It looks like we will be adding an Aggie to the family next fall. Dylan got his acceptance letter from Utah State right before Christmas and he is very happy. USU was his first choice so he's not really interested in where things are with his BYU-ID application. Utah State is great with us so it's all good. Now we just have to make sure Senioritis doesn't set in and that he's working as much as possible and saving every penny. (And that we're saving every penny too. Ugg!)
Congratulations Dyl, we're proud of you.

Tuck Taylor

I wrote the following post several months ago but wasn't quite ready to publish it. It is almost Christmas now and I have been feeling the absence of my father-in-law. The holidays are hard when you've lost someone you love and I miss him. I want to share these memories now for my sake and for everyone else who loved him.

(Written Aug. 2009)
Forgive me for a very personal post but I think it's important for me to try to write what I can about Glenn's dad and the details surrounding his passing. Tuck passed away on Saturday July 18 early in the morning. It was quite sudden for us and we were completely devastated when we got the call. In hindsight we realize that for the last 3 weeks of his life he was very sick. We found out earlier in the summer that his leukemia was back so he was supposed to start chemo again in June. Instead of being able to start though he just kept running into complications which kept him in and out of the hospital for those last few weeks. He never complained about any of it he just kept doing what he could to get better. On Friday the 10th his vitals were so bad that they admitted him to the ICU and they had to use the defibrillator at one point to stabilize his heart rate. Fri, Sat and Sunday were some of his worst days as they fought to keep his vitals stable. Glenn and the kids were up that weekend for Good Neighbor Day and they visited him on Saturday, the 11th. He really couldn't visit with them but he knew they were there and Glenn and their former Bishop were able to give him a blessing. Dylan and I did not go with them to Idaho and of course now I seriously regret that decision. It was particularly painful to miss that last chance to see him. Tuck got better throughout the week and they were able to move him out of the ICU on Thursday night. We were encouraged and thought that he would continue to get better. The details are sketchy but early on Saturday he became sick again, (he had been fighting an infection in his stomach and began throwing up again) they called Kathy to let her know that he wasn't doing well and she asked if they could move him back to the ICU. The nurses began prepping him for the move but he did not make it that far. The doctor called Kathy back to say he was gone. I'm sure his vitals were plummeting again and with his bad heart he just wasn't strong enough to make it. He and Kathy had had a chance to talk about resuscitation earlier in the week and had decided against it so there was not much that they could do. Like I said it was a complete shock to us and we are still coming to terms with it. We know he completed his mission and that he is well now and happy but it will take awhile to heal the hole left in our hearts.
The funeral was on July 22 which was Glenn's birthday. I was worried about it being on that day at first but Glenn thought it would be an honor to share the day with his dad. Glenn mentioned in his talk that he and his dad met 41 years earlier on July 22 and would say farewell on the same day. Glenn, his brother Dale, his nephew Chanse and the family's former Bishop all spoke at the funeral. It was a really wonderful service and was packed to the back of the cultural hall. There was a lot of humor and also powerful testimony borne so I think Tuck would have liked it. There was also great potential for missionary work and he would have liked that too.
Thomas Gerald "Tuck" Taylor was my father-in-law and he was one of the best men I've ever known. We met just a couple of times before "the big meeting" when Glenn and I told his parents we wanted to get married. The first thing Tuck said was "well that doesn't give us much time." He was referring to himself and Kathy because they had not yet been through the temple. It wasn't a complaint or a question, just a statement because he knew and was willing to do what needed to be done. I feel like Tuck was the greatest convert from Glenn's mission. While Glenn was out his dad started making changes in his life that had brought him to the point of being ready to go through the temple. We gave him the reason and he was stalwart from then on.
One thing I'm really grateful for is how often we got together through the years. From the beginning and especially after we started having kids they came down a lot, or we would go up. Some of my best memories are the vacations we took together. After Tuck retired a few years ago they would come down whenever he needed to see William again. He and William were particularly close but he was always close to the little ones. I have so many pictures of my kids with Grandpa. He loved his family so much and we loved him in return. Dylan summed it up well when he said "Grandpa was a stud."
Things that I loved about Tuck:
The candy in his shirt pocket for the kids.
The cane he made William when he broke his leg.
His sense of humor, especially his one liners.
The stories he would tell.
His Western books and movies.
His love of dogs- real, animated and the Hollywood talking variety.
The way he said "that was a pretty cute show" after he saw a talking animal movie.
Watching Tom and Jerry with the kids.
His hat collection.
His shed.
Fishing.
The grape drink he would mix up for William in one of his Diet Pepsi bottles.
The little things he fixed in my house.
Calling me "young lady".
His hands- I can still see every detail of them.
His kindness.
His humility.
His love.
I will always remember these things about my father in law but there is one more thing that I truly cherish. Every single time for as long as I can remember he said the same thing to me whenever we said goodbye. He would give me a hug and say, "Well young lady, take care of them kids, and don't let 'em get the best of you." It seems a simple good natured admonition but I know that "don't let them get the best of you" was just for me. He would look me right in the eye as he said it, like he wanted to make sure I understood. He was a man of compassion and empathy, so I always felt like he was saying that he knew. He knew how hard things are sometimes in life and families and marriages, and he wanted me to take care of me.
My message to him in return is one of profound gratitude which I will carry in my heart until we meet again. I know I will see him again- we are an eternal family.

Creative creations

The creative juices have been flowing at the Taylor household. Here are a couple of creations from last week.
The first is Garrett's BYU pie. Hopefully the dust has settled from the big game and the aftermath to safely post these pictures.


We were scheduled to make a peanut butter pie for our friends who are Ute fans when they showed up at the door with a big U cupcake. Of course that made Garrett want to do the pie up BYU style. He made the pie filling and decorated it all himself. Good job bud! I can handle the friendly rivalry like this but when the media and everyone else perpetuates the cycle of hatred and bad behavior I get pretty disgusted. With Max Hall's post game comments this year was especially bad. Nuff said.
Moving on we have Bunny cupcakes.

No it's not Easter but we owed our bunny breeding neighbors a thank you for help with our bunny so this is what we came up with. Cute and easy = two thumbs up.

Goodbye potstickers

Well my number one blog fan has been hinting (ok complaining out rightly) that the potstickers post is getting very old. Since I am lucky enough to even have a blog fan I decided I better update or risk fading into blogging oblivion and possible friendlessness. I'm just going to work backwards until I run into the potstickers again so here we go. (BTW we just had potstickers for dinner and they are still two thumbs up!)
First we have Halloween, here are the costumes:

Abby was a Devil, Emily a witch, William an Army guy and Otis was a squirrel. Otis actually killed a squirrel last year so this was his penance. We think it was an accidental death but it was a good excuse to buy the dog a costume.

This is Will at his first costume parade:

I loved having Halloween on Saturday because it felt like we got an extra day which is really what you need to fit in all of the Halloween activities. Friday was the school costume parade, and a ward party and Saturday was carving pumpkins and treat or treating. Glenn's mom came down for a few days and it was fun to have her involved in all the madness and mayhem.
At our ward party we did trunk or treating and we were supposed to decorate our cars. I was thinking more along the lines of dressing up our car as if in costume and came up with dressing it as a Mormon Assault Vehicle. You know, the big SUV filled with a bunch of kids and the Families are Forever bumper sticker? Glenn made the wood paneling stickers for me and the kids and I made a bunch of faces to stick in the windows. I don't think anybody really got it, it must have been too close to normal but I couldn't throw everything away without at least documenting it.


Mid Oct. was UEA weekend so the kids had a couple of days off school. Since Glenn was out of town we didn't do anything until Sat. when we spent the day at Gardner Village. It's a historic little village that is now a trendy shopping area built around an old mill. In Oct. they deck it all out with witches so we wanted to go check it out. It was so busy that we luckily couldn't get into the shops to spend money so we just walked around, did the witch scavenger hunt and then let the kids run through the mini-corn maze.


We thought this sign at the petting zoo was pretty funny. You might have to click on it to read it.

Abby's birthday was Sept. 28th. About mid-summer she decided she wanted a bunny for her birthday. To fuel her fire our neighbors who breed bunnies started showing her their bunnies and told her they'd have baby bunnies by her birthday. Oi! Abby had a wad of babysitting cash and she offered to buy the bunny herself if we got the hutch for her birthday. Her finagling worked and we added Roxy the bunny to the Taylor household. Abby chose Roxy who was a few months older over the baby bunnies because she was ready to go immediately and she had a really mellow disposition. Because she was the last of the older litter our neighbor wanted to give her to Abby for free, but I insisted she pay something so we got Roxy for $1.00. Quite a bargain because she really is a sweet bunny.
Abby took these pictures:


Of course we had to do another fun cake. She chose the butterfly. It was yellow in the book but we made it pink. Grandma and Grandpa Williams stopped by to drop off Abby's present and we convinced them to stay for dinner and presents. It was a fun night.

Right before Abby's birthday we squeezed in a weekend in Boise for a mini reunion with Glenn's family. Our niece Jamie and her husband James had moved to Nampa and Glenn's mom suggested a get together up there for a change in scenery. It was a grand idea and we had a great weekend.
Here are pictures from the Boise zoo:






The elementary school's annual Pumpkin Walk was Sept. 23 and 24 just in time for the first cold weather of the season to blow in. It was so freezing cold on those days and then the next week it was beautiful again. We were troopers and made the annual pilgrimage. The kids are always so proud to show off their pumpkins and the whole thing is always cute and very creative. Some of the teachers have used Glenn to make their banners so he is always proud to show those off too. (Sorry honey I didn't get any pictures of the banners.)
Here are this years pumpkins and their proud owners:



Well I have now run into pictures that I've already blogged about so I think that's it. So long potstickers, you have served me well.

Potstickers

A little know secret about me is that I'm addicted to The Food Network. I don't usually go for the cooking shows with their fancy recipes and what not, but there was recently an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats that caught my attention. He did a show on Potsticker's, (which is something that Glenn happens to love) and the recipe seemed pretty easy. So I bought all the ingredients and enlisted the help of my trusty sous chef Garrett and we went for it.
Garrett is always my accomplice in my adventures because he likes figuring things out and he is especially game if it involves food. Two years ago when I was canning peaches for the first time Garrett and his curious nature happened by and my sidekick was born.
The fun part about potstickers was the unsticking. The first batch quickly attracted the girls and William and we had an audience for a while. First you cook them in the pan for two minutes and they end up sticking to the bottom, hence the name, then you add some chicken broth and cover the pan and let it steam for 2 more minutes. Then they are unstuck just like magic! When you add the broth the pan steams and sizzles like crazy so that's the exciting part.

Here's the recipe. I'd recommend it, it's easier than it looks and quite tasty! On the adult scale I'd give them a 10 and about a 7 on the kid scale. Our kids had a split vote because they were a tad spicy. I think it was mainly from the black pepper because our pepper grinder leaves it a little course.

Perfect Potstickers by Alton Brown

Ingredients
1/2 pound ground pork
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
2 tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons ketchup
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
35 to 40 small wonton wrappers
Water, for sealing wontons
3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, for frying
1 1/3 cups chicken stock, divided
Directions
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Combine the first 11 ingredients in a medium-size mixing bowl (pork through cayenne). Set aside.

To form the dumplings, remove 1 wonton wrapper from the package, covering the others with a damp cloth. Brush 2 of the edges of the wrapper lightly with water. Place 1/2 rounded teaspoon of the pork mixture in the center of the wrapper. Fold over, seal edges, and shape as desired. Set on a sheet pan and cover with a damp cloth. Repeat procedure until all of the filling is gone.


Heat a 12-inch saute pan over medium heat. Brush with vegetable oil once hot. Add 8 to 10 potstickers at a time to the pan and cook for 2 minutes, without touching. Once the 2 minutes are up, gently add 1/3 cup chicken stock to the pan, turn the heat down to low, cover, and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove wontons to a heatproof platter and place in the warm oven. Clean the pan in between batches by pouring in water and allowing the pan to deglaze. Repeat until all the wontons are cooked. Serve immediately.

Road Trip Down Memory Lane

On Saturday Glenn and I took my dad on a road trip to Malad ID, where he grew up, to take pictures of the houses where he lived and to record some of his memories. It was a really fun day. It's about a two hour drive which is not too long and traffic and weather were perfect. Like most kids back in the "good ol' days" my dad ran free through the whole town and has some great stories. Some favorites are running a small gambling ring, their shoe shining business, stealing their dog back from another family and of course rolling a tire down the court house hill and right through the door of the corner tavern.
Malad is still very small and quaint. There has not been much growth there which was good for our purpose because most of the houses and buildings were still there. I loved the old brick buildings like the hospital, court house and High School.



This yellow brick building was my favorite. There used to be apartments on the top level and the bottom was a drug store with a soda counter. It doesn't get any more "small town USA" than that does it?

Dad's family lived in the apartments when he was about Jr. High age. The door that he's standing by used to be the entrance but it is closed off now.

I had to take a picture of the Dude Ranch Cafe because we ate there once when Dylan was little and he still remembers it as the best milkshake he ever had. I think it was because they brought the leftover part out in the metal mixing cup and that made an impression on him for some reason. It's funny to see a big teenager get all excited about "the milkshake in the metal can".

On our way home we had to complete the trip down memory lane with lunch at Maddox. I decided to go nostalgic all the way and get the chicken fried steak like I did when I was little. It was delicious. World's Finest Beef you know:)


So a big Thank You to my dad for letting us hijack his Saturday, for footing the bill for lunch and for an all around wonderful day! Love you Dad!