Wedding Weekend #3: Cook Family

This weekend we were in Bay City for a Cook family wedding. This was our 3rd wedding of the summer that we have attended and we still have two more to go -- the last two are O'Neill weddings in August. Anywhooooo, the whole Cook clan was in attendance which means it was outrageously loud wherever we went. There's just so many of them chatting at the same time that before you know it, everyone is shouting to hear what the other person is saying! This loudness was most evident this morning at breakfast when we filled the entire breakfast area of the hotel - the temperature in the room kept rising and voices got louder until I wanted to cover my ears for a moment to get a break from the noise! :) I looked over at my mother-in-law and we exchanged glances and she shook her head. The Cooks are famous for their volume level. The funny thing is that they don't notice it, only us implants into the family seem to notice and it's hilarious. Our Saturday was filled with family and catching up on life.

second cousin, Katie

Katie's spitfire of an older sister, Natalie

beautiful Roman Catholic church where the ceremony happened

wish we had one of these beauties in Big Rapids!

We clean up pretty good.

Dr. Tyler catching up with Grandma Cook

My Farmerboy talking farm with his Grandpa Cook, who is also a farmer. It runs in the family.

Friday night I made dinner for Zach & Tyler, which we didn't end up eating until almost 8:30PM because those boys were moving bales of hay around in the barn to make room for the wheat straw... I made herb encrusted pork loin chops with fresh green beans from the garden. The beans squeaked when I chewed them because they were so fresh!

herb encrusted pork loin chops - not nearly as hard as it sounds!

Dessert was raspberry & apple crisp with cool whip on top. The raspberries came from the garden and I didn't add enough sugar or gelatin, so they dessert was a bit soupy & tart. Oh well. Live and learn.

That, however, was not my worst blunder with Friday's dinner... the jalepeno poppers did me in.

You see, I'm fairly new at cooking things fresh out of the garden and we had some jalepenos ready to pick & use. (P.S. it's really annoying to me that I don't know how to make the little tilde sign over the "n" in the word "jalepeno." I'm sure it's bugging all you Spanish speakers out there too so just bear with me!) Since the rest of the ingredients needed to make salsa aren't ready yet, I decided to make jalepeno poppers. Zach loves jalepenos and I figured how hard could they be? Well, the jalepeno poppers turned out great! Except I didn't pay attention to which ones were from the "mild" bush and which ones came from the "hot" bush so it was kinda a guessing game for poor Tyler. He kept hoping he'd get a mild one and then picked a hot one every time!

jalepenos from the garden

jalepeno poppers!

I just cut these babies in half and filled them with a mixture of cream cheese, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and bacon bits then baked 'em for 15-20 mins.

Now for the biggest mistake: I didn't wear gloves while preparing the jalpenos. It turns out that the juice and oils from the jalepenos don't come off your skin very easily. Everything I touched with my hands BURNED! Things such as my upper lip when I wiped sweat off it while cooking. My eyes BURNED when I took out my contacts that night AND when I put them in the next morning! Lesson learned. Don't be like me. Always wear gloves when working with jalepeno peppers.

It's good to be back home. The laundry is going. The house is mostly clean. And my sisters left me these cute little guys on the kitchen table to use in my classroom when they stayed here this past weekend while we were away.



Love,
Sarah

Injuries: here, there & everywhere!

Thursday afternoon, I smashed my right ring finger in the back door. Now, I did not do this on purpose and I'm still trying to figure out how I crunched the ring finger and not the middle one seeing as how the middle one is longer, but whatev. It hurt regardless of which finger it was. I almost passed out because it hurt SO BAD! I had to go lay down on the floor in our master bedroom because it was cooler and I wanted the room to stop spinning. Oh yes! And I was home alone when this happened.

Once I felt the dizziness and nausea subside slightly, I downed two ibuprofens and laid on the couch with my finger wrapped in a washcloth full of ice cubes. This is when I noticed the blood had dripped on my legs and the floor. Gross. I was stinkin' mad as I cleaned it up and laid there because this little incident was throwing off my schedule for the day! I was supposed to water the garden then go to a pool party & cookout with our small group from church and I this stinkin' finger was taking my pool time away! Ohhh patience, how I need more of you!

An hour later, I got up to assess the damage and bandage it up, but we had no band-aids in the house because Zach used them all up when he cut his hand on the combine on Wednesday. I told you- injuries EVERYHWERE!

Note the bandaged left hand... it's not as bad as it looks.

He cut the side of his hand - a hard place to keep a band-aid on - so he wrapped the whole thing!

So, being the resourceful person I am, I wrapped the bloody, swollen finger in a strip of paper towel and secured it in place with a strip of Scotch tape. Hey, at least it wasn't Duct tape! Then I drove over to my in-laws where Mom O-C hooked me up with some band-aids. Then it was time to water the garden... ugh. Not fun managing a hose one-handed. I tried to keep my finger elevated to stop the bleeding but it didn't help and I looked like a crazy person walking around with my hand raised as if asking perpetual questions...

Around 3:30 the garden was watered. Zach arrived at the farm with a brand new box of cloth, heavy duty, band-aids. I've never really considered myself a squeamish person but looking at my mangled finger is a bit too much for me to bear. Zach had to change the 2 band-aids I bled through because my stomach was doing somersaults. I'm officially a sissy when it comes to caring for my own wounds. Thanks to my farmerboy for doctoring me up!

FINALLY I got to the pool party around 4pm with my swimsuit, a watermelon, and smashed, bloody finger. I soaked it in the chlorine pool to clean it out then put a fresh bandage on it before dinner. Dinner was great with huge burgers on the grill, pasta salad, watermelon, and brownies & ice cream for dessert! Yum! After dinner, the adults sat around chatting when the kids came in and got out the Just Dance 2 game for the Wii. Their kids were so cute trying to do the moves. I played through one song with one of the kids then one of the other husbands tried one with his son. I don't think either one of them were doing the moves on the screen! They just danced around and made us all laugh. I love our small group! They are so much fun to be around! Plus, the couple hosting the party gave me a strip of Press&Seal wrap to keep my finger dry. :)

This is what it looks like today. Nasty.

Side view - the bottom of my nail usually isn't up that high

And the nail polish is covering a lot of the bruising. It's even bruised on the other side of my finger! Not to mention that it's leaking pus and it smells bad. Sorry. That was too much information. Maybe I should call my sister Katie. After all, she is a nurse!

On a lighter note, our garden is coming along well. The lettuce will be ready soon, the tomatoes, cucumbers, and pumpkins are flowering. My mom and I picked some jalepenos, beans, and raspberries today. There weren't quite enough beans to can so those are going to be tonight's side dish for dinner. The raspberries are going to be put into a fruit crisp and hopefully I can turn the jalepenos into an appetizer.

Jalepenos

Also on a lighter note: wheat harvest has begun. I rode in the combine with Zach for a few rounds on Wednesday night.

Zach finishing up a round

wheat

Riding in the buddy seat

The picture from inside the combine looking down at the header cracks me up because you can see my reflection in the window: athletic wear. I pretty much live in gym shorts, t-shirts, and tennis shoes and this picture just highlights how different Zach and I are. I came from playing soccer to go ride with him in the field. :) I also got some video of him unloading the combine contents into the truck to haul back to the farm. Speaking of the farm, they just put up and brand spankin' new grain bin. But when you say "bin" you have to pronounce it more like "ben." Don't ask me why. That's just how the farmers say it. I should do another post sometime with more farmer-isms...

new grain bin

Zach kept saying, "It's so big and shiny!" I thought he was going to hug it...I asked him to stand in front of it to give a little perspective. It's the biggest grain bin they have now!

Are you getting tired of reading yet?!

This is my last story. Promise.

I added to my injuries today by giving blood at an American Red Cross Blood Drive held at our church. First time donor, right here! The process is wayyyy longer than I thought because you after you sign in you have to read 57 official educational papers, then you go in the little booth and they ask you to repeat your name and address about 34 times, plus take a 92 question long quiz asking you about everything under the sun. Then they stick you with a little poker to test your blood to make sure your hemoglobin is high enough (must be 12.5 or higher and I squeaked by with a 12.6...) which hurts like heck because they squeeze it to take the blood into some little tester deal. After you jump through all those hoops, they take you to the tables and start a-pumpin' away! Apparently my blood flowed well, seeing as how it took maybe 5 minutes and I was outta there in no time to get my snacks from the snack station.

Seeing as how I almost passed out yesterday at the sight of my bloody finger, I was slightly nervous to get poked with a needle today and watch however many pints of blood flow out of my body into a bag. But it was fine. The worst part was waiting for the nurse to disconnect me from all the tubes and take out the needle. I just wanted it out of me and to sit up. It really wasn't bad overall and I think the finger print in the pre-screening booth hurt worse!

Bonus: My mom was there next to me donating blood too. :) But the nurse told her to lay off the coffee on blood donation days because it made her blood run slower. Ha ha!

Double bonus: I'm finally going to know my blood type!

Okay. I'm off to get dinner going the we are headed to a Cook family wedding in Bay City for the weekend. Tyler flew home from Kansas for it so it will be good to have everyone home.

Love,

Sarah

Summer's Here!

My youngest brother, Michael, came over and spent the night with us on Monday. We watched "Over the Hedge," read books, and played Mad Libs. Here are some good lines from two of those Mad Lib games.

From OUR CAFETERIA: "The spaghetti is spikey and tastes like goats. One day, I swear one of my meatballs started to fart!"

From TYRANNOSAURUS REX: "The T-rex was about 285,000 feet tall - or the size of a four-story urinal."

Can you tell I was playing this game with a middle school boy?! :) We made chili & cornbread for dinner. After dinner we attempted to go for a bike ride but the farthest we made it was down the street. Literally. The bugs and deer flies were swarming our heads and biting our necks so we turned around and high tailed it back to the house. Zach got home later and as he ate dinner we had some leftover ice cream cake from his birthday. We had to eat it fast because it was melting so quickly! Finally, we all settled in to watch "The Blind Side," a fabulous movie. Mostly because I want to be Sandra Bullock... anyway, it was late by the time it was over so we got ready for bed. Mike forgot his toothbrush... gross. I made him a bed on the couch but knew he was going to end up in our room after 5 minutes so we just moved his "bed" to the floor in our room. I'm sure he slept better there, like I said, master bedroom is the only room in the house with AC.

It seems as if summer is finally here! It has been in the 90s the past few days. Woohoo! I've been waiting all winter for these hot days to be here! Therefore, I will not complain about the heat. The only unfortunate thing about Michigan living is that with heat comes the dreaded HUMIDITY! I'm talkin' HUMID! Probably around 100% humidity - so moist that the wood floor always seems wet, so humid that our toilet doesn't stop sweating and leaves a huge puddle on the bathroom floor, so humid that our towels never seem to dry, so humid I wanted to stay in my car after grocery shopping because the AC felt wonderful, so humid .... I've run out of things to give as an example. This humidity not only wreaks havoc on my hair making it uncontrollably frizzy & curly, it makes it almost unbearable to go outside. Hence, I spent most of the afternoon in our master bedroom, the one room in our house with an air conditioner, reading the August edition of Real Simple Magazine. :)

Seriously, I love summer. I get so much reading done its ridiculous! Reading and cooking I suppose. Last night I made "Pizza Roll Ups." Which I certainly sweat over because using the stove on a hot, humid day like today in a house with no AC is borderline insanity. Hopefully Zach appreciated all my hard work. Ha ha! My mom (Thorne) made these often because they are fairly quick and easy and yield quite a few! I made them for Zach last year some time and they have become a favorite in our house now too. Here's the recipe:

PIZZA ROLL UPS

1 1-lb roll of sausage

1 refrigerated tube pizza dough, or enough homemade dough for 1 pizza

1 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese

1 TBSP oregano

salt & pepper to taste

*NOTE: I don't really measure things out exactly, so the amount of oregano & cheese is a rough estimate.

1. Cook sausage and crumble. The smaller the better so it fits into the roll better.

Drain fat; put sausage in medium bowl.

2. Add mozzarella cheese, oregano, salt & pepper. Mix.

3. For the dough, I just use the recipe for pizza dough from my bread machine manual and make it in there. Roll out dough to approx 1/4-in thick rectangle.

How you're supposed to get dough to get in the shape of a rectangle, I don't know.

Mine always resembles some kind of crazy oval.

4. Sprinkle meat and cheese mixture onto dough and press down slightly.

This will keep the ingredients from falling off when you roll it up.

5. Roll into a tight log.

6. Pinch together any seams so nothing leaks out!

7. Using a serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, cut off approx. 1-inch sections and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. (Makes about 16 rolls)

8. Say goodbye to those delicious italian masterpieces while they bake for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees F, or until tops of rolls are slightly browned.

9. Cool slightly and dunk in pasta sauce. Serve with a salad or fresh vegetable.

These are super easy to freeze and eat later. Zach loves to take them in his lunch. It makes his co-workers jealous. Score bonus points for me. :)

Anyways, this post was meant for last night, but I got caught up (or should I say, sweated my face off) making the pizza roll ups then we were off to Grand Rapids for a leadership meeting and didn't get back until late. Then this working I went to work out.

Stay cool!

Sarah

Fair, Birthdays, & Beaches

Friday was a nice day. Zach and I walked around the Mecosta County Agricultural Free Fair for a few hours to look at the animals and stroll down the midway. For some reason I didn't take many picture of the "normal" farm animals: cows, horses, pigs, etc. I found these quite interesting:

World's Creepiest Llama

huge turtle in the petting zoo

Zach inspecting the prize-winning wheat in the 4-H building

cute little goat

We also got ice cream at the Dairy Booth. All they had left was vanilla, but it was still delicious. After the fair, I played a double-header softball game. I felt so slow from the ice cream I had just eaten! We lost the first game and won the second by a landslide.

Saturday was birthday day! Zach's and my mom's. For Zach's birthday we slept in then went to breakfast at a local joint called, "A La Mode Cafe." Tiny restaurant yet delicious food in large quantities

I forgot to take a picture so this one is borrowed from another site

Then we went to the farm and weeded, tilled, and staked our garden.

Our Garden

Whew. Weeding only one day a week makes for a lot of work on that one day. I couldn't help thinking (as I yanked on weeds and chopped at them with a hoe) about the parallels to the Christian life. Many people, and I'm guilty of this as well, go to church one day a week, hear a good sermon, then live the rest of the week without making any changes, without digging in to God's Word or spending time at prayer. People are sinful by nature, we are naturally inclined to do wrong just like in a garden weeds naturally spring up. Sin springs up naturally in our lives. It takes a little work every day to keep weeds at bay and help the good plants to produce fruit just like it takes a little work each to keep our spiritual lives flourishing. Who knew the lesson I would learn from pulling some weeds?

After gardening, Zach went to work on adjusting the combine from corn to wheat settings and I went to town to pick up his DQ ice cream cake. Then I went home, cleaned up a bit, and got dinner going. I made fajitas in a homemade seasoning and a black bean and corn salad/salsa thing. Zach's parents came over for dinner and we ate around 4:30. I wish I had taken a picture of the fajitas because they looked great with all the colors of the peppers.

Bean & corn salad/salsa invention

Zach's ice cream birthday cake

birthday banner I made for Zach

When dinner was done, his parents left and we rushed about to leave for the demolition derby. Little did Zach know that our friends from college, Josh & Carlyn were coming to surprise him and go with us to the derby. I told him I had to drive in to town because we needed to make a stop before heading to the fairgrounds. He was NOT happy about that. "Do you really NEED to drive?!" he kept asking. "YES!" He kept guessing as we drove. "Are we meeting someone? Is someone going with us? Is it Josh & Carlyn? Is it Dan?" He kept pestering me but I didn't make a peep! When we pulled in to Family Video and he saw Josh & Car sitting there he said, "Liar!" with a huge grin on his face!

Josh & Zach catching up & watching the demo derby

off-road derby race crash

Me & Carlyn

This was Josh & Carlyn's first county fair and they enjoyed themselves. Plus we were glad to see friends too! The derby went LAAAAATE, from 7pm-11:15pm. When that was done we went to Applebee's and chatted until closing time and Josh & Car went home.

As one of Zach's birthday surprises, I made a list of 24 things/characteristics I like about him and see in him - one for each year of his life. :) Then every hour on the hour I read him one of those characteristics and explained it briefly why I picked it. I read him the last one at midnight and then gave him the whole list to keep. He had a huge smile every time I read something and by mid-afternoon he was reminding me that it was time to hear the next item on the list. :) I think he liked it.

Today, Sunday was hot, sticky, humid, and kinda busy. Church then lunch with my family and the Yonkers. Quick stop at home then I went to the beach with my family & some of Amy's friends and Zach went to the farm and put the combine back together.

Amy, Meron, Rachel, Betty, Yabsira, Adellum

Betty, Meron, Rachel & Amy built a dribble castle @ School Section Lake

Love these girls!

Now it's Sunday night and a new week is upon us. Long live summer.

Love,
Sarah