A World Upside Down

Smart Bluetooth Instant Pot Accessories

Yesterday was my 36th, I mean 26th, birthday and Sean surprised me with an item that has been sitting in my Amazon wish list for a while. He bought me a 6qt SMART Bluetooth enable Insta Pot (IP).

I obviously wanted one since literally all of my friends have one. I really am not sure what my honest thoughts and feelings are about it. I really have no idea what purpose it will serve in my house. I really am hoping it is a game changer and that I will fall in love with it. However, I am afraid that we just spent a boatload of money on a small appliance that will sit in the pantry next to a rice cooker, crockpot, and a

Over the last day I have searched a few IP sites, called a few friends, added myself to a facebook IP site, and have become totally overwhelmed. I have no idea where to start or what to do.  So here I am... blogging about it.


I am hoping that that I can create a space where I can grow a community of people that are also trying to figure out this whole experience. I am hoping that I can get through botched/failed recipes and celebrate successful yummy ones. I will post all my recipes and opinions here.

So friends, lets all start on this road together. Lets create yummy food and share our thoughts and ideas.


#instapot #Smartinstapot #cooking #overwhelmed #wearedoingthis

How doesn't like the smell of freshly baked bread? I know I do. Basic ingrediants, right? Yeast, flour, sugar, water? What could go wrong? When I was in college, I was given a bread machine. Oh how I loved that maker. But we had a love hate relationship and I didn't know why. More than often, my bread wouldn't rise and would be little bricks without the airiness or loaftiness freshly baked bread should have. So I retired the machine and decided I wasn't ment to bake bread.
One night, Alton Brown from the Food Network was on and he was making english muffins for eggs Benedict. Sean's all time favorite. His birthday was coming up and I decided I was going to make him this for his birthday breakfast. Followed the recipe to a T and it was a success. Overtime, and lots of practicing I realized what my problem was. The water. I am betting it was either way to hot or not hot enough. I learned that I needed to temp my yeast prior to dumping it into my flour mixture. Vola' problem solved.
Since my english muffins have been a success, I have tried dinner rolls. Yumm. I have recently (tonight) decided that I wanted a quick and easy roll to go with steak and potato's. Don't laugh, but I did a quick goggle search for "mormon rolls" and I grabbed to first one with a picture. She, Emily Hill used a bread machine to mix and raise her dough. I do not have a bread machine so I mixed everything in my stand mixer and waited about 45mins (I was in a hurry) followed everything else to as directed. Vincent ate four a dinner, Jade asked for them tomorrow night, and Sean wondered why there wasn't more tonight. SUCCESS. Super easy and for our family of four the perfect amount.
http://www.isthisreallymylife.com/2012/07/homemade-dinner-roll-recipe/
Great for a light airy bread that doesn't need substance.
Some times your eating something that just needs a hardy bread. Namely soup. I found this recipe on pintrest and went shopping. The list is kinda long and if your at a store that doesn't sell this stuff bulk, I can only imagine how much this loaf would cost. Fortunately a local grocery store here carried all of the ingredients bulk. This bread is so hardy and filling and best served hot. Since there was six little loafs I wrapped them in plastic wrap and left on my counter. Sean would take a loaf to work with him and munch on it throughout the day. I served it with clam chowder and also with pasta.
http://pinterest.com/pin/151222499958736133/

Now if I can only figure out pie crust.

1st Grade Mrs Chua, Endeavor Elementary

 Missing Mrs Wilke, 2nd grade Endeavor Elementary

3rd Grade Mrs. Warren, Cottonwood Elementary

4th Grade Mr. Jarvis

Missing  5th Grade Middle School

6th Grade Middle School

I can not believe that Jade has been in middle school now already a year and we are going into our last year at the middle school. Next year he will start Jr. High. First off the missing pictures makes me feel like the worst mother in the world. For the life of me, I scoured the computers, external hard drive, social media sites, and pictures sharing sites and I can not find them. Kindergarten Jade was transitioning between my in-laws home and our home, so I am not sure I even got a picture. I will keep looking for the second grade. Last year, was interesting; Vincent and I drove to the bus stop to pick Jade up. He got in the car and was hyperventilating saying how bad of a day he had and he needed to get home. His stomach was upset and I tried calming him down. He then stood up in the car and started throwing up out the window as we made our way to our driveway passed all the kids walking. Poor guy. Turned out, Jade picked up the flu from Vincent.
Last year was a tough year. Jade was transitioned, okay thrown, into general ed (from second grade Jade had been receiving help in the resource room) he experienced several lessons on picking good friends, along with the normal school stuff. But we made it though and learned several lessons. Overall all Jade did exceptionally well and we hope this year is a phenomenal year for him.
We did move houses, but we didn't change schools. Jade came home yesterday in good spirits. He is an excellent artist and has art first period with Mr. Caprile. Jade had him twice last year and they seem to really like each other. Mr. Caprile also teaches the after school art club. He also is in Choir. He wanted to be last year, but there was some schedule conflicts. We both are pretty excited for this. Then he has his core classes that end his day.
We pulled Jade of his IEP last year and to help compensate for that, he has enrolled him at Kumon. It will be work for Jade, but we feel that the school wasn't doing what needed to be done. He will first work on his reading to get him caught up and then he will transition into their math program.
I think with what we learned last year this year will be a great year for Jade. I am excited to see him learn and grow and think this year is going to be a good year for him.

This summer we laid pretty low. Jade was out most of the summer and with Sean working, it left Vincent and me to explore. But we were able to get the family a few times and we made the most of it. One trip we did was to the Flying Historical Collection at Boeing Field. Jade loved all the old restored planes and being able to see them all so close. Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) has made these planes his private collection and generously has allowed the public to view his collection. A few places throughout the exhibit are video/commentary movies that add to the excitement of what you are seeing. Being able to see these planes, tanks, and missiles used in the WW II documentaries really brought it home for Jade. He made the connection that he was staring at history and he absorbed all that he could. When we were done walking through the museum we went out side for a flying exhibit. One thing that I have to admit, living in Mukilteo on the bluff, we truly were spoiled and often saw these historic planes flying over the water. The roar of the engines are fascinating and really draw you outside to see what is going on. So to be on the tarmac and so close to these planes was a neat experience. One of the planes Mr. Allen bought, he discovered after he bought it that the Pilot that flew it during WW II was still alive. After the plan was fully restored Mr Allen invited the Pilot back to look at his (their) plane. During the full Restoration, they painted the nickname of the plane back on and to the Pilots surprise had never dreamed he would see his plane again. The Pilot was over come with emotions with all that he had been through in this plane along with it restored to full glory in front of him.


 The plane behind Sean and Jade, is the same plane that Louis Zamperini flew in WW II. The book titled, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. If you want a great book to read that is chalked full of history. Read it.








We accidently ended up at this museum and glad we did. We did have to pay an admission to walk through the hanger, but the outside flying show was free to the public. Once a month they have little airshows to the FHC. This exhibit is in Everett. There are several museums around Boeing Field and we have loved them all. http://www.flyingheritage.com/TemplateHome.aspx?contentId=1

For more pictures: http://theyakimafarinas.shutterfly.com/summer2012/13

Seattle's Pacific Science Center

Nefertari

Wall of Hieroglyphics

Sphinx of Shabaqa



Pet Urns

Inner coffin for a wife of the first king

This summer Sean, Jade and me had the opportunity to visit the Seattle Science Center and explore the Great Pharaohs of Egypt. The experience was amazing and I hope it is one Jade will remember. I knew Jade would love to see it so I bought us tickets. The morning we were leaving, Sean hadn't realized that he was staying home with Vincent. Clearly, 3-year-olds shouldn't attend. Sean feeling left out, hinted to my MIL and she offered to watch him. When we got there, we were let in at 30 min intervals. We watched a neat little clip about the exhibit and then once in we were free to roam as we pleased through the exhibit. At first it seemed to be pretty overwhelming. But once my eyes adjusted to the darker setting, I was less overwhelmed. 

Canopic jar of Kiya

      I thought it was neat that we were able to see artifacts from several of the Pharaohs and learned a little about a lot. I also learned that there are two of these tours and the second one is in Asia. In a few short months, both will return to Egypt and at this time they are not anticipated to leave again. King Tut was very young when he became a King and we know little about why he died so young. In one of his rooms (his tomb had four rooms) was a box, and in that box was the remains of two still born children. I don't think he ever had children carried to term.
The big famous sarcophagus of King Tut that we all think of was not at this exhibit, but was is a little miniature exact sarcophagus that was used for his internal organs. I asked about this bigger one and was told that in the late 80's while on tour of of his many larger sarcophagus were damaged and since then   Egypt hasn't allowed them to leave. It was truly amazing and glad we took the opportunity to see it. I have remembered why I disliked posting pictures to this blog. The rest og the pictures of our trip can be viewed at our family picture site http://theyakimafarinas.shutterfly.com/ 





We have had one crazy crazy summer but hope we have found a settling place for at least the next few months. As most of you know, Sean has been on extended orders for the Washington National Guard for five or so years. What this means is that he is considered active duty. He is an instructor at the school house in Yakima and loves it. There is little about his job that he enjoys and these days asking him what he doesn't like, he simply says he is grateful for a job. I love him. We aren't certain that his orders will be extended another year, so he has diligently searched for a new position outside the state of Washington. With no luck, we received all "No's". We knew that was the name of the game, but he had to try to find something. Many people ask why is he only looking in the Guard, well here is why. Sean is four years to a National Guard retirement which is great and he will get, but if he continues in the Active role like he has been doing, he can retire from the Guard in five years with a full active duty retirement. If he was to look in the civilian workforce (which is grim) he would be starting at day one with a huge potential of not have a retirement package.
We are hoping that we find out we find out in the next few weeks. Ultimately his current set of orders end at the end of September. :Sigh::
Other than Sean's job situation, we knew we had to return a sense of normalcy for the boys and came home to Yakima so they could start school. Both boys will continue at their old schools. I am also enrolled in another term at Central and sticking to online this term.