Recipe: Simple Andes Mint Cookies

Finals are over, so I can bake! I have pinning recipes I have wanted to try on Pinterest for the past couple weeks and final got to try one. I love Andes Mints, so of course this recipe had to be the first I tried, but it called for the mints to be melted on the top, which was a bit annoying and messy so I modified it, here it is:

Ingredients:1 Devil's Food cake mix
1/2 cup of oil
2 eggs
1 package of Andes Mints

Mix the cake mix, oil and eggs. Roll into walnut size ball with half an Andes Mint in the middle. Cook at 350 degrees for 6-9 minutes.

Oregon in Review

After being back in Iowa for a few weeks ad feeling a little more settled, I have had time to reflect on the time in Oregon. So here are a few things that were learned or worth remembering.

Pumping your own gas is against the law in the state of Oregon.I was not a big fan of this law, it meant that you had to wait longer to get gas while the 1, maybe 2 gas attendants filled all the tanks. Plus the chance of getting your windows washed was like 1 in 459!

Roadsharing signs don't mean anything to drivers.There are plenty of 'Share the Road' signs throughout Oregon and in places there are even nicely paved bike lanes. I figured riding my bike would be pretty relaxed, considering all the signs. But after a few close calls, I decided the drivers don't seem to understand road sharing. In a lot of places the shoulder really didn't exist and I would ride as tight to the white line as possible, but logging trucks do not move over and it freaked me out way too many times!

Crosswalks are for real.Something that took me the entire time I was in Oregon to adjust to was the use of crosswalks. Pedestrians would just go, because the cars were expected to stop. I never really trusted that theory and most the time I would stop at the corner waiting for the car to go, but then the car would suddenly stop and I would have to take off across the road. As a driver, I had to stay aware because at any time a pedestrian could keep coming and I would be expected to stop. It led to many awkward times for me and my roommates who also were not accustomed to it.

Rain, Rain & More Rain.It rained everyday. Seeing the sun for 45 minutes in a week was sometimes a miracle! When I was told it rained, but didn't snow I didn't think it would be that bad. I underestimated the gray-ness of rain. It was very annoying to constantly have wet pants, shoes, socks, etc. I also heard from someone that true Oregonians don't use umbrellas. I can say I wasn't a true Oregonian by those standards. I had an umbrella with me at all times, my umbrella probably saw more use this year than it has in its entire lifespan! However, I also know that this was an abnormal year in rain totals, cold and snow for the Portland area, but I am not a fan of the rain!

Population of 20,000+When I interviewed, I was told Forest Grove had a population of 20,000. In my mind that was a pretty good sized town, I mean 20 times the size of Greene! I also figured it would have stores, restaurants and other 'big' city things. This was all a dream. Forest Grove did have a chain grocery store, but that was pretty much it. If you wanted anything else, you had to drive to Hillsboro or Beaverton. Kind of annoying, but I guess it is relative. In Iowa, that size of town would have all that stuff, but in Oregon it wasn't big enough to house all of those stores.

Regional food cravings.Almond bark was pretty much an unknown in Oregon. I thought it was surprising, but it was a lesson in regional markets, which may be helpful in grad school. I also learned cheeseballs are also a regional thing. Lastly, the name for maidrites, as I have always called them, is very confusing to others. I made dinner for a bunch of people one night and I said I was making maidrites, several admitted after they got there that they had know idea what I was making. It was an interesting discussion as we came up for all the different names they called them.

Overall, it was a good experience. I learned about a region that is a lot different than the midwest, I also learned how I would and wouldn't manage people in the future. During the 10 months in Oregon, I think I also realized what I find more important in life and one of those things is being closer to my family. I want the opportunity to go home for an important thing in my siblings' lives or to just be able to stop by and see everyone. I had a great first year out of undergrad, I visited 15 states, I visited my family on the west coast, I met some great people, I had my first full time job, I learned how to manage my own expenses and I had the support of my family throughout. What more can I ask for?

Adventures: Spring Break

Shortly after I got back from Colorado my roommates headed to Las Vegas for spring break and to see Chantel's sister play tennis for North Dakota State. I, however, had to report back to work, but luckily all the teams were on spring break trips, so no one was playing at home making my schedule pretty flexible! So I ventured out with some optometry friends who had stayed in Forest Grove for the break.

Waterfalls

The sun finally showed up in Forest Grove for longer than an hour, so a car load of us decided to head to the Columbia Gorge area to hike. We took the scenic highway and made a quick stop at Vista point and then headed on with the intentions of stopping at all the waterfalls along the way and ending at Multnomah Falls.

Our first stop was at Latourell Falls, we hiked to the top and then down to the base. It was a rather quick stop, but got us warmed up for the rest of the falls. The second stop was at Bridal Veil, which required a bit more hiking because it was off the main area. This waterfall wasn't as tall as the others, but it was significantly wider. The third stop was at Wahkeena Falls, this waterfall did a bit more winding on it's way down than the others did and didn't require much hiking to get to.

The final stop was at Multnomah Falls and amazingly it wasn't that busy! We started the 1.25 mile hike up...a very steep 1.25 miles, with 11 switch backs. But once we made it to the top the view was kind of cool from the observation deck. When hiked back up river for a while before heading back down. Once we reached the ground level we luckily were able to get some pictures of the whole falls without anyone walking or standing on the bridge!

Voodoo Doughnuts

On the way back from the falls, I suggested we stop at Voodoo Doughnuts. I guess the place is well known and it's something you must do in Portland. To be honest I had never heard of it before coming here and only noticed it because people will stand in lines that wrap around the block for hours to go in. When we got there the line hadn't turned the corner, so we waited for about 30 minutes to go in. There famous doughnut is the maple bacon bar, which is a maple doughnut with bacon strips on top. I was told by one of my 14s parents that I had to try it, so I did. It was very interesting, but not something I need again. They also had doughnuts with fruitloops, captain crunch, oreos and other random stuff on top. Waaay to much sugar!

Saké Tasting

Unbeknownst to me, Forest Grove has 1 of 5 saké breweries in the United States. However, the optometry students know it and a couple of them were heading for a tasting on Thursday, so I headed along. Wasn't too bad, plus because we were the only ones there at the time (but who really goes saké tasting in the middle of a workday afternoon), we got to ask a bunch of questions. This brewery is the only American owned saké brewery in the US and the first to make flavor infused saké...probably will have to get some to bring back to Iowa.

NCAA Brackets

Not going to say much, mine was a bust. No final four teams & only 3 elite eight teams. However, I did beat David and that gives me bragging rights for at least a year.

Book Review: Wooden

I finally got my hands on a John Wooden book! Or I guess I should say my mom did and sent it to me for Valentine's Day.

The book did not disappoint. It was an easy read and written in a conversational tone. It was also written in segments, making it a quick and enlightening read. John Wooden was very set in how he did things and it stemmed back to the days of his childhood. He did not let others influence his beliefs or define his success for him, he was a knowledgeable confident person who defined success in his own way.

In the book he discusses where his beliefs stem from, the values he had and worked to instill in his life and his players' lives. While basketball was an important part of his life and the platform he had that brought his ideas out to the public, it was just a small part of his life. In his high school years, a teacher gave out an assignment asking the students to define success. Wooden reflected on the term for years and came up with a definition and a pyramid of success, which encompasses everything he felt is necessary for an individual to become successfully in life.

Wooden's definition of success: "Success is peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best become the best that you are capable of becoming."

A few other thoughts I found interesting:

"Know that when you are through learning, you are through."

"You never fail if you know in your heart that you did the best of which you are capable."

"You are in the presence of a true competitor when you observe that they are indeed getting the most joy out of the most difficult circumstances."

"There is a choice you have to make, in everything you do. And you must always keep in mind the choice you make, makes you."

"If we magnified blessings as much as we magnify disappointments, we would all be much happier."

The book was great and I wish I could assign it to my 18s team to read, because I think it would help. But as I would guess none of them would read it, so I took many pages of notes and hope that it will inspire my coaching over the next month.

Adventures: Colorado

Last weekend I headed to the Colorado Crossroads with the 18s team and let me tell you it was a bit more than I bargained for, but I got to see Central people and visit the Garden of the Gods.

We flew to Denver on St. Patrick's Day, after over a 4 hour delay and getting our connection held for us in Salt Lake. Luckily, it was the first day of the NCAA tournament so we could sit and watch the games. Secondly, for St. Patrick's Day Southwest airlines gives free drinks for the holiday!

Additionally, when we got to our hotel in Denver we discovered that we were staying at one of the NCAA Tournament host hotels, with Gonzaga. In my family, my dad would be going crazy because of his small obsession with the school for a reason unknown to anyone, probably even him, and my mom and David would be in search of John Stockton for an autograph.

Anyway, as I was sitting in the lounge area after the had made their entrance after winning and messing up my bracket, I scanned the group of parents and Gonzaga fans and found John Stockton. Yes, in person. After encouraging of Athena coaches I finally walked over and asked for a picture. He politely denied my request because he didn't want to start something and have to take a ton a pictures. I understood and settled for a handshake and a discussion about club volleyball, because his daughter plays in the same region. But it was pretty cool and we ran into him several times in our hotel over the three days.

Garden of the Gods
After the first day at the tournament the other 18s coach and I headed to Colorado Springs to visit the Garden of the Gods. It was a bit longer of a drive than anticipated, but we got a good hour to walk around and enjoy being outdoors rain free in the sun! If I would have had longer I would have loved to sit and just enjoy being outside or maybe climb a bit more. But we had to get back to the team.

Colorado Crossroads
The tournament did not go so well. The team I am working with lacks competitive nature and enjoying the game and if you know me, I am very competitive and playing volleyball is very enjoyable to me. It killed me to watch them play on the first day, no one smiled or celebrated a great play! It was painful, but the other problem was how disrespectful our team was to those working our court. This team has had ongoing problems with respecting their teammates and others at tournaments. It peaked at the tournament and parents and players revolted.

On Day 2, the head coach decided to walk away from the team for the rest of the tournament. This left me... Yep, not the greatest situation to be in, but Lena, the club director sat with me during the day and while the still didn't look like they were enjoying the game it went okay. Day 3, was all me and it was single elimination. With the lack of competitiveness we couldn't take advantage of the weaknesses of the other team and win, so our tournament weekend ended early in the day.

I stuck with them all weekend, because I don't give up, especially when the going gets tough. I have been on teams that have had their share of drama, but nothing to this level. My goal for the final month of our season is to make a change even if it's only a small change in one person I will feel satisfied. I want these girls to appreciate the opportunity they have to play and to use it to better themselves not only as a volleyball player, but also as a person. I have several ideas, I just don't know what will sink in. Wish me luck or send me ideas!

Book Review: Sundays at Tiffany's

Back to the fiction books. This is the book my aunt Pam got me for the flight back to Portland after Christmas and I am a bit behind and just read it, in approximately 4 days. So it was a page turner, plus the 3 page chapters made me feel like a speed reader, which I am far from being!

Anywho, Sundays at Tiffany's is written under the name James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet. The story starts when Jane is eight years old and has an imaginary friend. Her mother, Vivienne has been successful and and is more concerned with her looks and tangible items that say she is rich. She's not the best mother and Jane find comfort in imaginary friend, Michael. The book then jumps ahead 20 years, Jane has found herself successfully working in her mother's production company and has written a hit Broadway production about a girl and her imaginary friend. But her life takes a turn when she runs into Michael again.

Like I said it was a page turner and it's a short book. While not very realistic, but of course I realize it is fiction, it was still a tear-jerker. So if you need a light read, check it out.

New Pacific Website

At work we have been focused on website migration pretty much since I got back after Christmas break. The plan was to update the website to a more easily accessible website for those who work on it (me & my boss) and to make it standout to prospective student-athletes. The design was done by a company, but all the data had to uploaded from the old site to the new site and it took a long while. Three of us worked on it over the last 2.5 months to get it loaded and yesterday was the official launch date. There are many new additions including getting to add action shots to game stories, video to the pages and fun facts about Pacific athletics. However, I am not thrilled about having a headshot up there now..

So, it is now live and yes there are still several things we will be tweaking and several things I have noticed that aren't linked right. But it is a major step up from what we had and I think it looks sharp, so check it out: http://goboxers.com/

Adventures: Discovering Oregon Treasures

I haven't been able to go to a ton of new places lately with volleyball and work taking most of my time, but that is part of life I suppose, but this past week I got go to a couple new places.

Columbia Employee Store
I know it doesn't sound thrilling by the title, but it is a big deal. In the Portland area there are headquarters for several big businesses such as Nike, Adidas, Columbia and several others. Every one of these places has an employee store and every once and a while friends are invited to come in with passes.

Well at our tournament in Seattle, one of the 14s team moms offered me a pass to the Columbia employee store and of course I took it. Last week on the way to practice I made a quick stop at the store. It was awesome because everything was at least 50% off of the regular price. I was able to use some restraint and keep myself from over buying. :) However, I am quite pleased with my new fleece and pants.

Funny thing happened the next day at practice, one of the 18s team dads came into practice and gave me and another coach a pass for the Columbia store...I guess I am coaching the right people!

Spruce Goose
On my day off last week, I headed to McMinnville, Ore. to visit the Evergreen Aviation museum with Kat, who holds the same job as me at Linfield College. The museum is home to the Spruce Goose, which is one of the largest planes in the world and was initially built during WWII to transport soldiers to Europe. Unfortunately, it was not done in time to actually help during the war and has been on just one flight, which it was not suppose to do. The flight came after the war and the designer took it on a small flight just to prove it worked. The movie Aviator is about the building of the Spruce Goose.

In the museum there are planes that show the history of flight, the first commercial planes and planes that were used in the WWII by several different countries including the US, Japan and Germany. We also got the pleasure of hearing stories from a war vets that now volunteer at the museum. Everyone of them had a different story on what a plane meant to them.

Winning The Tourney
One other very special adventure for me and my 14s team this weekend was winning our first tournament! This was the first tournament we had that we only had to travel about 20 minutes for as opposed to the 3 hours we have gone for all the rest. And it ended up being a great thing for us.

The 14s I have are considered the third team, because there are 2 alpha teams ahead of us, but our improvement has shocked many in the club. This weekend we won our first two matches in two sets, then lost our final match in pool play in three sets. It was a battle, but due to points we still won the pool! We headed into bracket play with the No. 1 seed and were able to take care of business and win the tournament and of course the girls got the first place prize of nalgene waterbottles (that we have been informed glow in the dark by the girls). It was the first time Alix and I were at the same tournament and we may have celebrated and screamed more than the girls when we won. We were so proud of their efforts and loved seeing the improvements they have made over the past three months, it will be excellent to see how they finish in the next two months!

Book Review: Counting Coup

Counting Coup by Larry Colton was a book brought to me by one of my 14-year-old player's mom. She asked me at one of the tournaments if I liked reading and what type of books I read, because she felt she had a book I may enjoy. So at the next practice she plopped a book in front of me.

Larry Colton is a freelance journalist from Portland, Oregon. He ventured to Hardin, Montana in the 1990s to observe how basketball and life work in a heavily populated Native American culture, a Crow reservation in this instance.

His intention was discover why good Native American athletes never make it in college. He headed to Hardin, a town known to have done well in boys high school basketball, but his story ended up being about the girls' team which made a run at the state tournament.

Basketball in the Native American culture was popular and many of the athletes were very talented and did it to bring honor to their clans. However, despite their talent they were often overlooked by colleges and many had no desire to go to college. Colton hoped Sharon LaForge, the very talented leader of the girls team would break that stereotypical behavior and go somewhere with her talent. He learned a lot following the team and getting to know the area and families in the year he spent in Hardin.

Throughout the book, Colton expresses the culture as he saw it; the tensions between whites and Indians, the poverty and laziness of the culture and the poor coaching strategies. I found it to be an interesting book, definitely interesting to learn about a culture I knew very little about. Even more interesting for the fact that Hardin, Montana was one of the places we stopped on the drive out here.

New Seasons

It is officially softball season in the college world. Pacific had it's first outdoor softball game at home on Feb. 11. Yep, never would have happened in Iowa!

I am the softball contact, which is kind of exciting. It's the first sport that I know well and can use correct lingo the entire season! Also last season Pacific was one of the best offensive teams in the nation hitting 44 home runs as a team and being ranked in the top 5 in the nation for home runs and top 15 in several other offensive categories. I am excited to see how their season goes, especially after they hit 5 home runs in the first doubleheader which was just two 5-inning games! For the spring, I will also be covering tennis and golf.

Last weekend, the softball team had another game scheduled for home. It snowed in the morning and proceeded to rain the rest of the afternoon. It was lousy weather for a game, but the coaches held out on cancelling it and they got one of the two games in after a 1.5 rain delay. I didn't fully enjoy having to be in the press box during the delay because it was cold! (Side note, cold to me when I am in Oregon means in the 30s. Also this coldness happened when Iowa was in the 50s!!) However, we played softball and got another win. After writing the release after the game I headed to Seattle for the President's Day tournament. Just a nice little 3 hour jaunt up I-5 at 9 p.m., luckily one of the Pacific volleyball players and also an Athena coach decided to ride with me so I didn't have to go alone. We got to the hotel around midnight and then I had to write a tennis release before heading to bed.

The tournament was a three day affair, with my 14s team playing in the AM session, which was 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. everyday. We didn't win a lot, but they were started to show more competitiveness by the end of the weekend and were actually diving on the court for the ball and communicating 75.26% better than our last tournament. I was proud of the effort they put out, especially after one of the middles sprained her ankle and we had to put an outside hitter in to finish the match. It was definitely an interesting weekend to see how a team of 13 and 14-year olds react to staying in a hotel and playing three days in a row. I also had a very interesting question asked to me by one of my players. We are getting ready to scorekeep a game and she turns to me and says, 'hey sara, do guys get periods?' After evaluating her quickly to see if she was serious (she was), I responded with a nope.

The weekend in Seattle could have been a weekend in Vegas with the 18s, but I chose early in January to head north. My co-coach for the 14s has not been around much in the past month, so I wanted to make sure the 14s had a consistent coach and saw it important that I go to Seattle rather than tag-a-long to Vegas as an assistant coach. While in Seattle, I decided being in Washington during President's Day was more fitting than Neveda! :)

Book Review: Handle With Care

Jodi Picoult has reappeared on my book list. And I can finally say I have completed it, after reading it here and there while studying for the GMAT. As soon as I finished the test, I blazed through the final 1/3 of the book. As a Jodi Picoult book usually does, there was an interesting twist towards the end of the book and the book also had a time in court.

In this story, parents Charlotte and Sean have a daughter who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, which means she has fragile bones that break often and cause large medical expenses. After a vacation incident, the parents hear the term 'wrongful birth' for the first time. They decide to file a wrongful birth lawsuit against their doctor, who is actually Charlotte's best friend, for not letting them know about the disease earlier to allow them to make the decision to terminate the pregnancy.

As the lawsuit pursues, the family is ripped apart with different problems and values of the suit. With many twists and additions to financial expenses the book keeps you turning the pages (and maybe shedding some tears).

GMAT Is Over

After a month a studying, the test is over and I have met my goal. Thank goodness, because paying to retake it was not an option and that would have cause too much stress!

Anyway, I headed into Beaverton on Wednesday morning for the exam. Once at the test center you have to wait in line to have your palms scanned, picture taken and sign electronically. Then prove your pockets and hood are empty, you can't wear a watch or anything on your wrists and you have to show that nothing is written on your arms. Then to enter the computer/test area you must scan your palm and show you ID. Then you can finally sit down for the test.

I was assigned to 12B, a.k.a 13, but evidently they avoid the 'unlucky' number at the test centers because the locker was also labeled 12B. I don't know what idiot wouldn't realize they are actually at 13, but if it makes them feel better to think of it as 12B, then so be it.

The test involves two essays in the beginning and then a quantitative section and a verbal section. Between the each of the three sections you get a five minute break. I made it through the essays and quantitative section before taking my break. Which to leave I had to scan my palm and then to get back in I had to do it again! I then sat for the verbal section and finished in about 3 hours, for what could be a 4 hour test.

As I left, I had to scan my palm yet again (the process, kind of annoyed me), and I was given an unofficial test score of 600. Exactly my goal for the test and either at average or above average for the schools I am looking at. I was very happy with the results, but surprised my verbal section was higher than my quantitative. Being a math teachers daughter has always helped my math, but I guess studying the verbal section more actually helped a lot.

To celebrate I hit up Panera for lunch, then headed back home to relax before a celebration dinner with my roommates and a few friends and of course a dessert of a new flavor of Tillamook ice cream.

I am now moving on to filling out graduate school applications, which may take a bit because I am not too excited to write the personal statements. Oh well. The position that I was hoping for at ISU has hit a wall, I was utterly disappointed when I was called last week to be told it was going to be opened this year. But I focused on the test and I am searching for a new options. I know it will work out.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Last week was the start of the Chinese New Year and the year of the rabbit. And with my first Saturday off since getting back, I took my uncle's invitation to come into the city and visit the Chinese Gardens for their New Year's celebration.

The Chinese New Year goes on for a 2 week period, so the garden was decked out in red Chinese lanterns and had different stations for typical Chinese events, including calligraphy writing, story telling, and making of simple Chinese lanterns. On Saturday, they also had lion dances every hour.

So after a long train ride into the city, I made it to the Chinese Garden in time to walk around and see everything before the lion dance. The lion dance was pretty neat, they are constantly moving and the back people never stand upright. That takes a lot of endurance!

After exploring the garden and Chinatown a bit, Doug and I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant of course! It was nice to have time to spend with my uncle and to have a day off to visit something new!

Life as a Club Coach

After graduating I thought I had one career choice eliminated, coaching. Well it seems to me, that once I decide to eliminate an option it circles back around and I jump on the train again.

I honestly didn't think I had the knowledge to coach, but to stay involved (if I were in Iowa) I was planning of getting my officiating license. Well, I moved to Oregon and let that part go as well to focus on sports information. Well approximately 2 weeks after getting here, I started going to Pacific practices to play or help. I fully enjoyed being in the gym and after the season missed it. After thinking a bit I realized I could coach, I understand the game and with some guidance would easily be able to teach it. So I brought it up to Lena, the coach at Pacific. Little did I know she ran a large club program out here, Athena and asked if I would be willing to coach. I jumped on and am now co-coaching a 14s team and assisting with an 18s team, which means practice for 4 hours on Tuesday and Thursdays and 2 hours on Wednesdays in Beaverton.

I am not going to lie I was nervous about the 14s, they would take more patience and more energy to teach. But as time goes I love working with them because you can see the change in their playing more vividly and the lightbulb moments of understanding are awesome! Last weekend, I was flying solo as the coach for the 14s are our power league qualifier. The idea of the power league is you are ranked at a certain number and you want to work your way up the entire season by taking the ranking of the team you beat if they are higher. We started the day at 122.

Our first match we lost in three sets, with the final set going into extra points and ending 19-21. It was a heartbreaker, but my girls fought until the very last point. We bounced back winning the next two matches to finish 2nd in our pool. Leaving pool play we were up to 106 in the rankings. However, in the first match of crossover play we didn't serve receive well and lost momentum and dropped to 110. The last match of the day was by far the best, girls, who I was sure haven't been listening in practices, broke out of their shells and played awesome! We finished the day at 110, with a 3-2 record. I was proud of the effort they put in all day, because 5 matches over a 10 hour day takes a lot of stamina.

Along with their improvement on the court, they were complimented by CEVA (our volleyball region) officials on how well they ran the court when scorekeeping and officiating. In club volleyball, one of the teams that isn't playing has to do the scorebook, libero tracker, officiate and line judge. As the coach, I have to be the upper official, so the girls have to do everything else without my guidance. One of our matches was run very poorly and there were many delays that ruin the flow of the game. We followed by running the next match very smoothly, and an official and parent from another team thanked us!

I was proud of the girls all around, for everything they did that day! The represented Athena well and improved as individuals and a team!

I'd Rather Make a Snow Angel

Well my first experience skiing wasn't as grand as I had hoped. In fact the first attempt was rather traumatic. Half way down I wanted to call the emergency people to haul me down or walk because I really had no desire to stand back on my skis and finish the route.

To start the day Chantel and another optometry student, Teri, had decided to help me learn to ski. We chose a green route and headed up Mt. Bachelor. Chantel had me go without poles this first time to prevent me from doing something stupid and hurt myself and also to make sure I learn how to properly balance on skis. As we started down I fell about every 10 feet when I was trying turn.

After what seemed like forever, we joined a trail that would take us back to the lodge area, however this trail would require me not to fall because I would either fall off an edge or in front of another skier. Let's just say I bit of a panic attack and crashed, coming down on my chin on the lightly ice cover snow. It didn't feel great, but I was relieved to realize I hadn't bitten through my lip. The next bit I held onto Teri's pole in order to control the direction I was going and at this point my stopping was still failing and I got going faster than Teri, which caused her to crash and me to go off the edge and at a tree, which I avoided...barely and flipped over my head. That was the point where I wanted a rescue team! Well anyway we finally made it back down, I was traumatized and had not intention of going on any run the rest of the day.

I sat in the lodge with Natalie for a couple hours, before chatting with an 8-year old who had been skiing since she was 3 and was telling me the route I went on was the hardest green and that I needed to try 'Homerun' the easiest green run. Well as much as I didn't want to touch the skis again a couple people in our group convinced me along with the 8-year old to try again. So out I went, the run was a little bit better. It was more open space without a lot of trees. It still wasn't pretty, but it got better. Ending the day with 4 fall-less runs was a bit of an accomplishment.

While it ended better than the first run, I really don't think downhill skiing will come again anytime in the near future for me. I can check it off my list, be grateful I didn't get hurt severely and move on to the next challenge. Until then I will stick to making snow angels, once all the bruises disappear.

Weekly Accomplishments

Well this week has yet again been packed full, but this time it wasn't basketball. It was the number of things accomplished. At the end of last week I launched a new website for Landscape Concepts, they are starting a new business entity, which is buying foreclosed homes and fixing them to re-sell. So I started designing the website before Christmas, and let me tell you it was a challenge. I have literally only taken beginning web programming classes with the very basic steps and programs. This was a new ballgame. I told them straight out that it wasn't going to be as fancy as their landscape page (which all I have to do is update), but it would have the information they wanted on it. After many attempts to get a template, I finally nailed one down. It's not perfect by any means, but it serves the needed purpose. Here is the introduction of The Home Redevelopers website: http://www.thehomeredevelopers.com/

The second big accomplishment of the week was booking a GMAT test date. I had been telling myself that I was going to take it before President's Day, but hadn't actually booked it. Well the other night I logged on to the test center website and saw the month of January was nearly booked and February was pretty full as well. I moderately panicked, because the date in my head was full. So I adjusted and started through the process of booking it, when I got to the end my card wouldn't go through for some unknown reason....panic did set in at this point because it had just taken my 25 minutes to fill out the information before the payment and the month of January had completely filled up in that time frame. So I called my mom, mind you it was 1:00 am Central Time, whoops! But she gave me her card info and it is officially booked! February 16th at 8:00 am, please send care packages or notes of encouragement, thanks! :) Or I guess I can just go with Libby's advice and go buy all the Valentine's Day candy that will be on sale, which sounds like an awesome plan. Thanks Libs!

Lastly, the struggle of the week was finding almond bark. The special addition to any holiday treat during the Christmas season or so I thought. Not the case in Oregon. We are going on a ski trip this weekend and I wanted to whip up a treat I learned in first grade over break, almond bark covered puff corn. So I went to a grocery store on the way to volleyball after pacing the chips aisle at least 6 times I finally found the puff corn and grabbed a couple bags. Then I headed to the baking aisle to find....every kind of addition to cookies, but no almond bark. So I asked, they called their manager and told me it was seasonal they don't have it anymore. For gosh sakes, it is only 2 weeks after Christmas, how'd you run out already. So I paid for my puff corn, in fear that I may not find it at other stores and left. As I got closer to practice I knew there was a Target, so I decided to stop and give almond bark another shot. I didn't see it on the shelf, so I asked. Only to be asked my the Target worker, "What is that?" Well needless to say, they didn't have it either. At practice I said something to one of my coaches about almond bark, she asked what that was, and it is not the easiest thing to explain and I started to fear that maybe it doesn't exist in this area. The next day I went to Safeway in Forest Grove, failed again to find almond bark again. After calling my mom, I decided to make caramel puff corn instead, and according to her it is on the back of the puff corn bag. Well not in Oregon, because they don't have the brand we have in Iowa. So she told me what I needed. Later I brought up the lack of almond bark supply with my boss, he also did not know what I was really talking about. I was utterly disappointed in this missing ingredient, but maybe it's a regional thing. The midwest must have better holiday treats!

Anyway, I thought I would share the caramel puff corn recipe, because it was the third accomplishment of the week:

Ingredients:8 oz of puff corn (approx. 2 bags)
1 cup butter (real butter, do not substitute)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:1. Place puff corn in a large roaster pan. (I used 2 large kettles, because we don't have a roaster pan.)
2. In a 2 quart sauce pan bring the butter, sugar & corn syrup to boil, then cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add the baking soda. (This will cause the caramel mixture to foam up.)
4. Stir well and remove from heat.
5. Pour over puff corn and bake in 250 degree oven for 45 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, spread out onto wax paper to cool.

Back to Oregon

The break went too quickly! The last week at home I was able to see one of Leah's games, which was the first loss of the year to at the time the #5 team in 2A. So while it was unfortant they had to lose it wasn't a bad team to lose to and it's better to lose now then down the road. I also got to attend Daniel's Jr.High Geography Bee. He did well answering all of them right on day 1, but day 2 didn't go so well for him. And to top off the week, I visited the dentist to find out I need a root canal, which I am putting off until June...and maybe by then I will have just pulled it myself.

I didn't get to see Leah or Daniel's games on Friday because they both were cancelled due to weather. Our family was due at Stoney Creek in Des Moines that evening, so we waited out the fog for a bit before finally deciding to brave it and take off to meet up with Mom's side.

Everyone was nicely settled into their typical rooms by the time our van rolled in, but games were ready to start. We did notice some changes to our typical rooms though, Stoney Creek had remodeled...meaning there were no marshmallows ground into the floor or balloons stuck in lamp fixtures from our previous family visits. But game playing still went on. Friday we played late into the night Friday and got an early start on Saturday with the Christmas grab bags. It was the first year for our family to initiate the 'steal or open' grab bag and it was a bit interesting.

Then it was an afternoon to ourselves and whatever activities we chose. Kathleen and I found ourselves wandering the mall aimlessly before I met up with the entire Ellingson clan at Panera. It was great to see their whole family!

For our Saturday evening entertainment, we went to a movie as usual. This year was 'Little Fockers', while I won't say much about the movie, I did see the logoed Chicago 2016 bus go behind them as Ben Stiller's character was standing on the street. So even if the movie was horrible I will give it my vote just for that!

Coming back was interesting. I was on the plane by 6:45 am (CST) and back in Portland by 11 am (PST) (please do your own conversions). I then jumped on the MAX headed to my 18 team's tournament, which was luckily in Beaverton. I was there in time to see two of their games and officiate two matches. One was a thriller for the crowd, because a coach protested one of my calls. I hold to the decision that I made.

After the tournament Natalie picked me up...without my luggage. I had had a parent pick me up at the MAX station and after our final game they left, with my luggage. So after calling them we planned to have them drop off at Natalie's sisters house, where we would be until Chantel's flight got in, which was 3-hours delayed.

By the time we were ready to head back to the airport, my luggage hadn't been dropped off. But we took off anyway and as we were driving I was called because they were there to drop it off. Well grand, we aren't there. So we called Natalie's brother-in-law to meet them and get it. When we got to the airport we headed to the Southwest desk to retrieve Natalie's lost luggage. Unfortunately, it was not in yet, so she had to put up with them delivering it sometime in the following 24-hours. After uniting with Chantel we stopped at Natalie's sisters again to get my luggage and finally made back to our house by 11 pm. It was a long day!

Monday came way too fast and I was back at work. And of course the BCS Championship was a big deal because Oregon was in it. I didn't plan to watch the game, because I honestly didn't care who won as long as Gene Chizik didn't, which I guess would mean I would prefer Oregon to win. But I as invited to the Pacific football coach's house for the game, so I decided to go. Plus while there a guy who worked at the Oregonian stopped and brought the proposed covers for the Oregonian if Oregon won and, of course, all snapped quick phone pictures of the covers that are now probably being sent to third world countries with the championship shirts.

The rest of the week was a filled with club volleyball practice and Pacific basketball. Pacific hosted 5 games this week including a 2 overtime thriller on Friday night. I ran the statcrew computer all week and was perfectly balanced at the end of every game, which no cheating using deadball rebounds. And yes, I know to most of you that makes no sense, but for the few and proud statcrew people it is great!

Recipe: Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I decided to make dinner for the family before the last basketball game and had a nice little menu planned. Once I told grandma, it was changed. She preferred banana cookies to banana bread. I had to get her recipe and hoped they turned out well, but fear not they were good so thought I would share it.

Ingredients:1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup pecans
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup mashed banana

Instructions:Cream shortening and sugar; add egg and banana. Blend together dry ingredients and add to shortening mixture. Add chopped nuts. Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Let cool and frost cookies.

Frosting Ingredients:Powder Sugar
Water
Crisco
Maple Flavoring
Vanilla Flavoring
Pinch of Salt

Instructions:Mix all together until is tastes good...no measuring required!