Our Fairy

Our Fairy says the funniest things...and I believe that the funniest part is that to her, it all makes sense...Wednesday, she was singing "Jack and Jill went up a hill..." When she got to the part where Jack falls down, according to her, he broke his "king's hat."

Thursday morning we were leaving for Church and there was half a dead squirrel on our porch (bless our beloved puss). Our Fairy said, "Gato broke it." That's putting it mildly!

This evening, we were leaving work and she asked Aunt Laura where her daddy was. Aunt Laura said with Maga...Papa was her daddy. Our Fairy tells her, "No, Papa is Maga's daddy."
Well, since I refer to Oliver in front of the girls as "Daddy," she associates this with "husband." She wanted to know where Aunt Laura's husband was...Aunt Laura is not married (yet).

It's just interesting the things that she comes up with; she has a way of looking at her world that makes you stop and think about how things are related and what words really mean.

She's very literal. Our Princess I can tell to go put the clothes in the trash(as I have done before) meaning the laundry and she understands that I meant laundry(I know, scary). Our Fairy doesn't. She puts it into the trash, or fridge, or whatever word I get mixed up with...I often wonder if it's because we use more spanish with her than we did with her older sister, so she has to concentrate harder on what things mean, so it's easier to take everything literally.

Corn Casserole ála Maga

This we've made EVERY year since I was little...LOVE IT!

Swiss cheese Casserole

3-4 canned or frozen corn (drained)
1lb swiss cheese grated
sm onion chopped
Lg can evaporated milk plus 2 eggs mixed in
(Half recipe for smaller group)

MIX all together reserving some cheese for top
Sprinkle some crushed ritz type cracker over top
Bake 350 for 40 mins...sprinkle with some cheese while still warm'

All I'm gonna say is OH MY...

Corn Casserole á la Paula Deen

We've made this the last two years for Thanksgiving and it's fast become a favorite!



Ingredients:
1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
1 (8-ounce) package corn muffin mix (recommended: Jiffy)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, stir together the 2 cans of corn, corn muffin mix, sour cream, and melted butter. Pour into a greased 9 by 13-inch casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and top with Cheddar. Return to oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Let stand for at least 5 minutes and then serve warm.
YUMMY!

Thanksgiving According to Our Princess

"The pilgrims came, maybe when Maga was little, I think. They came in a boat called the Mayflower and they drove, I mean boat...sailed! for a long time until they got here. They walked into the forest and they had to walk and walk and they saw a indian and they went too far and made camp and they had to eat that corn, you know that's too hard, it would break your teeth and they had to punch it with a stone to eat it. They went to sleep and in the morning the pilgrims got closer to the indians and they saw a indian named....I don't remember right now. The indian showed the pilgrims how to get the house and then the mother pilgrim and the kids stayed on the boat and some died while the Captain built the house and it was too cold and they got sicker and sicker and then they came off the boat and said, 'Thank you, Captain...' "

To be continued...(she said she needed to go to school to remember the rest...so we'll see tomorrow night!)


"That evening they had a feast. A feast is a kind of eat-together. They had Turkey and french fries. They were thankful for God and it was a good holiday."
That was it...Not sure why she needed to go to school to remember that and I cannot remember us EVER having french fries at a thanksgiving meal, but, hey, it's cute!

Citrus Rosemary Turkey

Ok, I made this Turkey the year Our Princess was born...it was my first time making a turkey...we were going to the church that evening and I was asked to make a turkey and I had no clue how to cook one...so I looked it up on Foodnetwork.com and Michael Chiarello gave me a hand ...and this is the recipe I have used every year since! I love it! It's too moist!

Ingredients
Citrus Rosemary Salt
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1/2 cup coarse salt

Roasted Turkeys
2 (8 to 10-pound) whole turkeys (ok, so I use one big one)
2 small whole onions, peeled
2 carrots, cut in half
2 celery stalks, cut in half
1 quart chicken stock or broth
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
8 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 lemons, halved
4 large carrots, halved lengthwise
8 celery stalks
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour

Turkey Gravy
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups chicken broth
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
For the Citrus Rosemary Salt: In food processor, process all the ingredients. Pulse until well blended. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
For the Roasted Turkeys: Remove necks and giblets and put into a large saucepan. Add 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks and chicken stock. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce the heat and let simmer until reduced to about 2 cups. Strain and reserve; this is the turkey stock that you will use for the gravy.
Wash the turkeys, inside and out, and dry well. Coat each turkey, inside and out, with 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Season each turkey on the outside with a tablespoon or two of the Citrus Rosemary Salt, pressing it in to adhere. Place 4 rosemary sprigs and 2 lemon halves inside the cavity of each turkey.
Arrange 4 of the halved carrots and 4 celery stalks on each of 2 half-sheet pans (use baking sheets with a lip). It's better than a wire rack. Position each turkey on top of the carrots and celery so that the turkey does not rest directly on the bottom of the pan. Drizzle turkeys with remaining olive oil. Now, my mother has always told us to cook the turkey breast-down for the first couple of hours and then the last hour to turn it over so that it gets golden, but doesn't dry out...I do that and it's worked for me so far!
Roast until an instant-read thermometer (inserted deep into the thigh but away from the bone) reads 165 degrees F and juices in the thigh run clear when pierced with a fork, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours; begin checking at 2 hours. Remove from the pans and let rest for 15 minutes before carving. Reserve pan juices for gravy.
While turkeys are resting, make the gravy. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour. Whisk over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, or until a smooth, blond-colored mixture is formed. Add the reserved turkey stock and pan juices and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and let simmer until thickened and ready to serve. Season, to taste.
Carve turkey and serve with gravy.

Night Owls

Oliver and I have been waiting since last December for New Moon to come out in theaters. It was well worth the wait. I read the Novels all within one week last November (I've since read them four more times)when one of my students was reading Twilight in class(within the next week, half the female pop. at school was reading it), then saw Twilight that Friday. I was kind of disappointed in it. The cast was great,but they had changed too much of the plot. So I waited with trepidation over the next installment, even though the Powers That Be hired a new producer.
I bought my tickets (2--Oliver went with me; he read them as well and enjoyed them very much! Not too many women can say that about their other half! As a matter of fact, you could kind of tell who was there just to placate their wife/girlfriend; they had no clue). My friend Kim also went with us, as her boyfriend wasn't so thrilled and had to work. We squealed like the little girls that, surprisingly, didn't show up at 12:10 in the morning. I guess because it was a school night. Kim and I got there at 10:30 to make sure that we had good seats and there were about 20 other people in the theater. I saw three of my former students, now college freshmen. Oliver showed up, all the while rolling his eyes that we were so excited!
It was wonderful. They didn't cut so much out and only had one or two cheesy add-ins that made you think, now what was the purpose of putting that in there? There were only a couple little things they cut out...The ending they had to squish all into one, rather than drag it out as the book did(which I preferred, but understood). It was still so good! As Oliver said, "if they put the whole book into the movie, it would be like 5 hours long!" I have yet to meet someone who read the book that would mind sitting through a 5-hour movie...I know I wouldn't! And the cinematography was so much better! There was more color, it didn't look like the doom and gloom flick the first one did! The CGI animation was fantastic! They really didn't look fake! I could go on and on about it, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone!

Snaggle-tooth

Our Princess lost her first tooth on Monday. (She's missing three, but the other two were pulled by the dentist, so they weren't lost) It happened at school during lunch. I had told her she needed to get them pulled at school so she could get the cool tooth necklace the office would give her(I don't do wiggly teeth...yuck!). Otherwise, her daddy would pull it out when she got home. I sent an apple for lunch, but she has already learned to eat with her incisors, so I wasn't sure that would work. I visited her at lunch and noticed that the tooth was hanging on for dear life. You could actually see the root.

"Just let me grab a napkin and yank it, please?" I begged.

"mm--mm," She wouldn't even open her mouth. So I told her again that her daddy would pull it when we got home and went on to my next class.

About twenty minutes later I heard about some child that screamed at the top of her lungs in the cafeteria, so loud the teachers left the teacher's lounge to find out what was going on! Had to be Our Princess. I figured that she had finally gotten a good bite of that apple. When I went to pick her up later, they told me that her classmate had pulled it out. In her words,

"I tell him to pull it out and he put his finger and punched it and I was mad at him 'cause I didn't know he was gonna pull it out that hard and I'm gonna be mad at him forever."

(We'll talk about forgiveness another day...she's forgiven him from what I can tell, but she has yet to thank him)

So She got her necklace and brought it home...Unfortunately, the Tooth Fairy had a hard time finding the necklace...so then next morning we put it on the counter and El Ratón snatched it and left a dollar. (we kind of mix our cultures in certain things...I was not going to have a bunch of teeth on my roof!)

So anyways, one tooth down, the one next to it is loose now...

Nicaragua 2009

The stories Oliver brings would break your heart. He told me that he has never before seen poverty such as he saw this week. It wasn't just they had less than we are accustomed to, it was true poverty! In El Salvador, even the poor are able to plant a little something in their yard or have a chicken to get eggs from. Here they had NOTHING. It was heart-wrenching and brought me to tears just hearing about the situations he encountered face-to-face.


They worked with 4 churches and 2 orphanages that are supported by Niños Escogidos (Chosen Children) outside of Managua, Nicaragua. One pastor tells how he and his pregnant wife were beat up for his monthly salary ($100). When given a large bag of beans and rice because they had no money to buy it for that month, the pastor divided it among his congregation, saying he couldn't eat well knowing that his congregation were starving.


Another pastor is ridiculed by the neighborhood he serves in. He moved from a cinder-block home that he, his wife and 4 children shared with another family, to a home next-door to the church within the neighborhood to better serve his congregation and reach out. On Wednesday, Oliver's group built his home. It is approx. 12x12, made of 4x4s and 2x4s and plastic with a corrugated roof. They offered to build him something better, but he did not want to put on airs in his neighborhood, as everyone has homes like this. There is much envy within these small communities. I remember my concern upon hearing about hurricane Ida, even though it was off the east coast and not near them. I couldn't imagine being in this home during a downpour, let alone a hurricane. It truly is no wonder they are willing to crowd into a trailer here in the States to save money. The picture above is from the "pulpit" of the church. Its finished except for a door.


When they asked another pastor how they could serve him, he asked not for himself, even though he probably could use new clothes, shoes or food, but for pews for his church, as everyone stood on a sunday morning. So they built pews for the church.


Oliver says that these were the most humble men of God he has ever met. They never once asked for themselves or their families, but for their congregations.


The stories of the children are so sad. One little girl in the orphanage was sold by her sister into prostitution when she was 12. A 14-yr-old girl in one of the neighborhoods has a 2-yr-old. The missionaries believe her stepfather is the father.

The children in the orphanage are treated wonderfully. They are fed well and taken care of. They go to school and learn trades. The children in the neighborhoods are not so lucky. None have shoes. There feet are so worn from never having worn shoes, or even socks. The main goal of the mission team was to hand out 400 pairs of new shoes to all of these children. They go from this church 2x a year to bring shoes and to minister wherever they can.

I've been counting down the hours since yesterday morning...Oliver comes home tonight! He's been gone all week. He and three others from our church went to Nicaragua this week to work with some orphanages, among other things. I wasn't very excited about him going and, to be honest, neither was he. Being short a paycheck right now is way low on our list of things we need. He called Sunday night when they got there, said it was a nice enough place and that they would get a little training the following morning before heading out. I had a crummy week. Nothing happened that hasn't happened before, but it was just difficult since he wasn't here. I learned to lean on God rather than Oliver this week, something I have a hard time doing. But I prayed Tuesday afternoon that God would work a change in our family. Then Oliver called me on Wed. night and was so excited! He was talking so fast that I could barely make sense of it, but it was powerful! I can't wait 'til he gets home and tells me everything! 2 more hours...
"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

Junie B. Jones

We started reading Junie B. Jones. Our Fairy loves Junie B! They really even look the same, as Our Princess pointed out to me!

I picked up a Junie B. book at That Big Book Sale last month for 50 cents, but it was in spanish. Our Fairy wanted me to read it to her, but she can't really handle that much Spanish, so I tried to translate it on the fly...did not work. So we got it from the library and, honestly, it's the longest she has sat still and listened to a story ever. I could tell she was interested, because she kept asking questions about the monster and the mean boy. She never asks any questions when we read her sister's books. We read almost the whole thing in one sitting! (7 of the 8 chapters.)

Here's Our Fairy on Tía Oly's church bus when we were in El Salvador last December... you can't really see her face, but please notice how well she is matched!

All alone again...

Oliver left this morning for Nicaragua. He and three from our church met up with 7 from a church in N. Augusta to go to Nicaragua(can I say daylight savings played havoc on where we were supposed to be when?) He'll be home sometime Friday. I truly will miss him. He's called three times already since he left: once from Charlotte to say they were on the plane, then from Miami to say they were waiting to board the plane, and then from the orphanage they are staying at this week to tell me what a great place it is and he'll try to post pictures online...until then, I'll just try to survive this week...not that it's really that different from a normal week when he works 70 hours, it's just that I don't have that support time with him at night this week that I am accustomed to. My goal this week is to get all of the house cleaned for him. We had a yard sale a couple of weeks ago at the church to raise money for this trip and I turned my house upside down getting stuff together and half of it is still sitting in my living room (and we won't even talk about the office), /c it never got taken...so, hard work this week. I can do it!