Sunday, June 15…Happy Father’s Day!

First wanted to wish a Happy Father’s Day to my amazing husband and father of my children. He’s a great guy and willing to do whatever it takes!

                                      "Happy Father's Day from your family of 'nuts'"!

Went to church today and although it was fun to see some familiar faces, the LDS church is growing so fast here, a lot of the members we know meet at a different time than the time we attend. It’s good, but sad at the same time.  They are in production of building an actual chapel with 2 floors, where they will be able to have 2 wards/branches meet simultaneously.

Ryan had to take me home a little early from chuch. Between the heat, not feeling well, not eating and the traveling done lately, my body was done. All it wanted was to cool off in the apartment underneath the ac and take a long nap. As soon as Ryan dropped me off at home, I got into comfy clothes and headed for the bed. About 10 minutes later the current went out…which means no ac. I did fall asleep, but was sweating the entire time, only for the ac to turn back on literally 2 minutes before he and the boys came back. Oh, well, it was at least quiet and I got a nap in. 

Every year we’ve been here in Vizag, we’ve met some BYU students, this year is no different, except I think there are more than in the past. But we’ve never really talked to them outside of church. This year was a little different as we invited them over for desserts on Monday night. The experiences we have and what they are having are completely different. Their apartment has no ac, our does. They have a cook that makes them curry and rice 3 times a day for meals, we eat food like tacos, smoothies, oatmeal, etc. So…they’ll be over to have some comfort desserts tomorrow.

For father’s day dinner there was no fancy sushi eating like last year in Mumbai, (and for those keeping track, yes this was Ryan’s 3^rd Father’s Day in a row in India…but at least he got to spend it with his family). Instead, we had TACOS! Yep, homemade flour tortillas, freeze dried taco meat and freeze dried cheese! You may think “ew” to the freeze dried stuff, but I know if my kids eat it, then it’s just fine! Not to mention it’s the closest thing to beef we’ll be eating here. Overall, Father’s Day turned out good, Ryan and I both got a nap and he ate a homemade meal AND brownies in India…what else is there?

                                                      Father's Day tacos

                                      World's Best Dad eating homemade brownies!

                     The kids were dying for Ryan to wake up from his nap so they could partake!

Monday, June 16, 2014

Because we have 9 BYU students coming over for desserts, I thought I better start early on the cooking aspect. It’s not like I can have 3 different things going at once here, I have to prep, bake, clean, repeat. I’m actually lucky I have measuring spoons and cups this year, two years ago it was all guess work (that was fun). So baking isn’t that big of a deal, it’s just more time consuming. Then to take into consideration the power outages, the size of my toaster oven and hand washing dishes after using them and having to boil water, you can imagine making a batch of cookies needs hours, not just an hour!

So away we went, (Dallan stayed home and helped me), and by the time everyone was here, we had a batch of chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, brownies and Ryan made chocolate milkshakes in our fancy ‘Blendtec’ (that almost got confiscated in both Amsterdam and Mumbai). Earlier that day I also tried my hand at making potato salad (that turned out great if I do say so myself) and Dallan and I made a fresh banana, mango and pineapple smoothie for lunch. Really, are we in India or at home? Bringing the ingredients we did sure has made things easy for us to eat here this time. Can’t complain a bit!

As far as my cold, allergies or whatever it is I had, I’m mostly over it, just a little bit of a drippy nose. Baby is still doing fine, I’m just guessing by the routine nightly bathroom visits and the constant dancing going on inside.

Dallan enjoying a smoothie for lunch! Mmm, might just be the best one I've ever made!

                                                            Potato Salad...

                                              Cookies for dessert on Monday night.

                                                               Brownies

I feel like this is turning into a food blog...since I'm writing this post on Tuesday, I might as well show you what was for breakfast this morning...blueberry pancakes!

                       Again with the freeze dried food...but regardless, they were awesome!