When He Comes Again

Isaiah 11:6  The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

I am a major animal lover and find myself drawn to almost all of them with the exception of maybe the snake.  My daughters and I were talking Sunday about how nice it will be when Christ comes again and there is amity between man and the animals.  I will be right in there to hug a panda bear,  a tiger or maybe even this guy, although he has a face that only a mother could love.  I am pretty sure I will be able to go visit the animals in heaven because it wouldn't be a real heaven without them, especially my long gone dogs.

We did have some good supervision

This is what my house looked like for weeks.  I am a (little bit) of a neat freak and it drove me crazy but I had no choice.  I wanted my living room, dining room, hallway  and kitchen painted. We had to do most of it on weekends when Wayne had time, and because Amy was here most of the time and because she was so sick, we didn't want the paint fumes to make her more sick.

 All of the upstairs of our home was originally painted in an oil based paint.  Who does that any more Mr. Home Builder? All of the upstairs was painted the same color....flesh.  Wayne called it nude.  It wasn't horrible but just didn't ever look really good with anything. The ceilings and walls were all the SAME color and I just couldn't take it any longer.  I have an artist's heart and love color, so after weeks of looking at paint samples at every hour of the day to see how the light played off the samples, I finally chose my colors. Because of the oil paint EVERYTHING had to be primed first and several areas needed a second coat.  Let me just say, it was soooo much work.  I did almost all of the taping off with a little help from Wayne and Wes. With our architectural elements it was tough.  I went through 4 rolls of painter's tape.  Then I helped Wayne by doing a little bit of the cutting in, but Wayne did all of the painting.  The ceilings were the worst, especially the high ones, and I have a feeling the next time I want it done we will be checking out the yellow pages.  Was it worth it?  Yes, to me it really was.  I now live with a golden tan living area and a subtle green kitchen.  I kept my one rusty barn red wall.  I will post pictures when I am through putting stuff back up where it belongs if I can just remember where it goes.

A Wacky Wednesday Birthday

Today is Dr. Seuss' birthday so it must be Wacky Wednesday also.   My grandson got the "Wacky Wednesday" book a few months ago (he is 3) and every time he reads it or even talks about a palm tree in a toilet he bursts out laughing.  Then he tells me about how the table legs on the table in the book are WACKY.  He is enthralled with this book. When I first got married, my little brother Greg missed me and would call and read to me over the phone.  His choice was "Hop on Pop".  That was 40 years ago.  Who hasn't read the book or seen the cartoon of the Grinch who stole Christmas? My other grandchildren used to laugh at some of the other books that Dr. Seuss has written, and Wayne used to fix green eggs and ham on Saint Patrick's Day.  Some of our kid's friends relish that memory.  Dr. Seuss has been a household name for many, many years.  Take a minute and sing happy birthday to him today.  Our lives would not have been so fun or WACKY without him. 

 Check out the other things he has done:  Dr. Seuss - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1st photo

5 minutes later  2nd photo getting ready to turn the corner

3rd photo and it is out of the hall and into the guest room

We have had some crazy weather lately, and with it cloudy skies and moments of sunshine .  It was finally a sunny day, and as  I was walking through the hall the other  I noticed the light reflecting through the wooden rail of the stairs and onto the wall.  I have lived in this house for 8 years and have never seen this before.  It was really interesting to watch as it moved across the wall and then turned the corner to reflect the image into the guest room in less than 10 minutes.  I guess when you are indoors a lot, you take your pleasure where you can get it, and I loved this little moment in time.

Last night was the Ostler turn to host gourmet dinner club.  We were in the middle of painting the inside of the house and taking care of our sick, pregnant Amy and Emerson so we elected to go to the UVU culinary arts restaurant called "Greg's" instead.  The cuisine theme was the "Southern United States".  I was a little nervous because they didn't post the menu and when we got there I had a right to be.  The appetizers were great, the salads fun, and soups and rolls delicious but the main entrees to choose from were:  Alligator, Frog Legs, Catfish, Pulled Pork, or Jambalaya.

Now I did not want a full course of any of them except pulled pork, so that's what I got.  My friend Susan shocked me (first for even coming because she is a health nut), and second for ordering the frog legs.  Guess what?.....She liked them. 

Paul and Susan

These were the frog legs.  The red in the top of the plate were dried beets and Wayne tasted them and said they were really good. Do they taste like chicken? Not really.  More like pork to me but with a very tiny bit of fish taste.

 Paul had the Jambalaya.  It was spicy and contained everything but the kitchen sink.  He said it was really good.  I had a taste and it was, but a little too spicy for me.

This was the brave couple for the night.  Doug had the frog legs and Julie had the alligator.  They liked them so I had a taste of both.  Really, they were both pretty good.  I just couldn't get my mind around wanting a whole dinner of either one. The idea stills creeps me out a little.

This is the alligator dish.

Lori had the pulled pork and Scott had the catfish. Safer and good.

This is the catfish dish.  Isn't it pretty?  Half the fun of eating here is the beautiful presentation.  Click to enlarge this one.

This is Rick and Laura.  I took 5 pictures of them and Laura would not give me a good shot so this is the one I'm using and I think it's cute.  Her eyes are closed but how fun she is, so this one fit her personality.  I think Rick had the catfish and Laura had the pork.

This was one of the desserts of the night.  Fresh made vanilla bean ice cream and pecan pie.  I think there was bourbon flavoring and chocolate in it too.  It was delicious.

I forgot to take a photo of the pork but it included greens and good old mashed potatoes.

Wayne had the catfish.

Several of us had the begniets with fruit and whipped cream.  They were really worth waiting for.

Scott had the cinnamon bread pudding with the vanilla bean ice cream.

By the time we got to the dessert we were all pretty full.  Some take out boxes were part of our fun night.

Some of the other things we all tried were shrimp with grits, quail, watermelon/watercress salad with citrus dressing, sweet potato/ham salad, and some kind of little fried fish appetizer.

We also had artichoke spread on a baguette, ham and bean soup, and creole onion soup. I had major indigestion last night.  We didn't finish until 9.  My old system usually doesn't eat past 8.  Would I do it again?  Yes!  I'd like to try Italian night or French night or Mexican night or.........