Meg's graduation, and what happens when David Tennant crashes your party

My baby sister Megan graduated from high school yesterday! Crazy!

 

It was about as exciting as you think it would be....

 Luke does this during church when we're singing hymns, not just during high school orchestra performances. Ha!!

 There she is!

Walking through the "H" (for Hurricane High). My dad took this picture.

  

Meg and her best friend Veronica Martinez after receiving their diplomas (zoomed in from like 150 feet away)

 

Congrats, Class of 2013! I was in the Class of 1999. That seems like it was last century, it was so long ago. (I am so funny today)

 Meg and Veronica, non blurry. They are going to be roommates in college!

Veronica drew the tiger on the front of the program. Very impressive!

My sis-in-law Monica with our niece Nora. We probably should have gotten a picture with the whole group that was there....

We're so proud of our Meg!

I think my mom and Meg both heaved a big sigh of relief. Meg had a lot of AP classes and a tough dance schedule this year. Not to mention heart surgery.

Oh yes....I made a TARDIS graduation cap decoration for her, and she came up with the Time Vortex glitter swirlys. She had several Doctor Who fans come out of the woodwork to compliment her on the awesomeness of it. She tells me she was the most well known nerd in school. Makes me so proud. :)

Speaking of Doctor Who, look at the graduation present I got for Meg!!!

Yes, this is an actual autographed card signed by David Tennant. You know....

Him????

a.k.a. Barty Crouch Junior (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Hamlet, Casanova....

I saw a link on Pinterest for this:

"Purchase a brand new, personally signed card by David Tennant (International Delivery)   Proceeds from the sales of this card will go to Headway Essex (David is their Patron). Headway works with people with traumatic brain injuries and their families/carers. David worked closely with Headway Essex when researching for his character Alan Hamilton in ‘Recovery’. There are other signed  DT goodies on the Headway website too."

*SQUEEEE*

So of course I ordered a card. The other items are not signed--t-shirts, a pillowcase and tote bags. Click here for a link to check them out. I paid  £23.92 ($36.90), but it's all going to charity. And hello. It's Ten!! (He's known as Ten in our fandom)

Meg and I are in the 5th stage of the David Tennant fandom.

Stage 1: Curiosity (he is all over Pinterest, eventually you have to see what the fuss is about)

Stage 2: Fall wildly in love with his character, the 10th Doctor

Stage 3: Obsession

Stage 4: Devastation

At this stage, you feel as though you will never love again.

Stage 5: Continued fond devotion, occasional tears, and extreme excitement over the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, which he'll be in with the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith.

If you think I'm exaggerating any of this, then you are sadly mistaken.

Do you know the movie The Holiday? It's one of my favorites, with Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Cameron Diaz and Jack Black. At a couple points during the movie, Kate Winslet's character Iris is so overcome with excitement that she jumps around and screams like a lunatic, and I've always thought, "Pfff. NOBODY does that in real life." Well, when I opened that package with the card in it, I literally was jumping around the kitchen, squealing and giving myself high fives. It's real, folks.

ANYWAY..........

We went to Pirate Cove Pizza afterward to celebrate in St. George.

It is quite the restaurant!! Huge and piratey and like you're in a dark jungle. Of course the kids loved it. The food was good, too. Tyler and Monica are friends with the new owners, and they came out and gave the kids free tokens to the arcade.

Luke was a little overwhelmed by all the buttons and levers and flashing lights. Mark was an arcade junkie as a kid and was excited to show him around.

"Let me teach you the ways of the Force..." or something like that. Shooting zombies.

Then came the moment I'd waited months for. Mark and my sister Maria were the only ones that knew about the David Tennant card, so we were giggling and grinning at each other, which made Meg a little suspicious before she opened it.

She freaked out when she saw the front of the card, and then her jaw DROPPED when she opened it. It was awesome!!!! We're trying to figure out how to make a shrine out of it. Haha.

 

 I'm getting Sister of the Year award, I think.

I was trying to get a picture of Luke spinning around on his stomach on the floor, but just then some loud, piratey music started up and startled him. For some reason, wherever we go in public, he has to be all over the floor. Drives me nuts!!!

Anyway, it was a good day spent with family (we celebrated my dad's and sister Maria's birthdays, too) and we had fun!

Citrus!!

 

So, I brought all these home from my G-ma's trees in California.

SIGH.

I told Mark that I'd move to California for the sole purpose of having my own orange and lemon trees. G-ma grows Valencia oranges, which are grown mostly for juicing. They are the Best. Oranges. Ever. You have to stand over a sink while you eat them because the juice runs all the way down your elbows. They have a lot of seeds in them, but who cares. The lemons are fabulous, too.

I tried to make these last as long as I could, and when Mother's Day rolled around, I knew I needed to do something special with them. First, I made a loaf of Coconut Lemon Banana Bread and used half a lemon for the glaze, and then I decided to make a lemon cream pie and lemon orange bars. I made the pie and the bars in one morning before 11:00 am church on Mother's Day--it was crazy. Both recipes are definite keepers and I am already dreaming about making them again.

The lemon cream pie is from the website Made, and she got the recipe from someone's grandmother. I only got to eat one piece of it because we shared some with our parents and then Mark ate the last two pieces when I wasn't looking...

*Note* Each piece of fruit yields an average of 1/4 cup of juice, if you're going to use fresh.

 Lemon Cream Pie

Dana Willard from Made

Blind bake one 9-inch pie crust or purchase a pre-made crust from the store.  (I baked a frozen Marie Callender's pie crust)

For the Filling

Combine:

1 cup sugar

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

Add:

1/4 cup melted butter

1 Tbsp. lemon rind

1 cup milk

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

3 egg yolks slightly beaten

Cook over low heat until thick, stirring constantly. Takes about 10 minutes. Cool.

Stir in 1 cup sour cream and spoon into a baked, cooled pie crust. Cover the top with whipped cream or Cool Whip. Chill until ready to serve.

. . . . .

 My G-ma had shown me a dessert recipe using lemons and oranges when I was at her house, and I thought I took the Taste of Home magazine that it came from with me. But I must have grabbed the wrong issue. So instead I googled some lemon orange recipes and decided to go with one from Rachael Ray. It uses a ton of butter and sugar, but they were SO GOOD. (surprise, surprise) The crust was buttery and tender and the combo of lemon and orange was delicious. I gave most of the bars away to family, and when the bars were gone, I went back and ate all the baked-on edges that were still stuck to the pan. Yep, they were that good. It had to be done.

Recipe can be halved in a 8x8 dish.

 Golden Lemon Orange Bars

by Rachael Ray

Ingredients

2 sticks (8 ounces) salted butter, softened
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel
1/2 tsp. grated orange peel
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon baking powder 

 

Directions
 

Preheat the oven to 350° F . Using an electric mixer, combine the butter, 2 cups flour and the powdered sugar until the mixture is the consistency of coarse sand. Stir in 1/2 tsp. lemon peel and the orange peel. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking pan. Bake until golden, about 25 minutes.  

  Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, combine the granulated sugar, eggs, lemon juice, orange juice, remaining 1 tsp. lemon peel, remaining 2 tablespoons flour and the baking powder and mix for 1-1/2 minutes. Pour the filling into the crust and bake until the top is golden, about 35-40 minutes. Let cool completely. Cut into bars and dust with powdered sugar.

 Both recipes are summery and delicious, so give them a try!

Mother's Day

I am determined to get caught up on this blog!!

Mother's Day was sort of crazy. Maybe someday it will be a holiday of rest and pampering. Ha!

 These cute kids. I'm so glad to be their mom. Luke had started to get sick in the middle of the night and ended up staying home from church with Mark. He had a rough week but is finally mostly better. I was really tired from being up with him during the night (ended up being three nights in a row, actually), but I had some baking to do before church started.

Madelyn is my little sous chef and helped by stirring the custard for a lemon cream pie we were making. She had to stand at the stove and stir constantly for ten minutes (I was more than happy to let her do that job). We also made lemon orange bars. I will post the recipes for both--they were SO good.

After church, my brother Kevin and his wife Lori surprised us with a visit--she had just picked him up at the SLC airport after spending two weeks in Germany. Pfft. Maybe someday I'll forgive him for not taking me with him.

 After that, we raced to Hurricane to visit the folks.

 We stopped by Mark's parent's house for an hour and then went to my parent's for dinner. The kids played on one of Grandma Carolyn's mandolins.

Finally, around 8:00, we left, but we stopped to check out the lots my parents bought in LaVerkin. This stream will be in their backyard once they build their new house. Exciting!

Meg's last recital

Two Saturdays ago, my baby sister Megan had her last ballet recital of her high school career. I ended up going by myself because Madelyn had a level 10 meltdown 20 minutes before it was time to leave, and Mark stays home with Luke as a general rule. Westside Studio has a LOT of students and so there were over 40 dance numbers to watch in one sitting. (Which is why Madelyn didn't want to go...) Oy.

Meg was the only senior in her group this year, and so she got a special dedication in the program and also a presentation on stage:

My mom said that this was the end of 24 years of ballet recitals, starting from when I was 8 years old. Add in the fact that we lived 20 miles from where our lessons were, and that's a lot of driving and time and money! I'm so glad that my sisters and I have such dedicated parents.

My niece Ava (on the far left) had her first dance on stage. She is 4 and such a cutie!

I was taking these pictures zoomed in from halfway back in the auditorium, so they're not the best quality...my dad took a couple of the smaller ones.

Meg danced Kitri's Variation from Don Quixote and was FABULOUUUUSSSS

 

Her second dance, Music of the Night was so beautiful and I wish I had a video. My mom and I were sitting by each other and were bawling through most of it.

 

 My nephew Nathan (7) did the Men in Black dance with his hip hop group. I totally did that dance when I was in high school. Good times, good times.

Meg's third dance was with the Pro Street Company group (her and some college aged girls). They dance in a jazz/contemporary style that I was always rubbish at. The dance is called Black Swan. The lighting was dark the whole time for artsy reasons.

Afterwards, we all celebrated in the lobby. 

Suddenly I feel like I didn't have enough makeup on. Hahaha 

The folks

 

Ava

 

 Nathan, Ava, Tyler and Monica

It was May 4th--Star Wars Day ("May the Fourth Be With You"), which I almost forgot about. Luckily I remembered in time for the performance. I had to show solidarity with my nerdy sister.

This fall, she'll be dancing at Utah Valley University in Orem. I'm going to miss her so much!!