beingthechristensens

Doggy Petrified Wood

2008-09-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

Soren is in preschool this year and one of his recent assignments was to draw a picture of what he wanted to be when he grew up. His occupation of choice? A chef.

And here's a recipe that he affectionately calls Doggy Petrified Wood. It's sure to put him on the map as one of the more innovative up-and-coming chefs in the Southwest - if not for the choice of ingredients, then for the name itself.

Doggy Petrified Wood

1 piece of whole wheat toast
Honey - a lot
1 slice of smoked ham
Cheddar Cheese

Spread honey on toast. Top with ham and cheese. Enjoy!

A Promise is a Promise

2008-07-31T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hi Y'all,

Time for a patchy post from the Christensen family. Thanks to my buddy, Jane, for inspiring me to write a little something. I promised her I would write something before the end of July and since I tend to veer toward the procrastinating side of life - here I am writing on the very last day of said month. While I'm admitting my weakness for procrastination, I'll also state that I went and registered my car today too.

Among other news - here's a cute shot of Elsa taken by my friend Misty. Her rage against healthy food continues, but thanks to my angelic mother-in-law and her "food boot camp" we are making some strides.

I'll wrap up with one last bit - perhaps the most exciting in our neck of the woods for the last few weeks: Gav killed a rattler today. It was an eerie thing hearing a faint rattling sound as I pounded nails into a broken panel on a wooden chest we have on the side of the house. The sound of the hammer seemed to irritate the little rascal and he would give a little rattle here and there between pounds. Finally I stopped long enough to confirm that it was indeed a rattler and proceeded to appear calm while Soren and I hightailed it into the house. By the time I'd left a message with animal control, Gav had outfitted himself with his Sorrel boots, two pairs of pants, leather gloves, and a 10 foot long PVC pipe as his weapon of choice.

After routing out the little fella with gallons of water from the hose, Gav proceeded to give him what-for with the PVC pipe. Not a pretty sight - but neither is a rattlesnake within a couple feet of a place your kids play all the time. Needless to say, a few minutes and several broken shards of PVC pipe later - we are free of the thing. Good riddance! Gav - you're my hero!

The Pueblo Lifestyle

2007-11-19T15:56:00.001-08:00

Thumbs up to ...

... the "Chocolate Pueb".

Fourth of July Campground

2007-11-19T15:30:00.000-08:00

Fourth of July Campground,

East Mountains, New Mexico.

Orange Marshmallow Goldies

2007-11-19T15:24:00.000-08:00

Soren has come up with a recipe I thought I'd share:

1 Fistful of mini-marshmallows
1 spoonful of orange Gatorade

Lick each end of one marshmallow and dip in the Gatorade powder. Continue with remaining marshmallows. Enjoy!

Mustache Mafia

2007-11-19T14:33:00.000-08:00

I drew a marker-mustache on Soren last winter to embellish his character for a critically acclaimed film he starred in (Doggie Ninja). Since then, Soren revives his marker-mustache from time to time; he had a particularly nice blue one for our church bbq this year. He is now passing the art on to his little sister.

She is here! Elsa has arrived!

2006-09-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

Elsa's First Day Family album

Sep 6, 2006 - 13 Photos

Soren the Frog

2005-11-07T16:55:00.000-08:00

2005-11-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

Toddler Turrets Syndrome

2005-11-01T12:23:00.000-08:00

Happy November to All,

We love it here in Evanston where the weather has been unprecedented - very warm for November. I keep bracing myself for this infamous Chicago weather, and so far we’ve been unscathed.

We’ve just had Halloween, of course, so I wanted to include some shots of Soren in his costume. I realized later that we don’t have any of the whole family in their Halloween attire, which is fine because it was slightly anticlimactic. Let the record show that I was a chef (but lacked a big hat, a key component I fear - people kept asking me if this was my costume or if I actually worked at a restaurant) and Gavin wore his plastic Viking helmet. We were put to shame by another Kellogg family where the mom and dad were safari hunters and the kids were lions. They even had a stroller with signs on it that said, “Please feed the animals.” Very cute and impressive.

But, wait, this is the Christensen family letter. Back to us. Soren was a frog. He is obsessed with frogs (among many things – more about that later). Soren is constantly talking about them. A big problem with that is that he pronounces frog as f*ck. We are currently a household under fire – accosted regularly with the king of all curse words, the sultan of swears. It’s not just that he says it, but that he says it very clearly and emphatically - drawing out each vowel and consonant so that there is no mistaking that you did indeed hear what you thought you heard. Gav and I laugh at least once daily on account of Soren’s potty mouth. In addition, he pronounces ‘socks’ as ‘sucks’, he says ‘a*s’ instead of ‘eyes’, ‘sh*t’ instead of ‘sit’, and piss often makes an appearance as well (I’m not sure what that is supposed to mean).

As I’ve mentioned to many of you already – diction is becoming an increasing priority as his words make their way into the public forum. As volunteers, Soren and I visit a senior citizen in the community named David Peterson. We were visiting a few weeks ago, and Soren got going on one of his “frog turrets episodes”. I must be getting desensitized because it took several mutterings of the word before I thought to explain the situation to David. David, by nature, is a pretty sheltered guy and he was very much relieved to discover that I hadn’t been teaching my toddler how to be a sailor.

Another obsession with Soren right now is fish. He eats, sleeps, and breathes fish – literally. He eats Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers by the bucketload, the first word out of his mouth after a nap is ‘fish’, and when he’s feeling particularly desperate he will let out a long wail of f-i-i-i-i-i-sh. The obsession rooted in a computer game that Gav played with him a little over a week ago called Feeding Frenzy. The object of the game is to eat as many fish as possible before getting eaten yourself. At different points in the game the computer yells out “Feeding Frenzy” or “Double Frenzy” based on how well you’re doing. Soren is mesmerized by the computer fish and loves to hear Double Frenzy! He can’t pronounce Double Frenzy so he as taken it upon himself to create a new word “Double What” which he loves to say at various times throughout his day.

One more cute Soren story, and then we’ll get on to the adults. Soren has always loved his Fisher Price Popper toy (a shout out to Janice for getting it for him!). He has lately decided that it is a vehicle for transportation. I will often see him systematically laying the popper on the floor, and sitting on the handle of the popper in sort of “half Indian-style” with one leg stretched out (it’s the same way every time.) At which point he begins to say “Bye, bye” and looks forward with this concentrated look in his eye like he’s about to lift-off. It’s hilarious.

By the way, Soren has just discovered how to open our front door. A bit unnerving of course, but we’re brainstorming counter-attack strategies presently.

On to the adults I was talking about earlier…

Gavin is working very hard – and cleverly. We get to spend a good amount of time together as a family and I owe all of that to Gav’s strategy. He just finished mid-terms, and is feeling pretty good about them. He loves school. As part of his extracurricular work he’s putting together a panel for a venture conference he’ll participate in. He’s getting to know a lot of people and trying to get involved in a lot of things that relate to what he ultimately wants to do – early-stage venture.

I’m doing great. Beyond the expected issues associated with transitions: feeling at home, making friends, getting to know the area, missing Gav, missing all of you, etc., I’m having a good time. There are so many things to do and ways to get to know people that it’s been easy to get involved. One thing I have yet to do is get in with a small arboretum here in the area called Ladd Arboretum. I’d love to volunteer for activities or work on projects. I know there are opportunities based on their web site, I just haven’t gotten a chance to get out there and visit yet. I also hope to get to the Chicago Botanical Gardens before it gets too cold. I hear it’s spectacular and huge. Maybe this weekend…

The three of us had the opportunity to go to Navy Pier this last weekend. It’s a pier on Lake Michigan that has been renovated to be something of an amusement park/shopping center. It’s kind of like Fanueil Hall for those who visited Boston. It didn’t take much to have a good time. We strolled around and ordered a large fry from McDonald’s to share. Soren worked his charm and managed to squeeze some cookies and a Happy Meal toy from the lady at the counter. Thanks to him we had a little dessert after we were done with our fries – which were really good, by the way.

Love to all and have a grand November. We’ll see the Utah crowd Dec 17-31st. We can’t wait!!

Favorite memories from Kauai vacation

2005-08-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

Aloha Friends and welcome to the BLOG!!!
Some favorite Kauai memories we'll be taking home with us:

1. Swimming with the sea turtles at Anini Beach
2. A sunset picnic at Ke'e Beach
3. Seeing Soren overcome his fear of pools and oceans (if three weeks won't do it - nothing will)
4. Hiking the Kalalau trail to Hanakapi'ai Falls
5. Learning to surf
6. Dinner at Sabella's
7. Catching monster waves on the boogie boards at Shipwreck Beach
8. Watching the sea turtles play in the surf at the Queen's bath
9. Watching the sunset over Hanalei Bay
10. Moonlight boogie boarding
11. Hiking in the mist in Waimea canyon
12. Tackling the intense waves at Kealia beach in Kapa'a
13. Catching toads and poking geckos at Spouting Horn
14. Limahuli Garden
15. Snorkeling at Tunnels
16. Testimony meeting at the Hanalei Branch
17. Seeing a cocoa plant at the McBryde Garden
18. Collecting the coolest souvenir at Glass Beach
19. Shave ice in Waimea
20. Tropical rain at night

Kauai - what a grand isle!! Mahalo (haha) to those who read the entire list.

2005-08-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

Joey next to the falls

2005-08-23T01:04:00.000-07:00

The boys on the beach

2005-08-23T01:02:00.000-07:00

Sasha and Kevin in Kauai

2005-08-23T01:01:00.000-07:00

Beach Loch

2005-08-23T01:00:00.000-07:00

Kickin with the Johnson's in Kauai

2005-08-23T00:52:00.001-07:00

Soren prints

2005-08-23T00:52:00.000-07:00

The happy couple

2005-08-23T00:51:00.000-07:00

Smiling Soren

2005-08-23T00:49:00.000-07:00

Soren being "too cute"

2005-08-23T00:48:00.001-07:00

The family in Waimea Canyon

2005-08-23T00:48:00.000-07:00

Here we are by the waterfall

2005-08-23T00:46:00.000-07:00

A botany specimen

2005-08-23T00:42:00.000-07:00

happy soren

2005-08-23T00:40:00.000-07:00

A few more

2005-08-23T00:39:00.000-07:00

A few quick pics from Kauai

2005-08-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

Our Trip To Kauai

2005-08-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

We are just wrapping a wonderful 3-week trip to Kauai. For the first time ever I think that we have had enough vacation.