I AM A Rock Star!

What's more fun than a stay at home Saturday evening with really good pizza from our favorite pizza take out joint? A stay at home Saturday evening playing new Wii games with really good pizza from our favorite take out joint? You might attest, but I totally kick BUTT at Wii American Idol.



Holly's rocking Wii American Idol character. Not only does she look amazing in animation, she can belt out "Livin' on a Prayer," by Bon Jovi like NONE OTHER!



Fireworks ignite, at another SPECTACULAR performance!



And the winner is...MOI..!

Winning song..."Rocket Man," by Sir Elton John! Fabulous Saturday evening. We even had an encore on Sunday evening with some friends from the ward!

Our Cook Book Project

Craven Family 1972. Dad, Mom, Shawn, Shelly, Corinne and Melanie. Mom was preggers with Rebecca at the time. Gretchen, Gretel and Myself had not even been thought of yet. Funny! This was in southern California at Uncle Sam & Aunt Jeanne's house.



Holly and I have been gathering family photos, stories and recipes from the immediate and extended family members to put a cookbook together. I have been getting all sorts of classic photos I've never seen before from all the aunts and uncles. This project has been talked about for years [getting a family cook book established], and Holly and I decided to take this on when Mom died, all in our spare time! I'm almost finished with transferring all the handwritten notes to doc files. All the photos are scanned and returned to their rightful owners. We'll start laying this out in a professionally designed format [Holly is so very talented in this arena], over the next several months. This has and is a fun project that we both are working on!

Sold on Amazon Fresh Deliveries

I am a huge fan of Amazon Fresh. This online grocery store saves me SO MUCH TIME in running errands. They have all the regular items I purchase at any of the grocery stores in town. With a few exceptions, all are the same price. I spend less than 10 minutes shopping, and the next morning I have bins of fresh food, organic vegetables and other kitchen staples to use throughout the week. Not only am I saving time by not having to run all these errands around town, I'm saving gas too. Basically I feel I get about four hours back on my weekend by not having to deal with running grocery shopping related errands. This is a fantastic new service in the greater Seattle area.

Happy Father's Day Frugal Frank

Craven Family 1977. In this photo from left to right back row is Dad, Shawn, Shelly, and Mom holding Dan. Front row is Corinne, Melanie and Rebecca. Gretchen and Gretel were not born yet.



I didn't get a chance to chat with my Dad on Father's Day, but we had a good chat last night. Dad was busy with other siblings Sunday at a big Father's Day BBQ. We also had a BBQ with Steve, Kelly and Miles, as Steve got to celebrate being a new dad, so our phone calls and voice messages crossed in cyber space.

The older I get, the more I appreciate the rock that my Dad is in the lives of all us eight crazy kids! Dad is the silent example for all of us about dedication to family and working hard. With that said, he is an amazing father, friend and sounding board for any and all of life's challenges. He along with my Mom, have made tremendous sacrifices to ensure their eight children had as many opportunities that could be afforded over the many years.

1) Thank you for teaching me to be a penny pinching tight wad, and stretching each cent as far as the eye can imagine! Many of us have picked up the "Frugal Frank," or "Budget-Nazi" tendencies in adulthood.

2) Thank you for teaching me the value of hard work. Instilling that nothing will be handed to you on a silver platter, and that the sky is the limit on the potential you wish to achieve so long as you stick to hard work and learn from the mistakes you make along the way while working.

3) Thank you for teaching me about the importance of dedication to family. Even though Mom is no longer with us, you two still set an amazing example for you children with traditions, teaching moments, and sheer moments of laughter.

4) At an early age, I learned the important of paying the Lord first, before you pay your bills directly from you. Your example of always being an honest, full tithe payer, despite economic uncertainty with raising your family, helped develop my faith in my formative years.

5) The jokes, the laughter, the intense sarcasm, incessant worrying, refusing to wear suspenders because I don't' want to look EXACTLY like you, and checking to make sure the credit card is in my wallet at least a dozen times every time I take it out to use it...I owe these mannerisms directly to you.

Happy Father's Day Dad!


Summer 2008 Family BBQ. Jeret, Gretel's husband, and Jack with Grandpa.

Animals & Sugar

I'm a huge fan of Trophy Cupcake and Party. I had a chocolate cupcake with copious amounts of vanilla bean butter cream on top, complete with a glass of milk. This was a nice end to the day, after touring around Woodland Park Zoo to see all the animals and the new penguin exhibit with Steve & Kelly. I didn't share my cupcake with Holly, but she still loves me! She offered up some of her coconut cupcake, but I didn't want any of that one. LOL!

A Night With The "M's!"

It never ceases to amaze me how “bloody boring” professional sporting venues are. Now I shouldn’t be complaining. At work, we are a major sponsor for the Mariners. With that, we get tickets, and other perks. Part of our sponsorship requires that at 12 games throughout the season, a table needs to be staffed to pass out UW Medicine paraphernalia. This table is strategically placed on the 100 level, right behind home plate. You have an amazing view of the entire game from your table. The volunteers that were slated to table Friday evening, bailed a few weeks ago. So our office had to fill the vacancy with bodies. These bodies were Holly and I.

Amazing views of the game, free parking in the covered parking garage. Was I satisfied? Not really. It was torture. First off the public could care less about information and brochures; they just want the free gift you are passing out. A few folks even mentioned, “This is boring,” after I mentioned I had information for UW Medicine and Harborview Medical Center. Too Funny!

We got some good people watching in, complete with sarcastic commentary, some non stop texting with a few coworkers who were also bored at other venues in the city. Even took a few pictures to document that we actually were at Safeco Field. Mariners of course were losing. Score was 0 to 3 when we left. We were pleasantly surprised to learn they won on the 11pm news that night. We bailed at the beginning of the 7th inning, as contractually the vendors can start taking down in the 7th. We were packed up in a matter of 45 seconds and out the door to get on with our evening.

Kidd Valley garlic fries…$6.00! Kidd Valley cheeseburger…$7.00! Aquafina 12oz bottled water…$4.25! A ginormous bag of kettle corn…a left kidney! Having to take out a second mortgage to afford the disgustingly overpriced sub par food at the game park, priceless! Who willingly does this?

My Weekly Recharge

The more Holly and I attend the temple, the more I realize what a privilege it is to serve in the temple as an ordinance worker. We both have come to really love our weekly commitment each Wednesday evening in the Seattle LDS temple. You really can feel of the love God and Jesus Christ have for all the children of men, if they/we just follow prophetic counsel and obtain the necessary ordinances and covenants in our personal lives. A loving heavenly father only wants what is best for all of us. I truly believe this very personally. Temple work, genealogy, families, all things point towards relationships lasting forever if you want it to. Being an ordinance worker we both are able to assist temple patrons in any capacity. I love that Holly and I are able to do this weekly together, and I love that it's on Wednesday's, the perfect break to the monotony of the weekly work grind.

Get Your Letter On, On, On, On

I always love a good Indie Rock inspired album. This CD came out a few months ago, and I finally got around to purchasing it today. All the tracks are good. I've overlooked this group based on prior albums. Didn't really care for the earlier stuff. With that said, I'm sold on this latest installment.

A New Health Base Line

I had another 34 going on 84 "Grandpa Dan" experience this week...

I've been having some sporadic, often times intense chest pains on and off, and can feel strain up in my neck, followed by massive sweating. This was occurring at rest, not just when I was at the gym. Typical initial signs of potential heart issues. I was at my primary care doc yesterday to go over a few things, and after discussing the recurring chest pains she decided to an ECG/EKG. Something on that test result triggered the need to do a full cardio stress test to make sure I didn't have a blocked artery(ies) etc. So major strings were pulled and I got in to see a cardiologist and an echo cardiographer today to do a full work up.

I had a series of ultra sounds on my heart, and then did the extremely strenuous treadmill stress test where they get your heart rate up to within 5 from cardiac arrest. You have to sign a waiver that 1 in 5,000 people die from doing cardiac stress tests, but you can also “kill over” if you don’t do it as well. You start off at 0.0 incline and 1.2 stroll . You are hooked up to 23 different things on your chest, neck, back and sides. Every 90 seconds they take your blood pressure, and every three minutes the incline and speed go up until you can’t take it anymore. For my height and weight a heart beat in excess of 190 would trigger cardiac arrest. They brought me all the way up to 185 with defibrillators close by. Once I got to my 185 rate, which was at a 9.0+ incline at 8.0+ mph, I had to run and maintain that for 10 minutes. I was totally gasping for air and sweat was splashing off the treadmill and on the back wall and floor. Who knew one could sweat that much. And to top this off, I came down with bronchitis this week and was hacking up my lungs the entire time with no arm to cover my mouth since I had to hang on for dear life.

Then you hop back on the table and do another round of ultrasounds while your heart is "angry,” so they can compare resting heart images and blood flow with “angry” heart images and blood flow. No blockage, but I do have slight arrhythmia so this has been equating to the weird hot flash like symptoms I've had where I'll have a few seconds of extreme heart racing, followed by shots of pain and sweats. Most often times triggered by stress or anxiety. Work has been interesting as of late, so it has been more of a stressor than it typically is. I don’t need to go into details on this front.

I don't need an angioplasty or anything. And at this point, I do not need to take a medicinal regulator. I think the stress of work and such coupled with arrhythmia was causing the issue. Now I have a new health base line to go by. And, now that I’m getting “old” have to see a cardiologist once a year and look for ways to de-stress in my life. And with slight arrhythmia this can snowball in to a large scale cardiac issue of not monitored. Looks like I’ll take up yoga in the short term.

It was great having a cardiologist that I already know extremely well on a professional level, as cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery is one of many clients I oversee marketing efforts for at work. He told me that if I would have had this issue a year ago, prior to me dropping 65 pounds I would have been hospitalized with a blocked artery, based on my ECG/EKG from two years back. The reduction in weight is naturally making my blood pressure go down, and the change Holly and I have made in eating habits is helping alleviate plaque in my arteries naturally, by staying away from certain foods or processed items. I'm now just that much more inspired to keep dropping weight like a banshee. This has been a nice wake up call for me.

Since this test earlier today, I’ve had approximately 24 glasses of water. Talk about fatigue and dehydration. F-U-Fun Times!

Happy Anniversary

I recently opened a Dove dark chocolate candy and found a quote inside the wrapper. It said "Life may change us, but we start and end with family". I smiled. It's kind of like what my mom used to tell me all the time " friends come and go, but family is forever". I have been blessed with a close family which coincidentally started about this time many years ago. My parents anniversary is this weekend, sadly I don't know how many years they have been married, which would probably suggest to you we aren't really that close :) I guess for so many years as a young kid and teenager it didn't even register to me that there were such things as anniversaries since my dad passed away. Now as an adult I have an idea, but can't tell you the exact year they were married, which is my bad.

Anyway, Dan and I have wedding pictures of both our parents in our bedroom on the dresser. I love this picture of my mom and dad, I look at it every day.



Aren't they cute? I just love it. Here are a few more that are pretty sweet too.




And one that I can't resist and am sure my mom will hate me for. Gotta love the 70's.



Hee, hee (sorry mom!)

So Happy Anniversary to my parents. I love you both very much!

Awkward Family Photos

I can NOT stop laughing at these photos! I think my co-workers are going to think I'm having a seizure. I'm including some of my favorites here, but if you don't want the laughs to end check out awkwardfamilyphotos.com. What is almost even better are the funny titles and commentary.






Each time I go to this site, I secretly hope I'll find someone I know!

Raspberry Lemon Tart

So I was in the mood to really cook this past Sunday. For me, as you all know, cooking is a way for me to unwind and de-stress. For dinner I was craving homemade bread sticks with seasonings on top. I made a batch of these for our Sunday dinner, along with a pot of Beef Stroganoff. I purchased some good organic beef sirloin steak, froze it for an hour or so, so I could thin slice it up and braise it with stock, some red wine, seasonings, onion, garlic etc. For dessert I wanted to make a Raspberry Lemon Tart.



Recipe:

1 recipe pie crust for 9" pie or tart pan
1 8oz package reduced fat cream cheese, room temp
1/2 C prepared lemon curd
1/2 C powdered sugar
pinch of salt
Zest of one lemon
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1-2 T heavy cream
1-2 Pints fresh organic raspberries

Prepare crust in tart pan. Bake off at 425 degrees until desired doneness. Remove and allow to cool to room temperate. Meanwhile in your mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, thoroughly combine cream cheese, curd, sugar, salt, lemon zest and lemon juice. Beat until light and fluffy. Thin with cream as necessary.



Spread cream cheese mixture on bottom of cooled pie crust. Arrange with fresh raspberries on top. Chill at least 1-2 hours before serving so cream cheese mixture can re-set. I sort of just whipped this up, after feeling inspired by a few recipes in Bon Appetit, Gourmet and the new Farm to Table cookbook I recently purchased. I love experimenting in the kitchen.

Good Reads

I know I've asked before, but I'm looking for more book ideas. Summer has come and I'm determined to spend more of it at the beach or on my patio reading a good book. I just heard from one of my co-workers that "The Book Thief" is a good one. I read the review, yes it's another young adult book, but it looks kind of good so I think I'll pick it up. Anyone else have any good suggestions? I'd love to hear what you are reading currently, what you love and why.

More Spectacular Sunshine

This past weekend, was another spectacular weekend weather wise. Friday evening Holly and I left work a tad early to await the arrival of our new walnut credenza we purchased from Room & Board. It's a beautiful mid-century style. We also decided to upgrade our television to a 32" HDTV flat screen. When we picked up the TV, we also splurged on a new Wii game console. It took quite a while for us [mostly Holly], to figure out all the wiring. She has much, MUCH more patience at those types of tasks than do I. It's nice lovely upgrade to our living room. We started the tradition a few years ago of purchasing a new piece of furniture every year for our anniversary. Six months post anniversary is better late than never.

Saturday we enjoyed another relaxing picnic at Carkeek Park. We made salads, picked up some KFC and hit the park with Steve, Kelly and Miles. It felt really good to be outside for a few hours again. That evening, we went to an Asian inspired Murder Mystery party at our church. I made a big batch of ham fried rice for the dinner. Everyone brought some good dishes to share. The mystery was short, sweet and to the point. Exactly how all church functions should be, no longer than 90 minutes.

Sunday we enjoyed a nice leisurely walk around the neighborhood and I made some curried apricot chicken and rice for dinner. We also got a few more episodes of 24, Season #7 in. We had a great weekend together, and with friends.