Arts and Crafts

This may strike you as odd, or offend your personal tastes and activities, but I HATE Arts and Crafts. I have never had the patience for them. For the last two days, I have been leading the Arts and Crafts project from hell in this classroom.

Imagine if you will, an overflowing class of 35 sixth graders. Their teacher moved to Seattle just before Spring Break, and they got a long-term substitute to finish the year out. The long-term sub got married last weekend and is on her honeymoon this week, so they have a sub for their sub. On top of that, this long-term sub must have previously taught elementary school because she left three (count em - THREE) arts and crafts projects for us to work on in Science this week. IN SCIENCE. Nevermind the learning process, let's make Rainmakers! And tear up little bits of green and blue paper to make a collage Earth! And paint coffee filters with water colors to make ANOTHER Earth! In her defense, it is Earth Week, but what about educating them on pollution, recycling, and being a good steward of our natural resources? Obviously, I'm a little frustrated. And I get that she has Open House Night coming up and doesn't have anything to show for it, but why do I have to be the craft master? She obviously LOVES crafts, and well... I obviously don't.

You should have seen the classroom. RICE EVERYWHERE. In addition to little bits of tinfoil, cardboard, glue, construction paper. Not to mention all of the boys who thought it was funny to beat each other with parts of their project when I was otherwise occupied. It was CRAZY. THEY were crazy.

Observation: In Middle School, when someone is hitting, kicking, touching or otherwise invading another's personal space, it's always the boys. It was CRAZY. THEY were crazy.

I'm done with crafts for today. Maybe for life. We'll see how I feel tomorrow, because right now I'm just DONE.

Venue!

We have a venue and a date!

We will be getting married on October 2, 2010 at the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey!!!!

Jason and I went on Saturday (along with my mom, my sister Kelli, Jason's Grandma Joyce and Aunt Irene) for an appointment to view the venue, and just LOVED it. Plus, the events coordinator, Lorri, is great and so helpful! So we did it! We put our deposit down and it just felt right!

We also began our registries at Bed, Bath and Beyond (they were so great and helpful!), Target and.... REI. Yes, REI. Watching Jason with the scan gun was hilarious. I DID manage to commandeer it for a little while!

It feels amazing to have SO MANY decisions made (our venue provides many of the things that I THOUGHT I was going to have to hunt for) so I can relax and enjoy just being engaged!

If you'd like to see what our venue looks like all dressed up for a wedding, check out the link!

Other than that, we had a wonderful visit with Grandma Joyce and Aunt Irene this weekend. They were SO wonderful and generous, we had a beautiful visit to Catalina Island and many great adventures (mostly involving wedding plans!). :)

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

http://www.bellapictures.com/venueMontage/index.php?venue=californiayachtclub

Full Steam Ahead!

I saw Batman on Roller Blades today. Not the point of this post, but wanted to share.

The wedding plans are in full swing! The only bummer about choosing an October wedding (I know... less than six months ALREADY!) is that all major plans needed to happen two months ago! At least it's October. If we were trying for this summer, we would definitely be screwed. All of the planning has felt a little bit overwhelming on top of my escalating Starlight schedule (youth theatre company I work for.... our calendar for the next three months makes me want to throw up) and working as much as I can for the rest of the school year (since as of right now, I have no work this summer - prayers, please!).

Yesterday was my first "trying on dresses" day. So fun! That put some wind back in my planning sails. Can't post any photos here for fear of a snooping fiance (love you, baby), but suffice it to say I have a very good idea of what my style of wedding dress is, and it's very different from what I thought it would be. 'Nough said.

I woke up this morning with renewed location hunting energy, and found a place we didn't know existed that just might be perfect for both of us! We're going to visit on Saturday morning to see if it's as perfect as we think it is. If that doesn't work out, we have another location that we're looking at (a gorgeous one!) but since it was where my sister also had her ceremony and reception (which was amazing!), I'm struggling with the thought of having a very similar wedding.

Can I just say that finding a reasonably affordable ceremony and reception location in Los Angeles is crazy difficult? For what we'll end up paying here, I could have the party of the century somewhere in the Midwest!

In the meantime, Jason's Grandma and Aunt Irene are flying in tonight for a weekend visit. I'm very excited to meet them and thrilled to visit Catalina Island for the day tomorrow. I haven't been in years, and am looking forward to having an engaged and planning-free day with Jason, Grandma Joyce and Aunt Irene. :)

Will update with photos ASAP. Hope your April is going well!

Engaged!

I got engaged on Friday. Really, truly engaged to the love of my life, the man who has become my life partner in the blink of an eye. And it has caught everyone by surprise - everyone that is except the two of us (although it DID surprise me, I have been ready since December), our immediate families and our best friends. For those of you who DON'T know, we met and began dating in October, and both of us knew for certain that we had met our life partner by December.

Because of the kind of person I am, I've always known that when I met that person and knew that I had met that person, that I would be completely impatient and ready to move forward with the rest of our lives. So for me, the last four months have been a very impatient wait... especially because Jason played me the whole time, and I truly believed that we would not be getting engaged for MONTHS! He is such a turkey!

So, Jason asks me to set aside Friday night for a special date. You know how that is, you're a couple, so you're always going out and making plans but somewhere along the line you stop having real dates. So we went out on a REAL DATE!

He surprises me with a GORGEOUS bouquet of roses, and then takes me out for dinner - a surprise - at the restaurant where we had our first date, and we sit at the same table we sat at, and have a wonderful time without that nervousness of our first date. (At the first date we talked for HOURS.)

After dinner it's down to the beach

for a walk where we take Jason's dog, Indy, on a long walk every weekend. Jason gets a backpack out of the car. I assume it's for a little dessert picnic (I don't know HOW I didn't know!). As we're walking, I look over at Jason and his cheeks are BRIGHT RED (STILL I don't know. STILL!). We walk out onto the sand, and he tells me to turn around and close my eyes so he can set everything up (Still. STILL!). When he asks me to turn around, he's kneeling with a diamond and asks, "Erin Farrell, will you marry me?" To which I immediately shake my head up and down like a bobble head to say YES, because I can't make my mouth form any words, and then tackle him in the sand. After which I proceed to sit and cry and blubber, smile and cackle for the next thirty minutes. Poor Jason... his poor heart can't handle it when I cry, even for joy. :)

He knows me so well. The ring is an antique, a diamond cut that hasn't been made for 100 hundred years, and has been in his family since at least 1940. It couldn't be more perfect. 1.1 carats of sparkling antique diamond on a simple gold band. :)

I love Jason for who he is - a man with a generous and loving heart, who sees the world and his place in it uniquely. A man with no pretensions, who doesn't realize how truly special and unique he is. My gentle giant and loving bear. A humble man who knows what he loves and loves what he does. An artist in a very different way from me, who is patient with my quirks and understands my moods. Who supports me unconditionally, and whom I support in turn. He is truly the man I have been praying for all my life. I am so grateful to have found him. (I am crying AGAIN.)

Although it has caught everyone I know by surprise, we are overjoyed and so ready to move forward in our life together. We are so different and so similar, and fit into each others lives and families perfectly. I already love his family, and he loves mine.

So thank you for all of the well-wishes. We are SO THRILLED to begin our lives together!!!!!!!!!!!!

Science Project Season.

Science Project Season is upon us!

Again.

On Friday, while subbing, I had this conversation with a 7th grade boy (who I've also had in an acting class).

7th Grader: "Ms. Farrell, you'll never guess what my friends and I are doing for our science project."

Me: "I'm sure I can't."

7th Grader: "Guess!"

Me: "I honestly have no clue. What?"

7th Grader: "We're making a BRA with POCKETS! Isn't that awesome?"

Me: "Wow. Are you sure that's okay for a science project?"

7th Grader: "YEP! We checked!!!!!"

Yes. This is my life.

Mountains, Orchids and Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls

Last Wednesday was Jason's birthday, and we went all out to celebrate! On Thursday we went to see John Mayer at the Staples Center (we had AWESOME seats), and then went to the Eastern Sierras for the weekend. Jason is a photographer who shoots landscapes (check out his site: www.jasonspeerphoto.com) and so we went on a quest for the perfect shot (or several of them). We started up towards Mammoth, first by Lake Crowley and then up to Mono Lake, still surrounded by snow. Gorgeous. While Jason shot the landscape, I shot Jason and his dog Indy on their many adventures.

On Day Two we stayed in the Bishop Area, shooting in the Buttermilks, a popular climbing area, then headed South to Lone Pine for the Alabama Hills and dinner with my parents who were staying at their trailer that weekend.

Sunday took us to Trona in the desert near San Bernadino. We had a wonderful time, and it was great to have some wonderful time as a couple, without work (I often work both days on the weekend) complicating things!

At breakfast on Sunday at the Alabama Hills restaurant in Lone Pine (best breakfast in the Eastern Sierras) I had a MAJOR gluten craving. After eating out all weekend (dangerous, since I'm limited in my food choices when I eat out), all I wanted for breakfast was a pastry. Or pancakes. Or the special: Cinnamon Roll French Toast with Bananas. It was AWFUL. Usually, I can remember what something would taste like and knowing how bad it would make me feel now, be okay with not having it. Sunday, though.... Oooh. That was rough. I wanted something flaky and bread-y and sweet. The only thing that kept me from breaking down was the certain knowledge that if I ate something gluten-licious, I would be so sick for two days I wouldn't be able to function.

Fast forward to today: I thought I was supposed to work at Redondo High School. Turns out, due to a kink in the crazy electronic sub-finder system that I am NOT working. This means... GLUTEN FREE CINNAMON ROLLS! My personal dream. :)

I made these twice at Christmas-time and they were delicious. Better than any cinnamon rolls except for those of Cinnabon. All others pale in comparison. :) So go ahead, bake away! And think of me when you bite into one of these delicious little pastries!

OH! And the orchid that my gardener grandfather (86 years old) gave me when I moved into my house is blooming. Welcome, Spring!

My Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls (Recipe Below):

Check out that beautiful dough! It's been rising for an hour. :)

All rolled out and ready to go into the oven!

Final Product! Maybe not perfect looking, but SO delicious!

GLUTEN FREE CINNAMON ROLLS!

SERVES 8 , 8 rolls

Ingredients

DOUGH

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup skim milk, warmed
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup canola oil

• 1/4 cup potato starch

• 3/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup quinoa flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

FILLING

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1/3 cup butter, softened

ICING

• 8 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

• 1/4 cup cream cheese, softened

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

Dough:
1. Dissolve the yeast in large mixing bowl with warmed milk. Let bubble for a few minutes.

2. Add sugar, butter, oil, and vanilla to milk/yeast mixture. Stir to combine.

3. Add egg and combine thoroughly.

4. Sift together salt, potato starch, cornstarch, quinoa flour, baking soda, baking powder, and xanthan gum.

5. Slowly add flour mixture to mixing bowl. Stir until well combined.

6. Remove dough from mixing bowl and place in a greased container and put in a warm place to rise for 45-60 minutes. The dough will be extremely sticky, do not worry, this is normal.

7. Preheat oven to 400°F.

8. Roll dough to 1/4" thick 13 x 13 square between 2 pieces of well floured parchment paper.

9. Remove top sheet of paper from rolled dough and spread softened butter on top of dough.

10. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over buttered dough surface. Leave a 2" strip of dough uncovered at one end of square.

11. Using bottom sheet of parchment paper has an aid, roll the dough into a log. Start at the end opposite of that which you left uncovered.

12. Carefully cut into 8 equal pieces using a serrated knife. Place rolls in a greased baking dish, leaving about half an inch between rolls to allow for expansion. Put any remaining cinnamon/sugar mixture in the bottom of the dish.

13. At this point you can either bake them or allow them to rise a bit longer.

14. Bake in oven for ~18-22 minutes until tops are golden brown and delicious. Check for doneness by running a knife between rolls in the center of the dish. Dough should not easily stick to the knife.

15. While the rolls are baking, whip together frosting ingredients until soft and creamy. Spread on top of warm rolls. Enjoy!

*I froze half of the batch after baking to use for my pastry cravings later!

It's a Wrap :)

This morning, I woke up feeling much lighter. The musical at North High, BACK TO THE 80s, is running, and my commitment to the project is finished! It was a wonderful experience, and I have NEVER worked with a nicer group of teenagers in my life. They made me WANT to go to rehearsal. Many of them were having their first experience in a musical, and I believe that they had a really great time! For where they're at, with the limited experience of the cast as a whole, they did a FANTASTIC job on a really silly show. I will miss all of them!

That said, the last few weeks have been heinous schedule wise, and I'm excited to be getting some of those hours back to myself for a while. With ALL SHOOK UP still in rehearsals (I'm directing), and knowing how exhausted the project overlap has made me, I will not be taking on an additional project before June, at least as a director/choreographer. (I say that now...)

Hope that March has been a wonderful month for all of you!