"Hallelujah"

I've always wanted to sing the Messiah with a choir. There is so much intensity in Handel's music and the words of Isaiah are so moving. This year I was able to sing the Messiah (complete with a full orchestra, choir, and soloists) with the Holladay Interfaith Community Choir . It was a special experience. I will never forget the feeling I had singing the Hallelujah Chorus at the Holladay United Church of Christ. Though we have different religions we come together with in a beautiful union with our faith in Jesus Christ. What a perfect way to welcome in Christmas this year.

Happiness is...

A Grateful Heart

It's that special time of year to remember family, friends, and all of the blessings we have. It's been a busy week for the Dennis's. So besides the usual family, friends, the gospel, and health which we are very grateful for, here are a few of this past weeks things to be grateful for.

Mary:

1- Gianni (forgetting about confidentiality for a moment) has been placed in a Special Education Unit after 2 years of testing, interventions, and more. Though I will miss the child and his obsession with dinosaur sounds, I'm very happy to know that his whole life will now be different because of my work these past 2 years.

2- I have recently discovered pumpkin pie. I'm not sure why it took so many years to try it and like it, but I have and I do enjoy especially Ryan's classic recipe.

3- Only one more set of Parent Teacher Conferences this school year.

4- The Clam Chowder Discovery (see previous post)

5-Cheese Fries and Coke for the weeks of Parent Teacher Conferences

6- Relaxing with my favorite Jane Austen

7- Working out my voice like never before by singing the Messiah with our Community Choir

Brad: (written from his own hand)

1-That Mary is the one writing the blog (and not me)

2-Finding another Paul Krugman fan in my ward

3-Performing my new rendition of "Summertime" on the guitar for friends

4-Reading Paul Davidson's "The Keynes Solution"

5-That Mary is such a fan of Jane Austin (even being a female and all)

6-Smoked turkey for pre-Thanksgiving

7-Getting to number 7

The Soup Compromise

Nothing warms you up more on a cold day like a bowl of home made soup. Soup is in fact one of my favorite things about winter. I remember coming home to the smell of mom's homemade soups and the smell just warming up my day. One soup that I love is Clam Chowder- my mom's recipe! But ever since Brad has developed severe lactose intolerance I have stopped making creamy soups and creamy everything else. I never realized how many comfort foods contain lactose and though I have experimented with all types of lactose free milk bases the only thing he can really have is soy milk which does not make the greatest substitute. So the other day after a lajor craving I decided I would make my yummy clam chowder and invite over some family because it makes a ton and for the first time in our married life I left Brad to fend for himself. After realizing fending for himself meant a can of tomato soup I started to feel bad and did some research. It turns out we could make with the same ingredients Manhattan Clam Chowder which has a tomato base so he could enjoy too. So we made two soups with the same amount of work and they were both delicious! This little discovery, silly as it is, has made my weekend! This means at least this creamy soup is back in my life without any sense of guilt for Brad missing out.

The Fridge Fiasco

This week brought some interesting events. Sunday morning (Halloween mind you) our freezer stopped working. We happen to have a pink "vintage" 1960s GE Refrigerator with roll out freezer so we figured this would happen sometime. After dealing with the immediate crisis and getting the frozen food safely to my parents freezer we began the ordeal of trying to find a new refrigerator that fit our space. Why refrigerators are so huge now is beyond me but after a day of looking at dozens of refrigerators in a few different stores we found 1- that's right only 1 that would work. It didn't even entirely fit our criteria but sacrifices had to be made. After a slight emotional breakdown because of all of the favorite aspects of our fridge that would now be lost, I succombed to logical reality and decided the new but boring Frigidaire refrigerator would have to do. But then our freezer started working again!!!!!! Miracle!!!! And has continued working and though we realize it may go out again and soon we are standing by the notion- "if it's not broke don't fix it."So we will see how long our vintage refrigerator will take us, in the meantime I realize that my retro-modern kitchen is one of my favorite aspects about our condo and it's not very likely to have the same fun kitchen and appliances in our future homes. So for now I'm happy to have the time to be Betty Crocker with my matching pink GE 1960's appliances.

A Butter Conditioner- can't find that in a small fridge

I don't even know if any shelves swing out any more.

A turntable crisper is so much more fun then regular drawers.