Adventures with Stinky Cheese

Around new years, we acquired a cheese.  We thought it was brie, which we both like. It has been living in our fridge and we sort of forgot about it, but last night I thought I'd bake it with some berries and we would eat it.  I opened the package, and thought, wow this doesn't smell like any brie I know. But it had been a while, so I thought maybe I just didn't know what brie smelled like. I decided to cut off the rind in case that would make it smell not quite so strong. It didn't. I had already made the berry sauce, so I decided to bake it in case that would make it seem more appetizing. After I put it in the oven, I went upstairs to take care of Lydia.  After a while, I noticed a smell. The cheese, which had a repulsive odor before, smelled 50 times worse and had permeated the entire house. I honestly thought that maybe if a skunk had gotten into the house, it wouldn't smell quite so bad as that cheese. Peter was brave enough to try one bite, and then we threw it away, and baked a chocolate cake to try to replace the odor with something more appetizing.

Turns out that we did not have a brie, but a camembert.  As you can see from the picture, they look about the same. If you ever have the misfortune to have a camembert in your house, I suggest that you throw it away. Whatever you do, DON'T bake it. Unless you happen to love stinky cheese. :)

February Update

Where has the time gone? I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post.  Here's what's new with us-

We went to Oregon to be with my family before my sister leaves on her mission. It was a wonderful trip, and Lydia was awesome on the airplane.  I flew out with Peter and Sara, and thought I was going to fly home by myself. However, my former roommate's mom ended up being on my same flight, and she was a huge help. It was so nice to have somebody else to help with Lydia and all her belongings- traveling with a baby requires a lot of stuff!  Small miracles. :)

Lydia got sick for the first time. That was awful. She had a really bad cold, and we had to take her to the doctor to have her nose suctioned out with this little machine.  After we did that she could breathe and got better within a couple days. It was a pretty miserable week.

Lydia has been moved into her own room, and she is sleeping wonderfully. The first night was rough, but she has been getting used to it and hardly cries when we put her to sleep- sometimes not at all.

I have been working, slowly but surely, on my thesis. I neglected it over the Christmas break, but I am back on track.

Lydia & Lorenzo

A few weeks ago, Lydia and I were over at a friend's house. She has a 1-year-old who is very sweet, and he and Lydia get along as well as can be expected considering Lydia can't really do anything but smile and coo to interact with him.  He wanted to share his stuffed llama Lorenzo with her, and she LOVED him! And I love this picture. 

It made my day when I discovered it in my email inbox this morning. I hope it brightens your day too!

Merry Christmas!

We hope you had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior!

Rebecca is going to...

The Texas Fort Worth mission, Spanish speaking! We are all very excited for her. She enters the MTC in April.

Dear Elder

I've been thinking a lot about the missionaries lately. My sister Rebecca is hopefully going to be getting her mission call this week, which I will post about after she has a chance to tell people herself first. :)

I thought I'd make a suggestion for a very easy Christmas gift that everyone can give- write to the missionaries! They can really use love and support, especially at this time of the year. Dearelder.com makes it REALLY easy to write to the missionaries, and it's free to write to most of them*. Just like sending an email. All you do is go to the website, select the mission, and enter your mailing address and the missionary's name. That's it! Then you can write your letter, and they print it off and mail it for you. It takes about 2 weeks to get to most missions. If you write to somebody in the MTC, it gets there the same day.

I really wish I had discovered how easy Dearelder is to use before my sister Sara went into the MTC. I would have written a lot more letters if I didn't have to find an envelope and a stamp. So now you know how easy it is too! If you need someone to write to, ideas about what to write, or anything else, please let me know.  And please write a  little note to a missionary- they'd love to hear from you!

*If your missionary happens to be serving in a mission that isn't free, Dearelder only charges you the cost of the stamp. They still print your letter and mail it for you, and it's still easier than finding a stamp and envelope yourself.

School

Yesterday, I gave my thesis proposal defense and took my oral comprehensive exam. It was a lot of work to prepare for, but I passed and it is done! Kind of. I still have my thesis to do, and my proposal made it very clear to me that it will be a lot of work. More than I had anticipated. But still, I can check off two more graduation requirements from the list. Yay!