Finer Things Friday

A Boy Named Randy

June 16, 2011 By Diaper Diaries 2 Comments

I was in college when I began to hear about Randy. His dad was in prison and had liver cancer. His mom was an addict who neglected Randy for her habit. Randy was living with his grandma who was old and had issues of her own. In short, Randy had the odds stacked against him.

But the first time I met Randy, I was home from college. I walked in the door and he was in my living room. He immediately ran over and gave me the biggest hug and with a smile said, “I’m Randy, are you Jill?” This boy was easy to love.

Randy was my dad’s little brother. Not his actual little brother (obviously) but his little brother through the Big Brother’s program. I think he had some before and some since, but I don’t remember any of them but Randy. And I had honestly kind of forgotten about Randy until I was at Great Wolf Lodge last weekend for their Big Brother Big Sister fundraiser.

I sat down with the director and realized that I hadn’t ever stopped to think about how amazing their organization is. And let me be clear, I am not blogging about it because I am supposed to. I just need you to know about Randy’s story.

During the time my dad was his big brother he bounced back and forth between his grandma and his mom. If I remember right at some point his mom ran off with some trucker and fell out of his life. Which I guess was for the best. Randy’s dad eventually got out of prison and hoped to better himself and asked my dad to help him get his affairs in order as he was dying of cancer. So my dad became executor of his estate and the small trust he established for his son.

So about 5 years back my dad gets a call from Randy. My dad does not live in our hometown anymore. So he wasn’t easy to track down. But Randy is a success story. He was adopted as a teen against all odds. He graduated high school. I am not sure what he is doing after that but when he called my dad he was a well spoken, respectful young adult.

I think I can say quite confidently that Big Brothers program and my dad saved Randy. When you are a young boy stepping over needles and being shuttled back and forth between bad and worse home environments you don’t have a lot of hope. Randy desperately wanted to be loved. And our family loved him.

I don’t really have time to mentor a little sister right now. But I was excited to be able to be a small part of raising more than $250,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters at Great Wolf Lodge. And on a weekend where we remember the amazing dads in our lives (including my amazing dad), I hope we can take a moment to try and figure out how to give back to those who need fathers and mothers in their lives.

I was provided with a night’s stay at Great Wolf Lodge, but was under no obligation to post about it. In fact, I already posted about it. But when I recounted this story to the director of BBBS I really wanted to share it with you. So I did. Also this post is linked up to Finer Things Friday at Amy’s Finer Things.

Filed Under: Finer Things Friday

Blueberry Crisp vs. Cascade (Plus a GIVEAWAY!)

June 2, 2011 By Diaper Diaries

Yesterday I promised you blueberry crisp and today I give you blueberry crisp!

One of my favorite things about summer is the reappearance of fresh, seasonal fruit. We have such a short growing season up here that I go crazy every summer with the fruit. And one of my FAVORITE things to do with fruit is make a crisp.

It isn’t quite blueberry season up here so I sadly had to settle for store bought, but when you add sugar and butter to fruit it really doesn’t matter where you get it. It will be good.

So when Cascade dared my to make a blueberry cobbler (I am a crisp fan so I fudged a bit) and test out their Cascade Complete All-in-1 ActionPacs against some caked on blueberries I had to agree. I mean I have to cook and eat blueberry crisp for my blog? It isn’t all glamorous, this blogging life. Sometimes it is VERY hard work.

But first, the crisp. I adapted a recipe from The Neelys because my hubby is allergic to nuts. And I didn’t think it would be fair to put nuts in it an eat it all myself. Cause that has NEVER happened before when I was making a dessert. Ahem.

Blueberry Crisp
adapted from The Food Network
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 stick room temperature unsalted butter, cubed
6 cups blueberries
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine flour, oats, brown and white sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Add butter and mix until crumbly. Toss blueberries, cornstarch, and sugar together in a 2-quart baking dish. Top blueberries evenly with the crumb mixture. Bake for 40 minutes.
Serve with homemade whipped cream or ice cream.

Now the challenge. I leave the baking pan out for 24 hours to let everything cake itself on nicely. Then I put it in the dishwasher without a single rinse. And then I begin to twitch.

Seriously, we always rinse our dishes pretty thoroughly before putting them in the dishwasher. I realize you aren’t supposed to do that but I can’t handle not. So this was hard for me to do. But I did it.

So here is the before.

And here is the after.

And here is my disclaimer.

I swear by Cascade. It is one of the only detergents I use because in my opinion it is one of the only ones that works. So I knew it would pass this test with flying colors and got a little cocky. As you can see in the before picture I left some literal chunks of food on the dish. And then despite how I would normally load my dishwasher (if you remember I am a bit fanatical about it) I put it on the top shelf to make room for some pans on the bottom. So is there residue? Yes. But would I still trust Cascade to get my dishes clean? Absolutely.

Would you like to take the challenge? I have 5 trial packs of Cascade Complete All-In-1 Action up for grabs. To win one simply tell me your favorite summer time dessert. Easy peasy!

Contest is open to US only and will end Thursday, June 9th. Good luck!

Disclosure: I was provided with a sample and a Wal-Mart gift card for by P&G and MyBlogSpark for my participation in this campaign. As always, all opinions are mine. This post will be linked up to Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home’s, Sweet Tooth Friday at Alli-n-Son, Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum, Friday Potluck at EKat’s Kitchen and Finer Things Friday at Amy’s Finer Things.

Filed Under: Finer Things Friday, Food

Ten Years Ago Today- Finer Things Friday

May 19, 2011 By Diaper Diaries 13 Comments

I apologize for the blurry photo. I got married in the dark ages when you did not get digital pictures and had to settle for a bit bulky wedding album which I was forced to scan. But needless to say, you get the point.

I am celebrating my 10 year wedding anniversary today. See those smiles of two young folks who had just pledged their lives to each other? I would love to go back and tell them that ten years in it is everything they hoped it would be. Is it hard sometimes? Yes. But is it so 100% worth it to wake up every morning with your best friend? Absolutely!

I could spend a bunch of time waxing poetic about how much I love my husband, but I happened to purchase a radio spot to do just that so I think I will just let you read what I said for that. Cause I said it pretty well if I do say so myself.

Ryan, Ten years ago I said, “I Do,” and outside of my commitment to follow Christ, it is the best decision I ever made. one of the things I am most proud of in this lifetime is that I get to call myself your wife. You are an amazing and generous husband, a loving, intentional father to your children and truly my best friend. The last ten years of my life have been filled with incredible amounts of joy and laughter and I owe that mainly to you and our little family God has given us. I am a better person for marrying you and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us in the many years to come. I love you babe!