new platform 2:49 PM

So I've decided that I'm going to blog on Tumblr, solely for the reason that it's easier to do from the smartphone. And as we all know, if it's not convenient then I won't do it as much. So go here for my up-to-date blog:

http://complicatedcamille.tumblr.com/

Love, Cam

'nana pudding 8:18 PM

I don't remember having banana pudding as a kid, but as an adult I LOVE it. As my childhood self would say "Try it. You'll like it." Here's my favorite recipe:

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/e28098nana-pudding/

old town evening 10:54 PM

Let me paint you a picture of what's going on right now. There are random fireworks being shot off over DC. We're watching them from a dock in old town. The weather is cool and slightly humid but there is a nice breeze coming off the water to wash any stickynesss away. Sounds of a street performer playing the piccolo are in the background. Wish you were here. 

spin pins 3:27 PM

Have you guys used these? They are the greatest bobby pins ever. They hold hairdos back like a champ. I highly recommend. This cool doo took me literally 15 seconds to do. 

making a comeback? 6:57 AM

We'll see...trying to decide between this and tumblr and Instagram. 

Opened up two boxes of gel food coloring that came in the mail today, then proceeded to arrange them in color order. It reminded me of getting a fresh pack of Pentel markers for a new school year. Both make my soul happy.

Sarah RN 9:31 PM

Let me tell you why Sarah is a Rockstar. Sarah just graduated from Nursing school. Now sure, nursing school is hard in and of itsself, but Sarah was also held down a full time job throughout. She was a Mom (you know, the never ending job) who started school with two kids and ended it with three. Yes, she went through a pregnancy in the middle of her training. Seriously. I don't know how she did it. She juggled so many things and still managed to graduate summa cum laude. Sarah is amazing.

dc temple 4:29 PM

I like to see the temple, but I love to go into the temple. Glad there's one so close to me. The only thing that would make the DC Temple better? If the chandlers made twinkling noises like the one in the Oakland temple does.  :)

this flowchart 10:33 PM

I love it.

you can buy it here

I don't think it's quite that simple, 

but the sentiment is right.

Day 2 8:38 PM

While I don't have biological family on this coast, I do have friends who are as good as family. They are my "East Coast Family". We are there for each other for the ups and downs of everyday life and celebrate the holidays together. Ashley puts up with me as a roommate, just like a sister would. To the Berget kids I am Aunt Camille. The Pattee kids invite me to all of their birthday parties. While I do miss my family all of the time, especially on holidays like this, I am grateful to have my "East Coast Family" in my life.

Day 1 11:01 AM

This morning I had a near miss. I was driving home from work on a curvy road I have taken 500+ times in sun and rain and sleet and snow. Because it was wet outside, I was driving slower than normal but on the first tight curve I lost traction and spun out. I ended up backwards in the other lane lane on an elevated embankment against some trees with only two opposing tires on the ground.

So why does this kick off the 40 days of thanks? I am fine. Unscratched. My car as minimal damage. This was nothing short of a Thanksgiving miracle. I am grateful for the hand that guided me safely through that spin.

It was a blind curve on a two lane road, so at any time during the event a car coming the other direction could have plowed into me without warning for either of us.

The trees that ultimately stopped my car left only the minimal damage you see above and a large scratch on the from bumper.

I thought my front tire had blown and I may have cracked an axle. I didn't think I was going to be able to drive home (let alone get off the elevated embankment I found myself on), but after a couple attempts at restarting the car it started and after a few good punches of the gas pedal I was able to self extricate the car and drive home.

This could have been so much worse, but it was not.

40 Days of Thanks 10:51 AM

Thought this would be a great thing to do over the holidays, as I have been given SO much and want for so little in life. I was going to start it on Thanksgiving and go through Christmas, but after my near miss this morning, I think it's appropriate to start today. I'd invite anyone else to do this too, it's a great way to celebrate the season. 

So I was seeing on blogs a "month of thanks" theme where they photographed a different thing they were thankful for every day and posted it (I think it was an Instagram thing). I thought it was a cool idea, especially given the holiday season and all we have to be thankful for. Needless to say I am following suit ... and I was wondering if anyone else wanted to join?

How great would it be if for the next 40 days (through Jan 1 2012) we could see photos from friends and family of things they were thankful for. I think it would lift spirits and enhance the holiday season. Just throwing it out there, no pressure, just a fun idea.

Love, Camille

and so it begins... 12:53 PM

They warned us it was going to snow. They are usually wrong. But today it went from rain to hail to snow in a matter of 30 minutes. The sky turned white and the heavens opened up. Crazy.

It piled up super fast and then the calls started coming in. (I was at work, probably should have mentioned that.) Ususally it's a slow day to be assigned on the Engine. But when things freeze all bets are off. We started by running a million calls for "wires down". The older side of our city has all their cable/phone/electricity wires up on poles instead of underground like most of us are used to.

When the wet snow caked on the wires they sagged over the roadways. And the cable lines, which were held to the houses by staples and thin wire, separated from the houses. So people called 911. Because we are the power and cable company? Sure. Why not. We tied them up around whatever was near, threw a piece of caution tape on them and moved on. Luckily I found the above moment of Zen.

THE FIRE DEPARTMENT CAN ONLY FIX FIRES AND MEDICAL EMERGENCIES. That should be a PSA.

We got dispatched for a fire in a neighboring jurisdiction. The "fire" was no fire at all. One engine and a battalion chief SUV slid down the hill and got stuck in a ditch trying to get there. We made our way back to the station through this. Traffic. Cars were everywhere. That's a another thing people called 911 for "my car is stuck". Yeah. Call a tow company. People's commutes took 5-9 hours. It made me thankful to know I had a 72 hour kit with food and water in the car. Remind me to add TP to the kit.

With all the calls in the perilous weather I never felt worried about our being out on the road. Mike was driving; he is a good chauffeur. Did I mention that we were so busy that we didn't get dinner until 10pm. Around 9pm I was hypoglycemic and grumpy and there was no end in sight. So when we did get to the station for two minutes I ran to a) the bathroom and b) grabbed the bag of dried mangoes out of my work 72 hour kit. They saved us. It was a long night but we got to bed around 1am. And so the season of blizzards begins...

PSA: 72 hour kit 10:09 PM

For MLK day Steph, Kerstin, Ashley and I decided to make 72 hour kits. This stemmed from a conversation we had the prior week after a friend's Dad (who works in cyber security) encouraging her to be prepared for a national emergency in the next couple of years, probably of the cyber-type attack. He said when this inevitably happens it could be days or much longer before chaos was restored, so we should be prepared.

Since the church has admonished us to do this forever, we decided it was probably a good idea to do something. We, as singles with lots of mobility and limited space, sometimes think that we are exempt from stuff like food storage. And to a certain point we are limited in out abilities. But if the parable of the 10 Virgins tells us anything, then we need to do something to help ourselves - especially since we have been warned to do so for so many years.

So we decided to start with 72 hour kits. We tackled the food portion today. All of the food is good for 11-13 months (with the exception of the crackers which need to be replaced in 6 months). We will replace it every January on MLK Day. All of the food is stuff that I will actually eat. If you think about it, in an emergency you are going to want familiar comforting foods not random yucky only-here-because-it-has-a-long-shelf-life food.

It's organized by smaller ziploc bags (for stuff that could potentially leak liquid) inside one ginormous ziploc bag per day. And to be honest, it is more food than I need, but the odds that I'll have to share with unprepared people around me are probably high. I still need to grab the water. They recommend 1 gallon of water per person per day. I'm going to grab three Deer Park 3L bottle per pack, they're like a dollar at the store. Also I do not have the miscellaneous bag done. It will have basic first aid and hygiene stuff, cash, etc. I made one for home, one for work and a modified one for the car (modified because of the major swing in temperatures out here).

HOME/WORK PACK’s

DAY 1:

Breakfast -
Pineapple Juice can 6oz
Pop Tart brown sugar
Del Monte Diced Peach cup

Lunch -
Apple & Eve Apple Juice box 6.75oz
StarKist Tuna Lunch-to-Go 4.1oz
Ritz Fresh Stack 1roll
Welch’s Fruit Snacks 2.25oz
Hunt’s Pudding Snack Pack cup

Dinner -
Hershey’s Chocolate Milk box 8oz
Dinty Moore Beef Stew 24 oz (pop-top)
Del Monte Mandarin Orange cup
Snickers fun size (x3)
Twix fun size (x2)

Snacks -
Cliff Bar chocolate chip
Trail Mix (BJ’s) 3oz
Philippine Dried Mangoes 1lb 4oz

to get: Deer Park 3L water

DAY 2:

Breakfast -
Pineapple Juice can 6oz
Cliff Bar chocolate chip peanut butter
Del Monte Diced Peach cup

Lunch -
Apple & Eve Apple Juice box 6.75oz
Skippy Roasted Honey Nut Peanut Butter 16.3oz
Wheat Thins bag 10oz
Pringles Sour Cream 6.38oz
Welch’s Fruit Snacks 2.25oz

Dinner -
Hershey’s Chocolate Milk box 8oz
Spaghettio’s 15oz
can opener
Del Monte Mandarin Orange cup
Snickers fun size (x3)
Twix fun size (x2)

Snacks -
Trail Mix (BJ’s) 3oz
Welch’s Fruit Snacks 2.25oz

to get: Deer Park 3L water

DAY 3:

Breakfast -
Pineapple Juice can 6oz
Pop Tart brown sugar
Del Monte Diced Peach cup

Lunch -
Apple & Eve Apple Juice box 6.75oz
StarKist Tuna Lunch-to-Go 4.1oz
Ritz Fresh Stack 1roll
Welch’s Fruit Snacks 2.25oz
Hunt’s Pudding Snack Pack cup

Dinner -
Hershey’s Chocolate Milk box 8oz
Dinty Moore Beef Stew 24 oz (pop-top)
Del Monte Mandarin Orange cup
Snickers fun size (x2)
Twix fun size (x4)

Snacks -
Cliff Bar chocolate chip
Trail Mix (BJ’s) 3oz
Nestle Raisinets 11oz

to get: Deer Park 3L water


CAR PACK

Breakfast -
Cliff Bar (x3)

Lunch -
Jack Link’s Beef Jerkey bag (x4) 1.25oz
Ritz Fresh Stack (x3) 1roll

Dinner -
Cliff Bar (x3)
Welch’s Fruit Snacks (x4) 2.25oz

Snacks -
Philippine Dried Mangoes 1lb 4oz

Water Bottles (at least 1 palate)

So, are you inspired?
MAKE A 72 HOUR KIT!!!
It's super easy and delicious and only has to be changed once a year-ish.

green hills 6:34 PM

This is what the hills of Northern California look like in the winter.
I did not photoshop this at all (except to crop it).
I love them.

we ate too much sugar 11:59 PM

A Merry Christmas message we recorded for David & Bobbiejane since they weren't with us Christmas Day.

christmas 2010 11:30 PM

The kids (minus David & Bobbie who were in Washington state).

Merry Christmas from the greatest place on earth: HOME. This year I took a 6am flight out of Dulles, stopped over in Denver and landed in Oakland around 11am. While I did miss the family breakfast, I made it home in time for helping with dinner and opening presents!

The Fam opening presents. Bryce and his new head phones rocking out to the Counting Crows on my iPhone.

I am ashamed to say that there are a dearth of pictures this year. I spent most of my time trying to video tape Bryce singing. He is the cutest. For dinner the Adair's came over. We ate and hung out and reveled in our matching socks.

Picture stolen from Annie.

It was a great Christmas Day and just the beginning of an awesome vacation at home. I love going home for the holidays. And I love that 40 degrees in CA is like twice as warm as 40 degrees in DC.

Bryce sleeping next to the Christmas Tree.

cinnamon rolls 10:52 PM

Since my shift was stuck working Christmas Eve, I decided to do something that made me think of being home at Christmastime. I made cinnamon rolls for everyone to take home to their families Christmas morning and for the shift that was stuck working Christmas Day to enjoy and some to take to friends.

See my Dad likes to make potato dough cinnamon rolls for the people he Home Teaches. He has all intentions of making them before Christmas, but it seems that often times he ends up waiting until the last minute and making them on Christmas morning. This disrupts my Mom's breakfast plans and the day starts off disorganized but always turns out delicious because in the end we all gather around the table and share in a phenomenal breakfast before opening presents as a family.

cookie exchange 11:18 PM

This year I decided it would be fun to do a cookie exchange. Everyone was asked to bring 5 dozen christmas cookies to share. I know it's a lot to bake but you leave with 5 dozen cookies too, so I feel like it is a win-win.

A dozen friends gathered at our house that night. I made fun appetizers including pineapple wrapped in brown sugar bacon. Delicious. We also decorated sugar cookies as an activity. Some of the girls had never used frosting bags with tips so were a little hesitant at first, but then people got really into it.

At the end of the night everyone left with boxes filled with a million (read: five dozen) cookies. You will never guess what my breakfast was the next day. Yummm...

sub 4 santa 5:01 PM

Another successful year of the Adopt-A-Family Christmas Party with my friends. We were able to take care of 8 families in the Park. Good times.

disney treasures 1:09 PM

As I am cleaning and purging while moving rooms, I am coming across lots of great things - most of which I can identify as trash vs. treasure. But these, these have me confused. They were slowly but surely collected from Burger king I have a set of eight. I have been saving them for 10+ years. They have a facebook page, you can buy these collectibles new on eBay for upwards of 4 dollars each! Tell me to throw them away. I can't do it. They are awesome.

addendum:
Tamarin says they are probably made of carcinogenic plastic. I should throw them away.