A Happy Storyby Angie

Thu
12 Jun 2008
9:06 am
6

Once upon a time, beyond the stormy mountains but this side of tomorrow, there lived a king and queen with five lovely daughters. All five grew up into beautiful ladies; when our story begins, two were already wed to handsome princes. Four of the five princesses lived within a day’s ride of their parents palace, but the second princess and her husband made their home far, far away, on the boarders of the great sea.

A great celebration was soon to take place, to honor the queen’s birthday (who, due to a fairy gift, only looked younger and more beautiful every year), but the youngest and loveliest princess noticed that her queen mother seemed very sad. This was because a dragon had attacked the kingdom of her second daughter several weeks before and, though the prince had defeated the dragon, the queen wished desperately to visit her daughter and help with repairing and restoring the kingdom.

The youngest princess had a magic mirror that could speak to another mirror at her sister princess’s castle. She called and told her sister that she wanted to use her magic to send their queen mother to the kingdom on the shores of the great sea to visit. What a wonderful surprise! The arrangements were soon made: The queen would be traveling in a great coach pulled by magical winged rabbits, who could fly the great distance in an hour. They would land in a forest of oak trees, where all such magical transportation landed: it was called the Oakland Hare-port.

Well, the great day of conveyance arrived and the queen kissed her husband, the king, and began her journey. The second princess and her handsome prince also set out from their castle in a carriage to meet the queen and bring her home from the hare-port. While the magnificent horses jogged along, the carriage passed the hovel of an evil, iron-nosed witch. This witch had been glad when the dragon attacked the kingdom because she hated the prince and princess. When the prince had defeated the dragon, the witch was disappointed, but at midnight she had sneaked to the dragon’s body and magically stolen his power to breathe fire, which spark was still alive, deep inside.

When the iron-nosed witch saw the royal carriage passing by, she grabbed her broomstick and rushed outside, mounted, and began to fly alongside. She made herself invisible to the prince and princess and planned to breathe hot fire on their horses so the steeds would overheat and fall down dead. That way, the royal couple would never reach their queen mother! The prince, however, was very wise and a good horseman. As the invisible witch began to breathe out her fire, the prince saw the horses shiver and begin to sweat. With her next big breath, he notice their wild eyes and tossing manes. As the witch prepared to take her largest and hottest breath of all, the prince suddenly steered the horses off the road and pulled the carriage to a stop, so he could tend to them and find out what was wrong. The witch, meantime, could not stop her broom very quickly and was so angry that she didn’t notice where she was going. She flew right into a sign-post and burst into a million pieces. The fire-breathing magic burst out of her as well, and landed in a little red brick oven in a village in the oak forest.

The wise prince and his princess waited for half an hour to let the horses cool down and rest, and brought them water from a magic well nearby to drink and be refreshed. Then they resumed their journey and arrived just in time to meet the beautiful queen at the hare-port, who hadn’t had to wait very long at all.   A great feast was held in the oak forest, where they ate pizza cooked in the red brick oven.  Finally, the royal family returned to their castle and there they are all living still, happily ever after.

Recovering from surgeryby Angie

Mon
2 Jun 2008
2:06 pm
1

Thank you, everybody, for your prayers and well-wishes for us since my surgery.  I am doing very well and hope to be back to normal in a couple more weeks.  I have been very well taken care of:  My wonderful, adorable, thoughtful husband has been at my beck and call as much as possible since I got home from the hospital.  He and Jon spent a large portion of their Memorial weekend entertaining me (playing “Secret of Mana”My \ with me for hours on end).  JaquieMy mother-in-law, Kathy, visited for a week to keep our house running smoothly.  I received phone calls and visits from wonderful friends in my ward and from family members all over the country (thanks, Audrey!).  I even had my own pet therapist on hand: Jaquie wisely stayed off my lap, but spent long hours curled up next to me on the couch or my bed.

Getting around the house is still a little difficult because of the incision (for those ladies who have had a C-section, you probably know what I mean), and I can’t carry very much or drive yet, but I’m certainly improving.  My doctor called when she received the lab results on the cysts they removed to report that everything was benign – hooray!!  My post-op appointment is next Tuesday, so if there is anything else interesting to relate, I’ll keep the blog posted.

Try-Me Night: Chimichangasby Angie

Mon
21 Apr 2008
11:04 am
4

our schnazzy new deep-fryerWe recently purchased deep-fryer and have started experimenting with it almost every Friday (which we have now dubbed “Fry-day”). Chimichangas seemed pretty ambitious to me, but they turned out to be a huge success! We didn’t follow a particular recipe – I just looked at a few different ones for ideas and then came up with my own plan. Jim and Jon were a little leery of this – they really wanted us to do some “Proof of Concept” tests in advance to make sure things would come out right (because we were going to make them while my parents were in town visiting). Well, we never made time for early tests, so we just launched in on Friday. Luckily, they were delicious, and very easy! We decided that they would be even better with a hot, spicy sauce of some kind on top, so we’ll try adding that next time. This is definitely a meal we’ll make again!

A Weekend in LAby Angie

Sun
2 Mar 2008
12:03 pm
2

Mary Poppins

Oh, there is so much to write! We spent this weekend down in Los Angeles, where we saw my cousin, Melinda, perform with the BYU Young Ambassadors: It was a fantastic show, and Melinda was “practically perfect in every way” as Mary Poppins. “The New American Songbook” included a musical review of the 60s, 70s, and 80s and also show tunes from recent Broadway hits, including “Wicked” and Disney’s 2006 theatrical production of “Tarzan.” It was wonderful!

We drove down to Culver City (in West LA) on Thursday morning, which took us a little over six hours. We ate dinner with Jim’s Grandma & Grandpa Packard, and then drove down to Long Beach, to see the Young Ambassadors’ show. After that, we returned to Culver City to stay with Jim’s Aunt Debbie for the night. Friday morning we had breakfast at Dinah’s – a cafe restaurant that is famous in the Hoffman family for selling the most delicious apple pancake you’ve ever tasted.

That afternoon, we went to the Hyatt Hotel in Garden Grove, to see the ACDA Western Division Honors Choir Concert. We attended because Jim’s niece, Amber, was selected to represent her school in the Children’s Honor Choir this year! It was a beautiful, varied program, and the kids did an amazing job. Jim’s mom was also in town as Amber’s escort! After a mini-family reunion at Outback for dinner, Jim and I made the long return trip in the car back to Livermore. This time, we were driving late into the night, but at least that meant we weren’t fighting traffic! So, we arrived home a little before midnight, exhausted but happy to have had such a wonderful weekend in LA.

Off the Cuffby Angie

Sun
17 Feb 2008
6:02 pm
1

So, Jim and I had a lovely quiet morning – slept in a little, got up and got ready, walked to choir practice, had a nice rehearsal, peaceful walk home… Then, just a few minutes after we walked in the door, the phone rang. It was Carolynn Hoopes (one of the counselors in our Relief Society), calling to ask me if I could teach today.

Wow. I have never taught a Relief Society lesson before in my entire life, and now I had less than three hours to prepare one. Luckily, it was about Joseph Smith as a special witness of the Savior – so, having been a missionary was strongly in my favor. The chapter in the manual was beautifully written, so that made it fun, too. I regret to say that I have not been in the habit of reading the lesson before going to class, so I was even less prepared for the call than I could have been, but I am now determined to do my reading every week like I should.

I was very nervous but the lesson went well and, amazingly, took just the right amount of time! It was a scary experience but, overall, a good one. To thank me for my impromptu lesson, Carolynn and her kids walked over to our condo after church and brought us an angel food cake and a huge package of fresh strawberries!  That definitely made it all worth the effort.

My New Toyby Angie

Mon
11 Feb 2008
12:02 pm
2

I got a present from Jason for Jim’s Birthday 🙂

You see, Jason and I were discussing what Jim might want for his birthday and I mentioned that he’s kind of sort of maybe saving up for an iPod Touch, so money toward that might be nice. Jason asked if Jim might like an iPod Shuffle, but I said no, it was the calender and other stuff that he wanted more than just a music player…why? Well, Jason had received a free iPod ShuffleShuffle as part of a rebate package and didn’t know what to do with it, since he already has an iPhone. We discussed the prospective usage of a “little” – 1G – iPod with no touch screen or display and I said it would be great for listening to audio books or music on walks or while gardening… Long story short, Jason decided that I should have it! Sure enough, he brought it this weekend and walked me though setup and downloading iTunes and all that jazz.

Well, now I have an apology to make to my sisters and cousin for having given them flack about iPods and iTunes: I have a real aversion to proprietary hardware and software and formats, so I never jumped on the iEverything bandwagon. Anyway, I humbly admit that I really love my little Shuffle and it’s super cool and I’m very glad to have it. I’ve already been to the library to borrow some audio books (that I will delete when I return the CDs) and “Emma” by Jane Austen has made it onto my iPod first.

A Busy Weekendby Angie

Sat
9 Feb 2008
10:02 pm
1

Jim’s Grandma Pat passed away a week ago, so several of our relatives were in town for the funeral today. It was a rare time (and the first time in a long time) that all six Hoffman siblings and their parents were together. Everyone had arrived by Friday afternoon and Jon had managed to arrange for us to all tour the Pixar Animation Studios with him. It was so amazing to see the concept art and maquettes that decorate the entire facility!

After the tour, we went out to eat at a restaurant called KC’s BarBQue. I had found this place listed on citysearch (since Jim requested BBQ for his birthday dinner), with 41 five-star recommendations out of 45 reviews, so we were really looking forward to it. When we arrived at the spot, however, we almost drove away: it was in a terribly run-down part of town, and it looked like little more than a hole in the wall, wedged in between a tire place and a paint store. Inside, however, it looked like a cross between a museum and an antique shop! The food was fantastic and the staff were very friendly and helpful. I would definitely recommend it (for lunch or an early dinner – it was kind of scary walking to our car in the dark in that part of town).

This morning, we drove up to Galt, which is about an hour northeast of Livermore. There we attended the funeral services and graveside dedication for Grandma Pat. There was a small luncheon for family members, where I got to meet several Hoffman relatives (more than I can remember names for!), and where Jim’s family got to visit and catch up with cousins and friends that they haven’t seen in years. I never knew Pat, but it was wonderful to hear so much about her and to see so many family and friends enjoying one another’s company and comfort.

Before heading back to Livermore, we drove over to the Heritage Oak Winery to visit Tom and Carmela Hoffman – relatives who were not able to attend the funeral. Their lands and trees are beautiful and very peaceful. They let us pick dozens of ripe oranges from their tree, and we enjoyed an incredible sunset together as the lovely, exhausting day was closing.