My Grandpa in his Garden

Grandpa's Carrots

My Grandpa Daniels was a gardener. Every fall he would bring a gigantic bag of carrots to our home. These homegrown carrots were crooked and knobby and covered with Grandpa's garden dirt. Whenever I saw Grandpa's carrots sitting on the ledge in the garage, I knew how my mom felt about it and that still makes me smile, maybe even laugh.

Now that my dear Grandpa is gone, this memory is very tender to me. I love carrots.

So, what to do with all of those knobby carrots?

Susan Grace’s Delicious Carrot Cake
1 and a half cups oil
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 and a half teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups grated carrots
*optional 1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
Preheat oven to 375. Cream together oil, eggs, and sugar. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and add to creamed mixture. Add vanilla, carrots, and nuts. Bake in two loaf pans for 55 minutes. Cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
4oz. cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 and a half tablespoons butter, softened
*optional ¾ cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
Cream together all ingredients except nuts. When well-blended, add nuts and mix well.

This recipe comes from my mother-in-law, Virginia Oldroyd (its original name is Marcia's Delicious Carrot cake). I don't know Marcia, so I renamed it, in honor of my new baker/pal, Susan-Grace.

My Magic Chef Dryer

In June, I went to Utah for ten days. When I got back, Jim had installed a Magic Chef dryer. My life changed.

The all-in-one washer/dryer combo that came with the apartment made laundry a chore to say the least. The washer is fine, but the "dryer" left something to be desired. Depending on the size of the load my dry time was usually between three and four hours. This is when my life became very ironic. After five hours of washing and drying one batch of clothes, my clothes were no where near dry and I would have to hang them around the house overnight to "air dry". With five children laundry had become an unbearable chore and my house looked like a clothes tree half of the time. I was fit to be tied. What added insult to injury was that, after all this work, my clothes had a stale "never-been-dry" smell and a very crunchy feel.

Jim, seeing my plight surprised me with this wonderful dryer. Dryers are not easy to come by in Korea; in fact, most tradtional Korean households dedicate one whole room to line drying their clothing. So, if you are planning on making your way over here, my advice is to ship your dryer!

Bali Beaches

The Dolphins of Bali

Elephant Safari

Our elephant encounter in Bali:

Bali, Indonesia

This year we went to Bali for a family vacation. We saw lots of things we've never seen before.