Do two halves make a whole?

I ran my second half marathon last weekend. It was called the Shamrockin' Half Marathon in Sacramento.  It was a lot of fun. I finished in 2 hours and 7 minutes. That's 6 minutes faster than the one I ran in November. I'm thinking about doing another one in May so maybe I can get under 2 hours then. We'll see.

Here's what we've been up to lately...

Not a whole lot has been happening in the Andersen home lately, which is both good and bad. I have been training for another half marathon and taking an art history class. Daniel has been working hard on preparing taxes at work and Marston has just been growing growing growing. We took a day and drove out to the coast to Point Reyes (a national park just above San Francisco). It was a beautiful day and really nice to get out of the house. 

We are happy and enjoying life and looking forward to our trip to Idaho in a couple of weeks. 

Marston's Room Progress

It's taken us a really long time to get this far but here's what we did last weekend in Marston's room. I finished painting and Daniel put up the chair rail. We decided not to go with bead-board because we don't have the right tools and it is more expensive. I think it turned out beautiful without it anyway. This weekend we are going to finish up the room with crown molding. Wish us luck.

The color blue

The next project I want to start is decorating Marston's room. This is my vision so far; 4 feet high b-board in white then a dark blue wall and finished with a white crown molding. The trick is to find the right color of blue. I have narrowed it down to 3 shades of blue. When I put them all on the wall, the color dusk (the far left color) looks really gray but alone it has more of a dark blue feeling. Perhaps it is too mature for a child's room. Still undecided and would love any input. What do you think?

French Chocolate Mousse

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe. I have been wanting to try my hand at mousse making for a long time now. I looked at several different mousse recipes and decided to try one from Tyler Florence. First of all, I love Tyler Florence. I have tried many of his recipes and all of them have been absolutely delicious. This one was surprisingly easy to prepare and a perfect ending to any meal. It has the sophistication of a fancy restaurant dessert but easy enough for any common cook to make. I do have one question that I have not yet come to a conclusion; what makes this mousse French?

French Chocolate Mousse

Food Network-Tyler Florence

6 ounces semisweet baking chocolate

3 TBSP butter

3 eggs, separated

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 cup plus 2 TBSP sugar

1/2 heavy whipping cream, cold

1/2 tsp vanilla

Place chopped chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan over simmering water (double boiler). Melt chocolate and butter stirring with a wooden spoon until smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Add the egg yolks 1 by 1, beating with a whisk. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and continue to beat. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

In another chilled bowl, beat heavy cream until it thickens. Add 2 TBSP sugar and vanilla. Continue to beat until it holds soft peaks.

Gradually and gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it. Then carefully and very gently fold in cream. Be careful not to over work the mousse. Divide mousse into small glasses. Cover and chill for several hours.

Car Accident

Monday night we were in a terrible car accident. I had just picked Daniel up from work to go up to Placerville to his parents to drop Marston off so that we could go to an ugly sweater party in Cameron Park. I was driving and Marston and Dan were in the back seats. We were headed up a back but very busy road when suddenly a SUV was in my lane and I T-Boned her. The van spun half a circle and the SUV flipped a couple of times. At the time I had no idea what happened. I was driving and the next thing I knew there was a car in my lane. It happened in a matter of seconds, I didn't have time to swerve or break. We hit hard. Daniel grabbed Marston and got out first and I just sat in the drivers seat covered in glass and airbags screaming. I finally came to and slowing got out to find my baby and husband. There were many people on their cell phones calling for help and the woman in the SUV was screaming for help as her car was on its side. Marston was terrified. I just wanted to comfort him but it was so hard for me to hold him. In minutes there were fire engines, ambulances and a helicopter. Dan and I had to get taken away on a stretcher. They took Marston in the ambulance in his car seat and the woman we hit got taken away in a helicopter. Marston screamed the whole way to the hospital. I think he was just so scared to see his parents strapped down an unable to hold him. I have never felt such a huge desire to hold and comfort my little boy in my life. It was awful! We got to the hospital and all 3 of us were separated. They checked us all out and we had x-rays and Dan got a CT scan but we were all okay. Daniel has a huge bruise right where the seat belt was, I have huge bruises on my hips and chest and Marston has a small bruise on his neck where the seat belt rubbed him. We were incredibly lucky! Marston is completely fine and Dan and I are fine with some aches and pains. In the ambulance I noticed the diamond in my ring was gone and the ring is a bit bent up but my hand only had a very small bruise. We were totally protected! We were blessed. I don't know why but I am extremely thankful.

Thinking about it later and putting the pieces together with the tow company and the police we have a pretty good idea what happened. There was a woman wanting to turn left into a neighborhood. This road is a busy road and there was no turning lane. She was waiting for a long line of traffic to clear when a teenaged girl driving too fast tried to go around her off the pavement and clipped her SUV hard enough to send her into my lane and I T-boned her at about 50 MPH. I pray that she is okay and that the teenage girl gets her license revoked.

Christmas Excitement

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was the first one we've had in our new home and it was so fun to start our new family traditions. Christmas Eve we went over to Brooke and Joe's place (Dan's sister and husband). We had yummy soup and lots of treats then went over to see the lights on Dove Court. It's a street in Orangevale that every house has a billion lights. Each house seemed to have some kind of theme too. One had Charlie Brown's Christmas theme, there was one with a giant carousel in their garage. It was amazing. Then we headed home to wait for Santa. It was so fun to bring Marston down the stairs on Christmas morning and see that Santa came. Marston got a very cute radio flyer tricycle, lots of books and puzzles, some cool balls, a little tool box and a peg and hammer toy. He loved opening the presents. I can't wait for more Christmases to come.