The Week of my Dreams...

You know I love podcasts. And one of my favorites lately is NPR's How To Do Everything. It's basically 2 really funny guys, who talk about completely random and unrelated things for 30 minutes. There are no themes. And if the hosts weren't funny and charming it totally wouldn't work.

Last Friday, part of their show was interviewing a guy who developed Ice Cream flavors for Ben and Jerry's. They asked him if he had ever made a flavor that just totally bombed and he told about a flavor that he made that was called "Rosemary's Baby." (Already I'm in.) It was a rosemary infused cream ice cream with a rosemary tea cookie crumble and an apricot swirl. He said he thought it was the best ice cream he'd ever had, but it was a total bomb and was never put into production. Obviously this man is a genius and everyone else that works at Ben and Jerry's are fools. I want that ice cream every day of my life.

The other thing he revealed is that when you work at Ben and Jerry's, one of the benefits is that you were allowed to take home 3 pints of Ice Cream PER DAY.














Did that sink in? Do you need me to repeat that? 3 free pints PER DAY. EVERY DAY YOU WORK. When I head this, I immediately pulled off the freeway, stopped my car, got out and knelt on the ground and tried to take deep, cleansing breaths to clear my head. All I could think of was 3 free pints of Ben and Jerry's a day and my body was unable to focus on driving my car safely.

I thought about it a lot since then. And I've prayed about it. And I want to let you know that I have come up with my list of what I would take home my first week.

• Monday - The classics: Phish Food, Mint Chocolate Cookie, Cherry Garcia (for Amy.)
• Tuesday - Going Crazy: Late Night Snack (it has chocolate covered potato chips,) What a Cluster (marshmallow, peanut butter, clusters, you hear me?) and Oatmeal Cookie Chunk
• Wednesday -A mid week refresher. Keeping it light with: Banana Peanut Butter Greek Yogurt, Pineapple Passion fruit, Mango Mango Sorbet.
• Thursday - Classic Desserts: Cannoli, Red Velvet Cake, Peach Cobbler
• Friday - Everything else: Cinnamon Bun, Pina Colada, Pistachio pistachio

So now I've finished my first week at Ben and Jerry's and I weigh 1000 pounds. At least he mentioned that they have an on site gym. I'm going to need it.

Did I miss anything? Did I hit all your faves? What would you eat if you worked at Ben and Jerry's for a week?

Tonight I died. And went to Heaven.

I have a dream. It's about me, a whole bunch of food trucks, an endless pocket full of money and me eating until I am sick. You see, I love food. The more interresting and unique the better, and no one does interresting and unique food better than food trucks. But unless you live or work in an Urban area where there are a lot of food trucks near your office, they aren't usually that convienent to get to. And unless you've been to them before, you kinda don't know what you are going to get. When Amy and I lived near Portland for our anniversay one year we went and stayed downtown one weekend. I was so excited to hit the food truck scene for lunch (in Portland they are not actually trucks - they are more permanent and all clustered in a few blocks) only to discover that the food trucks are all closed on Saturday because no one is working in the city. I was bummed.

Tonight, my food truck dream came true. I am at a work conference this week and tonight was one of our parties. It was down by the water in San Francisco, but it was windy and cold so I wasn't super excited. But when we got to the venue, we learned that dinner would be provided by 17 different food trucks. And, everything was paid for by the company so you could get whatever you want, as much as you want for free. Let me say that again: There were 17 food trucks and I could go up to them, order what I wanted, not pay for it. and then go to the next truck. I think I gained about 7 pounds tonight, but it was worth it.

I learned a few strategies. Like when I went to the truck that was serving Grilled Macaroni and cheese sandwiches...let me give that a moment to sink in. It was basically a grilled cheese sandwich. With bacon. And macaroni and cheese ON THE SANDWICH. Anyway, when I got my half of a sandwich it came with potato chips. I immediately threw them away. I don't have room for potato chip tonight, sir! I said, GOOD DAY! Or when the line for the Taco truck (where I got a taco with roasted poblanos, corn, sauteed mushrooms and queso fresco) was kind of long. I went next door to the Indian food truck, got my Kati roll stuffed with Chicken Tiki Masala and then ate that while I was waiting in the taco line. Once we figured out that the trucks didn't care how much we ordered (because it was free) we would just start ordering one of everything and then share with our friends. Rather than committing to one item, you could have a little taste of many items. So yes, I DO want a Pork Slider with cabbage and arugula slaw AND your smoked pork ribs. And no, ma'am, I don't want to decide if I'd rather have a Salted caramel, double vanilla or red velvet cupcake. I'd like one of each. In fact, I'd like TWO of each.

Did I eat to much? Absolutely. Am I going to have heart burn all night? You betcha? Is it hard for me to understand why no one else has ever thought of putting macaroni and cheese and bacon on a grilled cheese sandwich? I have literally had trouble thinking of anything else all night. But for a food nerd like me, it was heaven on earth. And when are you going to get a chance like that again? Probably never. So pass the lobster roll, the veggie empanada, the pork belly bao with pickled daikon and the Nutella and strawberry crème brûlée. Heaven is a beautiful place.

You Have No Idea.

 I've been thinking.  You may or may not know that my wife and I have adopted our daughter Daisy.  She doesn't look much like us, but she is ours through and through.  So, I was sitting in church looking at all the pews filled with all the families with kids that look just like they do and it occurred to me that they have no idea.  And most likely you are a parent of children that look just like you do and if you would have been sitting in my chapel that week I would have though that you had no idea either.

Having adopted I have many people come up to me and tell me amazing adoption stories and how they know that the children who were adopted we "meant to be" with the parents who adopted them.  And, you know what? They are right.  That is one thing I know absolute, even more then some of the real big questions, I know that my children were meant to be mine.  Because it's so easy to see, when the dust has settled after an adoption, both successful and unsuccessful, you can look back and see every bend in the road, that was out of your control, but that brought you here, to this moment, holding your child and breathing in his brand new breath. And he is your own. Well...not your own,  I suppose that an adoptive parent does share this child with more people then a biological parent, but in the end, after the settled dust,  he is yours.

And that was the idea I had, sitting in Fast and Testimony meeting.  Biological parents think that that because their bodies can create a body for a baby that means that child is theirs or them.  But that's just it, that's all the body can do, create a shell for a fresh little spirit to jump into.  And that spirit is not half the mom and half the dad.  It's all it's own. Whole. My wife and I can't make shells so we have had to partner with people who can in order to grow our little family, and that part is amazing and wondrous and I could spend pages telling you all the little road bends that wildly changed my life to get me in the right spot, at the right time, to be in the right room to hold my child.  But that's because it all happened here on earth.  The thought came to me, for every effort made from the heavens to bring my family together, every family has gone through as much, or more, to bring the right spirits to the right shells all before ever making it down to Earth.

I like to think of the bustling office building of Heaven (even my two year old can tell you babies come from office buildings not hospitals... at least in my family they do). There is, of course, a kindhearted but stern receptionist at the front desk, Bev,  who keeps the place whole place running ship shape. She would totally say things like, "Ship Shape" and "Spit Spot!".  She heads the long hallway with heavenly florescent lights illuminating doorways hiding loose neck tied men and messy bunned women hard at work putting the right spirit children with the right earthly parents.  After all we believe, or I guess, I believe that our spirits are created by Heavenly Parents who send us down to Earth because they are sick of the constant questions from their ever curious and precocious children.

I suppose that would make all children adopted, just like mine. Well... not just like mine.  I got to see all the magic and miracles and devastation that goes into building a family.  I've got to see the pain on a birth mothers face as she hands you her newest born. And the realization that a decision made 6 years before moved you just enough to the left on a map to let you be able to be this girls father.  Adoption is messy and hard and ultimately wonderful for half involved and devouring for other half. But so it was for every family once.  So perhaps, next time you are sitting in church and you look to your right and there are a mess of kids and then, at the end, your spouse,  just remember how little you had to do with the selection of spirits sitting between you.  Take a moment and close your eyes and whisper the same thing every adoptive parent has whispered since the beginning of time, "Thanks Bev."

 *******

 Also, I would love to introduce you to the newest member of our family.   After, I promise, many many bends in a miraculous road, last Tuesday, and forever, we brought home Milo Patrick Livingston.  

And he's amazing!

  

*He's the one on the left*