Hilary Weeks

Okay.

So.

Last Thursday night I was lying in bed thinking about the next day’s travel to Pittsburgh for a Time Out for Women.  I said a little prayer in my heart, asking Heavenly Father if it was going to be a good trip?

He answered back with silence.  I interpreted that to mean…not exactly, no, negatory. 

Correct interpretation.

Don’t get me wrong, the trip wasn’t horrible by any stretch of the imagination.  It was actually really fantastic in a lot of ways and I made some good memories and met wonderful people.  But it wasn’t what I would call…smooth.

If I were to share each experience in detail…not only would this be an extrememly long blog, but you would most surely get bored.  We can’t have that.  We’re too good of friends.  So, I will share the highlights (if you can call them that).

1. Friday morning, 5:45 am…at the airport with my friend and fellow presenter, Kris Belcher.  Kris lost her eyesight about six years ago and so when we travel to TOFW together, I have the privilege of assisting her.  Typically we giggle more than we should, eat more than we should and have a generally wonderful time together.  Pittsburgh was no exception.  But, as we were checking in we realized she had left something at home that she really needed.  With help from our husbands I made in onto the flight with the item in hand and a few minutes to spare.

2. Because of the forgotten item, I had to go through security twice.  On the second time through while removing my shoes and liquids, a woman in front of me complained about how slow the line was moving.  I said, “Well, at least you have really cute, red glasses – that should make it a little better.”  She replied, “What are you? Pollyanna?”  (I wouldn’t consider this something that “went wrong”, it is just a funny side note.)

3. Our flight to Pittsburgh went through Detroit.  The captain came on the overhead speakers no less than 12 times talking about the turbulence.  (I couldn’t feel any.  It didn’t feel any bumpier than any other plane ride…but everytime he came on, Kris and I paused our iPod and listened to what he had to say.  He was more captivating than our audio book.)  At one point the flight attendent told us that only “emergency passengers” would be allowed to use the restroom and no food or drink would be served on the flight.  She said if we had to use the restroom, we did so at our own risk.  (Kind of made me want to, just to see if I could survive that kind of risk!) Then she told us to walk with our feet shoulder width apart and bend our knees to absorb the turbulence.  Again, I ask…”What turbulence?”

4.  I lost my jacket while boarding the Detroit to Pittsburgh flight.  Don’t worry.  They called my name over the speakers.  It was awesome.  Like being a winner on the Price is Right.

5. 1:30 am on Friday night…I stubbed my toe.  It killed!!!  I woke up in the morning and it had been bleeding.  It is still sore – 5 days later…and I have a high pain tolerance.  (How do you really know something like that?  Do you have to go to pain tolerance testing?  Count me out.)

6.  Our flight home Saturday night was cancelled so we didn’t leave until Sunday morning.  But, that did allow us to eat at a YUMMY restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh and  order a second brownie from room service.  We ordered this decadent warm double chocolate brownie with carmel sauce, pecans, powdered sugar and vanilla ice cream Friday night and it was so scrumptious, we ordered it again!  When the waiter brought the brownies in, I noticed it was the same guy that served us the night before.  So, in order to “cover my tracks” I said, “Oh, these look good…I can’t wait to try them.”  He suspected nothing.

Here are a couple of pictures of us all at the yummy restaurant…

(Can you stand to read one more complaint?  Oh, just indulge me…I’ll keep it short…)

7. Our flight from Cincinnati to SLC was delayed for 30 minutes while we sat on the airplane.

There – I’m done.  And there ya have it – forgotten items, turbulence, stubbed toe, cancelled flight, delays and all.  However in true “Polyanna” fashion, I’d like to focus on the brownie.  That warm, double chocolate brownie.

Ya.  Now I feel better.

Blog to you soon,

Hilary

Some of you might know that the title of this blog comes from the musical Oliver.  I was in that play when I was about 11 – I was an orphan.  Pretty much the best one.  None of the other orphan-actors could hold a candle.  I was totally believeable.  Diving into character, I only ate half of my sandwich so I would be hungry when we performed, “Food, Glorious Food!” 

Just kidding.  I ate the whole sandwich.  That is why they call it “acting.”

I am totally rambling.  None of this has anything to do with the blog subject today.  (However, it does give you some insight into how my mind works…)

I love food.  Always have.  Always will.  I also enjoy cooking which is why I took a “crepe making” class.  And that is where it all began.

Or did it begin when I ate the most divine crepe I’ve ever had at the Sun Valley Lodge last fall?

Now that I think about it, it might have begun when I received a crepe maker for Christmas last year.

I can’t clearly remember – crepe details are blurring together.  But I can tell you this for sure…last night I recreated that divine Sun Valley crepe within the walls of my own home.  My home has never been happier.  If you only ever try one other recipe in your life, try this.

Dessert Crepes

4 eggs

2 c. flour

2 T. sugar

1 c. milk

1/4 c. water

1 T. melted butter

1 t. vanilla flavoring

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.  Makes about 12-15 crepes.

We filled the crepes with mixed berries (of the straw, blue, black and rasp variety), vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and topped the crepe with a cream sauce that is straight from Heaven.  (I only filled my crepe with the berries and then topped it with the cream sauce – that was how Sun Valley did it.)  But you can fill the crepes with ANYTHING you want…that’s edible.  Don’t be throwing in a shoelace or something.

Cream Sauce

2 c. heavy whipping cream

1/2 c sugar

Bring cream and sugar to a boil.  Whisk 4 egg yolks and add a little of the hot cream sauce to the yolks, then add the yolk mixture to the cream sauce.  Add 1 t. coconut flavoring and bring back to a boil and then immediately remove from heat.  Make sure you whisk the whole time.

Try this.  You and your family will thank me.  You might want to kiss me.  But no.

Please, Please PLEASE let there be crepes in Heaven.  Otherwise I’m going to have to think twice about going.

Blog to you soon,

Hilary

In February, I attended the first Time Out for Women of 2010.  This was my very first time in eight years to attend a TOFW without performing!  I just got to soak in all the wonderful messages about “Infinite Hope” – the theme for this year.  By the end of the day, after hearing messages that changed how I think and feel, I knew I had to write a song about hope! 

There were two concepts taught that day that have stuck with me.  You know how we are all told at one point or another not to “get our hopes up?”  Amanda Dickson, one of the presenters and a local radio host/announcer made a case for just the opposite approach.  Why not get our hopes up?  What is so bad about getting our hopes up?  “What is the worst that can happen?” she asked.  Okay, so maybe we’ll be disappointed – but what is so bad about that?  She talked about how sometimes our hopes are exceeded and that sometimes disappointments leads us to things that are better. 

The second concept that has stayed in my heart is that our only true hope should be in Jesus Christ.  Our hopes can’t be in a mortal person – that is too high of an expectation to place on someone – our hope must be in Christ.  As I have put that principle to play in the last couple of months, I have found my heart softened in my relationships and drawn closer to the Savior.

So with those and many other thoughts about hope on my mind, I wrote “Hope on the Horizon.”  I thought you might like to hear it – hot off the press, right out of the oven.  (Kind of makes it sound like a Krispy Kreme…If there was a Krispy Kreme in front of me right now, I’d eat it in two bites.  Maybe three.) 

If I was nice, I’d let you hear the first verse and chorus.  If I was really nice I’d even post through the second verse and chorus.  But since I’m super, duper, really majorly, totally nice…I’m posting the entire song.

Yep.

The whole song. 

Just “click” below and you can listen. 

Hope on the Horizon

If you love it and want it on your iPod for your very own…then you can download it by clicking here.

Blog to you soon!

Hilary

I’ve missed YOU!   You may have noticed that I typically try to blog on Monday’s. 

Or,

You may not have noticed when I blog at all! 

Either way,

I haven’t blogged for the past two Monday’s and I’ve really missed you!  (Oh, I already said that.)   We have so much to talk about! 

• I would love to hear what you loved about General Conference!  What did you learn?  What inspiration did you receive?  (That you feel comfortable sharing, of course!) 
• I promised to put a song on my blog for you to hear.  (I will do that next week because I need Tim’s help and we spent the morning at the doctor’s office because he has a kidney stone.  OUWEE!)
• I recorded a brand new song last Monday called “Hope on the Horizon” and I’m dying for you to hear it, so I want to post that too.  (When our home is kidney stone free I’ll post it.)
• We went to Disneyland a couple weeks ago!

See?  We’ve really missed each other!  I hardly know where to begin…perhpas, Disneyland.

We didn’t just play, play, play all day – we were very productive whilst in Disneyland.   We bought a new car for McKenzie…she’s almost 16.  (She can probably tell you how many more days, hours and minutes until her birthday.  She can’t wait to get her driver’s license!  The guys are going to go crazy when they see her pull up in this.)

Tim met up with some of his old college buddies…

We found a  nanny for the three younger children.  He had very good references and came highly recommended.

Tim and I found new friends.  They seem like a lovely couple and we can’t wait to go to dinner with them sometime…

Marley threw a five-year-old temper tantrum…but we put a quick end to it.  She responded very nicely to this form of discipline.

On Wednesday, we went to Univeral Studios.  Our favorite ride was “Jurassic Park.”  We rode it five times.  The brave members of the family did not wear ponchos.  The whimps did.

We spent a wonderful, warm day at Newport Beach…(“Hey if it was so “warm”, then why do you have a jacket on?”  Can you say…whimp?)  The girls loved collecting sea shells and even found sand dollars!

“Voted the Best Day at Disneyland by the Weeks Family…” – The day we spent with our dear friend Stacey Mohan!!

We had a blast – it was the perfect vacation! 

Blog to you soon,

Hilary