This morning my Little Brother and I had the chance to meet Big Buddha from Fox 13 news. We are promoting the big Bowl For Kids’ Sake fundraiser for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah organization and Big Buddha came to do some promo clips that was going to be aired on the afternoon news. The Bowl for Kid’s Sake is the biggest fundraiser of the year and we are hoping to bring in $120,000.00 dollars during the bowling events. All this money goes directly to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah and helps in matching Little Brothers and Little Sisters with mentors here in Utah.

I have loved being a Big Brother, I think I get more out of the relationship then my Little Brother does.  It is very easy to become a Big Brother or Big Sister and there are hundreds of young children that are currently waiting to be matched here in Utah. If you don’t have the time to become a Big Brother or Big Sister and mentor a child here in Utah, then you can donate to the Bowl For Kids’ Sake. Every $5.00, $10.00 or $20.00 helps to match a child with a mentor.

It chops, It dices, It slices…..

Yeah if you come over to do some cooking at my house you no longer have to do the tedious work of chopping onions by hand. At our last cooking lesson, Ashlee had to chop the onions by hand. We made an excellent and quick 4 cheese pasta. I will include the recipe at the end of this post. She did a fantastic job of chopping the onions, but didn’t like it one bit. She was appalled that I did not have a handy dandy chopper do-dad gadget thing-a-ma-bob. Today when I met her for lunch she surprised me with a the all-in-one handy dandy chopper thingy. Of course as soon as I got home I had to test it out. I didn’t have any onions to chop tonight, so it was cheese or strawberries. I thought the chopped up strawberries would go great with some granola and yogurt so I began to chop away. It worked out great. Thanks Ash.

Baked Four Cheese Pasta 

This quick pasta dish is especially easy - you don’t need to boil a large pot of water, since the pasta is cooked right in the sauce.

Serves 4 people

Ingredients:

• 4 slices of bacon - chopped fine (I LOVE bacon so I always add a whole thing of bacon)
• 1 small onion - chopped fine
• 2 garlic cloves - minced
• 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 pound penne or ziti pasta (about 4 cups)
• Table Salt
• 1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup frozen peas
• Ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Italian four-cheese blend pre packaged (I prefer to shred my own Italian cheese such as: Fontina, Mozzarella, Provolone, Gorgonzola, Pecorino Romano, Grana Padano)

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees.
2. Cook bacon, onion and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until onion is softened. (about 5-7 minutes) (I use a Staub cookware, that way it can go directly into the oven)
3. Add cream, broth, pasta and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Cover and bring to a boil
4. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring frequently, until pasta is tender. (about 15 minutes)
5. Remove from heat, stir in Parmesan and frozen peas. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Transfer to a 2-quart casserole dish and mix in a 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese.
7. Sprinkle the remaining  1 cup of shredded cheese on the top of the pasta.
8. Bake until the cheese is melted and spotty brown (about 7 minutes)

I love the four distinct seasons we have in Utah. I am a creature of change. I love how each season brings on change. I long for the snow each winter but as we slowly moving into spring I am excited by the change from blah to beautiful. I love the fresh new crocuses that start to push through the dirty ground hinting as to what is to come.

I am an official Big Brother with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah Program. I met my Little Brother on Tuesday afternoon. My Little Brother is 9 years old and is currently living with his aunt and uncle. His mother is currently in prison and he was living with his grandma until last week when The Division of Child and Family Services had to take him out of his grandma’s house due to the accidental overdose of his one year old brother.

As I walked into his house, I met a very timid and shy young boy that hid in the kitchen for the first 10 minutes that I was there with the representative from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah. He finally ventured out of the kitchen and sat in a chair with his legs all balled up and hid behind a piece of paper while I talked with his aunt and signed the necessary agency paperwork. I tried to make small talk with my Little Brother about how school was today, what his favorite color was, how old he was, what he liked to do for fun…etc. All I got back from him was a shaking of the head indicating to me that he wasn’t interested in sharing such details with a stranger. Then I hit the nail on the head and asked the question that lifted his head and animated him. I nonchalantly asked him what his favorite T.V. show was. He suddenly became very excited and started talking about a cartoon called Ben10. At first I couldn’t even understand what he called the show. It sounded like some weird alien cartoon with an unrecognizable name. He suddenly stood up and started showing showing me exactly how the first episode of Ben10 played out. He was making the sound effects and actions to the whole episode.

A tradition at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah is to take a picture of the Big Brother and Little Brother together, the day that they are matched. My Little Brother did not like this idea and did not want to stand next to me to have our picture taken. He clung to his aunt and so I sat down on the floor with him and took our first picture of us together. I really hope to help him with his confidence.

It is recommended that you either plan your first activity together very soon or even possibly do something together the same day that you meet your match. I thought it might be a good idea to go grab a quick ice cream. This would allow us some one-on-one time and the chance to ask a few questions without everyone else around. When I asked my Little Brother if he would like to go grab an ice cream he slumped under the coffee table in the living room and began to cry. Man did I feel bad about making him cry already. His aunt reassured him that everything would be ok but he did not want to go with me and so I let the idea slip away and suggested that maybe we just hang out at his house for a little bit. He ran downstairs to get some Ben10 card game for us to play and his aunt explained that my Little Brother was worried about who I really was. He was afraid I was with another agency that was going to take him away. He was afraid that when I asked him to grab an ice cream with me, that it meant that I was going to take him from his Aunt and not return him. That I was tricking him into leaving and he wouldn’t come back here. I can not imagine the life that this 9 year-old has already gone through in his young life, but I am very excited to now become a part of it. I realize I have a lot of work ahead of me to gain his trust and confidence. I really hope that our relationship will last a very long time, like the relationship of my friend Ryan and his Little Brother.

We ended up playing the card game Ben10. My Little Brother told me about each of the characters on the deck of cards and what their special ability was and how they fit in the episodes of Ben10. Of course he won and was very excited about that. He then had to show me his two favorite transformers and then he wanted to build some aliens out of Logos with me. It was good to play around a little with his Legos and it gave us a chance to talk about his favorite color, which is green. I hate the color green. I was hoping he liked the color BLUE!!! I asked him what he wanted to do for our next event and he put his head down and said, "I don’t know…I don’t care…" After tinkering with a few more Legos he looked up at me and shyly asked if I would take him to see a shark. So we are off to see the Living Planet Aquarium on Saturday morning. I really hope he will actually leave the house with me and won’t think I am trying to kidnap him again. As I was leaving he asked me if he could give me a special Alien Lego gift he had just created. He was very excited to give me his little Alien Creature he had just created. He showed me how he took off his favorite green Lego from his spaceship he had created earlier and had put it on my Alien Creature. He explained where the eyes where and that the Alien had a hat on. He said it was a special alien and didn’t have feet but instead used boosters to get around. I was very thankful for the gift and my Little Brothers Alien Creature now sits on my desk at work.

Today I headed up to Alta Ski Resort early for some wonderful winter skiing. I got up there just as the lift lines were opening. My weekends have been so busy this year that I haven’t had the chance to get up and do any skiing, so I was very excited I had the morning free to carve through some powder. There was a decent storm on Friday and I knew that most of the great powder would be taken, but I was lucky enough to find a few runs among the trees. I am not a fanatic skier. I just like going up to the top of the mountain and working my down. I don’t mind skiing alone, I find it to be very relaxing. I turn my iPod on in my helmet and drift off into my own world. Everything felt so comfortable today. It wasn’t the best skiing day I have had, but it was well worth getting out of bed this morning to enjoy some solitude on the slopes. The wind did blow on the very top of the mountain. I actually found it to be very beautiful. As I rode up on the chair lift as I approached the top of the mountain, I could see drifts of snow blowing of the peaks, creating the most incredible columns of drifting snow. The sun was hid behind clouds all day and it eventually started to lightly snow. I enjoyed the whole day to myself.

I like to think that I am a very social person. I love being among friends and don’t have a problem creating conversations with strangers, but at times I really like to be alone. Today  was one of that days and I was glad to be skiing alone on that mountain. I created paths through the snow to the likes of Michael Buble and U2 as my thoughts raced through my head. It was a very therapeutic day and allowed me to solve some of the little problems in life that we all must deal with from time to time.

I then spent the afternoon being lazy, chilling in my favorite chair while watching a movie and cuddling up with Maddie. I really like days like this where I can focus on what I want to do, even if it really is nothing at all. I need my alone time, but damn I am boring and now look forward to hanging out with my friends now.