My favorite recipe - Meet Amanda Rich, Rosalia

When she was a child, Amanda Rich’s grandmother always told her she had an ‘old soul’. She didn’t know what that meant at the time, but has been told the same thing throughout her life, especially by the seniors in her life.

“I’ve always loved seniors,” she said. As a youth, she would rather hang out with her grandmother than her peers. “I think seniors are a diamond in the rough.”

Amanda grew up in Montana where she attended Carroll College for a degree in social work. An advisor recommended she continue her social work studies at Eastern Washington University. So Amanda packed up her young son and filled the car with his portable crib and their clothes and made the move to eastern Washington.

After moving, Amanda married and came to Rosalia to visit her in-laws. It was there she saw a real sunrise. Where she had grown up in Montana was so crowded with mountains she had never really seen the sunrise or set before.

“I moved here because I fell in love with the sunset and sunrise,” she said. Amanda finished her schooling, giving birth to twins three weeks before she graduated. Amanda later gave birth to a daughter, Mattilyn. Her marriage ended shortly afterward.

As soon as Mattilyn turned one year old and could go to day care, Amanda applied at the Council on Aging and Human Services in Colfax. During her social work studies she had specialized in children and senior work and found she enjoyed working the most with the seniors.

“I wanted a job here (at Council on Aging) so bad,” she recalled. She did not receive the job right away and went to work at a bank for a few months until the COA called and asked her to come work.

Four years ago she started as a case worker, covering the northern part of the county for COA. Her main responsibility was to help seniors on Medicaid stay in their homes as long as able. That included a gambit of responsibilities to make that possible.

Now Amanda is also a program coordinator with a variety of programs that help seniors and caregivers.

“Basically, now I get to be a social worker,” she said. “I get to be creative.”

Several of the programs focus on helping the caregivers, who are usually seniors themselves. These programs offer respite, support and other services as needed for caregivers in the hope of not only helping them provide better care, but keeping them from following their charge to a care facility because their own health and well being has suffered. Amanda noted that the bottom line for the state encouraging these programs is the state saves money by keeping seniors in their homes instead of care facilities.

She recently became trained in the Living Healthy with a Chronic Disease program which focuses more on the care receiver, giving them tools to better their quality of life. These tools include communication with medical providers, pain and fatigue management, positive thinking and dealing with emotions.

Amanda also is the coordinator of the Kinship program which provides respite and special condition funds for grandparents and other relatives more than 55 years of age caring for a child.

As much as she loves working with seniors, when Amanda punches out of work, her main concern is her family. Three years ago she met Paul Nesbitt on MySpace as a friend. Their relationship grew from there and between the two of them they have seven children: Zach, 20; Josie, 15; J.R., 14; Jaydee, 13; David and Braeden, 8, and Mattilyn, 6.

The family enjoys boating and being outdoors, especially camping.

“We love camping at Boyer,” Amanda noted. By now they know everyone who works at Boyer where they often tent camp, boat and enjoy the dunes.

Amanda and Paul both have a love for old houses and with Paul being in construction, they spend a lot of time remodeling their house. Amanda has a picture of the house from the early 1900s and they are trying to restore the house to that condition as much as possible to keep its character. They also want to restore the interior as much as possible from the 1970s remodel, replacing wrought iron to original pillars, with a few modern updates such as an indoor bathroom.

Amanda and Paul are both members of Rosalia Association for Community Enrichment. Paul is the president of group which recently started GED classes.

The group also hosts a community dance, the Beauty and the Beast dance in December. The name means those participating can come in formal wear or not, so everyone is included.

“It’s hard to get a new thing going in these small communities,” Amanda noted, but that doesn’t keep her from trying.

Recipes:

Stress Relief Kit

1 bag of M&Ms

At the first sign of stress, eat the RED tablet. Eat an Orange one if anxiety does not ease quickly. If frustration has set in, eat a GREEN one. If you feel a head-ache coming on, eat a YELLOW one. For depression, eat a BLUE one. If you feel stuck, eat a BROWN one. If all symptoms occur at once, eat the WHOLE BAG!

Chicken Casserole

4 chicken breasts, chopped

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup (or another cream of mushroom)

1 to 2 cups salsa

1/2 can olives

Chips and cheese as desired

Mix chicken, soups, salsa and olives and some cheese if desired. Place in large dish. Crush chips, cover casserole and push down. Add cheese on top. Bake for one hour at 325 degrees.

Creamed Moose Turds

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup cool whip

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp. almond extract

3/4 cup brown sugar

Stir or mix with mixture until creamy.

Stir in one bag of big, fat, juicy red grapes.