Katrina's Backyard

Perhaps the Perfect Weekend, Except for the Near Death Experiance

2010-10-26T17:59:00.015+03:30

I had a fantastic weekend, and a terrifying weekend at the same time. I’ll tell you about the fantastic part first. This post is long, so maybe you will want to read only the happy part at the beginning, and skip the scary stressful part.

This weekend we went to Goblin Valley to run the Goblin Valley Ultra Marathon. Brent and I were both running the 10K. We took his kids Drew and Christy, and my son Travis down with us for a camping trip too. It was such a fun family vacation! (Except for the terrifying part that I will tell you about later.) We went with Sondra and Wally and their family. Our kids had such a fun time, they said we should make this a yearly family tradition.

A few weeks ago I told Sondra I was not even ready for this race. I was signed up for the 10K. There was no 5K. I felt like I was ready for a 5K, but I have not been running enough lately to be prepared for a 10K. Sondra told me not to worry too much about it. She said to just do the best I can. And to not worry because there is no way I would be the last one to finish. Well she was wrong. I was the last runner in the 10K to cross the finish line! You’d think I’d feel real bad about that. But I really don’t. I had a blast running this race! And I won an award! I won the DLF plaque. DLF is Dead Last Finisher. The plaque reads: “Dead Last Finish is greater than Did Not Finish which greatly trumps Did Not Start.” I’m quite proud of my plaque.

Brent and I were late getting to the finish line by about 4 or 5 minutes. The other racers had already left. So I did have that going against me, but that is not the reason I was dead last. I simply was not ready for this race. It was hard. I was only ready for half of it. I’m not sure the altitude difference from my home, and at Goblin Valley, but it felt higher. Plus this was mostly a trail run, and the trails were sandy, a bit hilly, and in some areas, muddy sand. But the scenery was beautiful! I took a few pictures with my cell phone on the run. I don’t think that helped my time either. And it was fun to run through the goblin formations. I also found one benefit I really liked about being the last runner... Nobody was running next to me. I could sing with my MP3 player out loud as I ran. And nobody cared if I sounded funny singing Lady Gaga as I ran. I had so much fun; it was a good reminder of why I love to run so much.

By the way, Brent did wonderfully! Like I said, we started late. I am not sure of the results yet. But he passed many people and didn’t do too badly at all! He is strong and fast, and looks good running too.

Sondra ran the 25K! She is so tough! She also finished something like 9^th overall! Wow. She is my running hero. Next year Brent and I want to run this race again. And our kids may run it with us. My goal is to be ready to do the 25K by then. And next year I plan on NOT winning the DLF plaque.

___________________________

Now to tell you about the scary part.

After the race, we wanted to take our family on a hike. We decided to do the Bell Canyon-Little Wild Horse Canyon loop. They are slot canyons. I had checked the weather to see about rain, because rain can be so dangerous in that area. The report I had read the day before said there would be a 30% chance of rain in the morning. And clear in the afternoon. We hadn’t seen any rain all day long. By about 2:00 when we were going on the hike, the sky was blue with some fluffy white clouds. It was beautiful hiking weather! Or so I thought.

The first half of the hike through Bell Canyon was so fun! Probably one of the most fun times I have ever had. We climbed on rocks and just had a blast. I have pictures that show blue sky, with the white fluffy clouds. You’ll have to check out the pictures we took of the first half of the trip as soon as I post them on Facebook.

Obviously we didn’t take pictures during the last half. We were trying to outrun a possible flash flood. When we started the last half of the hike through Little Wild Horse, it was starting to get gray behind us. There were some dark clouds behind us, going the other way. After a prayer, we decided to go on through. When we were in the canyon, we started to feel a few rain drops, and I heard thunder every now and then. After a while, it started to shower. Thankfully it was not a downpour, or we might not be here today. But a shower in a slot canyon can be deadly too.

We were already a good ways into the canyon. I could no longer enjoy our hike. We had to encourage our kids to go faster. Some laughed at us, and thought we were being silly. Then I started to see little drizzles of water streaming down the sides of the cliffs, making little foamy puddles on the canyon floor. I was getting very afraid by then. So I had the kids start to run. We needed to get out of the canyon as fast as we could. As we went on, water started coming down the sides of the cliffs in little water falls. By now we were all terrified. The water at the bottom of the canyon was getting deeper. That was not the scariest part. I was so terrified a big wall of water was just behind us. I was listening for a rumbling sound of a flash, and wondering with every step, how I could save the kids with us in a moment’s notice. We were looking for high ground, and there was none we could reach. The cliff walls were so high. We just had to try to hurry through as fast as we could. We had children who could not run that well in the water. I was so scared I was going to see my son die. And my sweet step children too, and my sweet husband, and Sondra and her whole family, who I love so much. So many people that I love were in terrible danger. There was another young man with us. Shane, who is friends with Sondra and Wally. He stayed towards the back of everyone, although I know he could have outrun any of us out. He watched for the flash for us. I was afraid of seeing a good young man die, trying to help out me and my family.

Part of the reason I was so afraid was because of a dream I had had about a year ago. It was one of those vivid scary dreams that you remember forever. In my dream I was hiking with Sondra and her family, and my son Travis, and some children I didn’t know. The dream had a flash flood, and many of the people I loved were washed away. I couldn’t find them. It was heartbreaking. I had that dream, or variations of it all that night. So hiking this watery slot canyon, this dream felt to me like a premonition. I was so sick and terrified that I was going to see all these people that I love being washed away in a violent 30 foot wall of water. I can tell you, I have never pleaded so hard with my Father in Heaven before. I do know He helped us, and got us through that long narrow canyon safely.

Thinking back, this was so beautiful. It is a breathtaking canyon. And the water should add to the beauty, if seen from a safe place. But I couldn’t enjoy the beauty at all. It was too terrifying thinking of the very real possibility of a huge wall of water coming after us! A few people have mentioned to me that it was cool to see some of the sights we saw in that canyon. I agree it was beautiful, and something most people don’t get to see firsthand. But when I picture them, I get sick to my stomach. This was the most scared I have ever been in my life. The last few nights I have not been able to get these pictures of the red cliffs on both sides of us, with the water running down the sides. And my family and loved ones there, running as best as they could in puddles up to their knees, and sometimes higher, Running to get out of the long- long- never ending canyon. It was a nightmare.

Obviously we all made it out. I know it was very hard on everyone, especially some of the kids. They were cold and terrified of drowning, and not used to running for so long, especially through water and climbing over rocks. After a big long section of the slot canyon, finally came to an opening. I don’t really know how long it took. But I think it an hour is a pretty good guess, maybe even longer. We were finally able to climb to higher ground. We prayed and thanked our Father in Heaven for keeping us safe. I broke down, and cried harder than I ever cry. And we waited. We were cold. The rain was actually stopped by then. But we waited for the running water coming down the canyon walls to slow down. We had a ways to go still through more slot canyon to get to camp. It was shorter. But we still did not feel safe. Finally we made it to the trail head and got out of the riverbed as soon as we could. There was a girl hiker that was going to go up that canyon as we were coming out. We told her about our experience. Thankfully she decided not to go much further into the slot canyon. We must have been a site. We were completely soaked.

This link tells about the area. Little Wild Horse and Bell Canyon Be sure to click the spot at the bottom of the page that tells about a firsthand experience of a flash flood in that canyon. It is terrifying. And shows just how dangerous and powerful a flash flood in that very canyon can be. The next morning, as we were leaving, the sky was overcast and very grey. And the parking lot was full of hiker’s cars. The canyon must have been full of hikers. I was afraid for them. The sky looked even worse than it had for us the day before.

This is not one of my proudest moments. I am almost embarrassed to have people read this. But maybe it is a good lesson to share. I have learned a hard lesson a very hard way. And I feel so bad I jeopardized some very important people in my life. I do want to hike this canyon again. But I will make sure there is NO chance of rain at all for the whole week. It is well after midnight now as I type this. I am hoping that by writing some of this down, I can get some of it out of my head. So I can finally sleep without being so scared and upset, and seeing my family in danger every time I close my eyes.

I'm Back! (almost)

2010-10-14T19:52:00.001+03:30

Hi Everyone, I've been completely neglecting my blog for a very long time now. I have been going through so many changes in my life, I just had to take a break for a while, while I worked on putting my life back together. I didn't feel like writing or sharing feelings for a while. In fact, I was tempted to delete this whole blog a couple of times. So many things have changed in my life. I also considered just starting over on a new blog. But in the end I decided to just keep this one just as it is, and start where I am now.

I keep track of most of you on Facebook, which I think is nice. But it really isn't set up for writing any more than a few sentences or so. It's hard to write with any depth that way, not that my writing is really all that deep anyway. But I did enjoy blogging before, so I think I am ready to come back.

Trying Something New

2009-08-30T06:28:00.021+04:30

In my opinion, there is nothing tastier than Mexican food. And I really love the authentic kind. A while back Kayla's boyfriend's mom sent us over a few homemade tamales. They were so delicious I decided I would learn how to make them. So I bought this cookbook, Tamales 101. I have not actually made the tamales yet, but one day I will! (When I can buy a steamer, and I get a tad more brave.)There are the most wonderful recipes for sauces in this book. I tried one called Red Pork Chili Sauce.I think it turned out fabulous! And my family really liked it. My granddaughter Kayleeann said it was good, she ate quite a bit of it on chips. And my grandson Gabriel said "I like this kind of food". Here is a picture of a small amount of the finished sauce:

Here is the recipe, in case you want to try it. It makes a whole bunch. When I made it, I only made half of a batch. It was enough to feed about 15 people for dinner, with some left over to freeze for another big dinner! Next time I will make the whole batch and I will freeze a lot of it and have enough for 6 months or more!

Red Pork Chili Sauce
10 ancho (dried poblano) chilies
4 dried California chiles
4 onions, quartered
8 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
3 teaspoons ground cumin
2 to 4 cups pork, chicken, or vegetable stock
1 (28-ounce) can tomato puree or crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons sugar, plus more to taste
1 tablespoon salt, plus more to taste

Seed the chilies, rinse, and set aside. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Remove the water from the heat and add the chilies, pushing them down with a spoon so they are fully submerged. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, boil the onions for 25 minutes, until soft.

Remove the soaked chilies from the water, reserving 2 cups of the liquid. In a food processor, blend the chilies, onions, and garlic. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil. Stir in the cumin into the hot oil, being careful not to burn the cumin. Add the chile mixture and simmer for 3 minutes. Add 1 cup of stock, 1 cup of the reserved liquid, and the tomatoes. Add just enough additional stock and reserved liquid to make saucy. Add the sugar and salt and cook for 10 miutes longer, stiring occasionally, until the sauce is the consistency of a thin gravy. Taste and add additional salt and sugar if needed. Set aside to cool. Store I an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days or in the freezer for 2 to 3 months.
Makes 10 cups.
-----------------------------------------

Don't let the unfamiliar chili's in the recipe scare you off. They are available at grocery stores. I bought them at Harmons. Here is a picture of the chilis.They are on a dinner plate, so you can tell the size of them. The red dried ones are the California chilies. I bought them in the Mexican isle of the grocery store. There was a fairly large bag of them for about 4 bucks. I have enough of them to last a very long time now. The green ones are the Pablano chilies. If they were dried they would be called Ancho chilies. I had a heck of a time finding them in the store at first. Then I asked the produce guy where they were. He told me that they are called Pasilla chilies. Since then, I have learned that here in the western US, the chies are incorrectly called Pasilla chilies.

Sorry I didn't take a picture of the food we ate the sauce on. We were too busy eating to think of that. But it is great on homemade tacos. And it would be good on enchiladas or on any kind of meat. It's good on chips too.

I roasted the Pablano chilies before I used them. Roasting is really easy. If you have never roasted a pepper, you should try it. It makes them taste so much better,and you wouldn''t believe how easy it is! Just stick them on a cooking sheet and stick them in the oven. Roast them under the broiler. Turn every few minutes till the pepper is blackened over much of it. Take the pepper out and put it in a bowl with plastic wrap over it. Let it steam and sweat. After a few minutes, the skin peels off pretty easily.

When I made this sauce, I didn't use most the seeds from the peppers. I was afraid it would be too hot and I wanted my grandkids to enjoy it too. So the sauce was not very hot. I'd say it was only a little hotter than mild. Next time I will use more seeds and make it hotter.

When you cut up chilies, you should use plastic gloves, or just keep plastic wrap between the pepper and your skin. The oils of the pepper do burn skin. You may not know it is being burned till the next day. And for sure, don't rub your eyes!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication

2009-08-24T22:14:00.006+04:30

What a special day this last Friday was. I had the opportunity to go to a dedication session of the new Oquirrh Mountian Temple with my son Travis. We were able attend one of the sessions in the temple! It was so beautiful. And so happy and peaceful. We listened to some speakers who talked on the on the special blessings we have of having temples. And how we should recommit ourselves to go to the temples often. Make it a regular habit to go as often as we can, even if it requires sacrifices of some of our free time. We are so blessed to have so many beautiful temples so close to us. There was of course more talked about, but that is what stuck in my head. When we were singing "The Spirit of God" was a very special moment for me. I couldn't help but to feel the Spirit very strongly.

Here is a Nice Article on the temple dedication that I really enjoyed.

Farmer's Market Dinner

2009-08-20T02:29:00.005+04:30

The Farmer's Market is now open on Tuesday evening. So this last Tuesday Bryan and I stopped by the farmers market on the way home from work. The veggies and fruit there were all just beautiful! So much better than what is available at the grocery store. And it was all cheaper than the grocery store too. So we will probably be stopping by the farmers market after work on Tuesdays more often.

We bought some beautiful eggplants, various squashes, green peppers and Anaheim peppers, two different kinds of cucumbers; one Japanese and one lemon cucumber and some big garden fresh tomatoes. When we got home we made a wonderful vegetarian dinner. Bryan made some really good eggplant parmesan, and I made a big pan of sauteed squashed with onions and roasted peppers. We had sides of sliced tomatoes with cottage cheeses. It was all so good, nobody missed the meat.

Are You Ready?

2009-08-18T22:08:00.005+04:30

Would you like to find out how prepared you really are for an emergency? I have signed up for a little test of how ready I am. Sometime in September, I'll be getting an email each day for 7 days of a mock disaster of some sort. I will be able to see how prepared I am (or not so prepared) for the real thing without having to actually have the real thing yet. It sounded fun, and like it would be a good learning activity.

Click on the picture above and it will take you to the web page with all the info.

There are other areas on that web site that are great tools to learn about food storage and emergency preparedness. There are "Baby Steps" lists and stuff that help you just get started.

A Quick Max Update

2009-08-15T02:06:00.005+04:30

Max is doing so much better lately! He no longer shakes very much. And he doesn't seem like he feels anymore pain, he doesn't whine. In fact, last week I was carrying in a large armload of laundry to the couch. I couldn't see the floor in front of me and I tripped right over Max. I landed right on top of his back. I expected him to yelp, and be hurt again. But he just looked at me like he was wondering why I was on top of him.

He is getting pretty good at stairs again. And sometimes he runs up them. But other times, as he is running up them, he trips on his own legs and falls sideways a bit. So I do think there is some damage done somehow. But Max doesn't seem to notice at all. Another difference I notice since his injury is he will get on the furniture much less often. He used to bound up onto the couch or recliner very easily. But now if he gets up at all, it is with help from one of us, or he carefully climbs rather than bounding up in a single jump.

Since Max is pretty close to normal now, he is as annoying as ever. He loves to vocalize his opinions to us and to Chloe both inside and outside the house. He likes to say "Hi! I'm here!" to our neighbors over and over. And he likes to stand at the sliding glass door and let us know he wants it opened. I'm pretty sure he thinks he is in charge.

He has discovered a new favorite toy recently. He loves to play with empty water bottles. I think he thinks they are an interactive toy. Since as he plays with them they crackle and make all kinds of noise. Don't even try to drink a water bottle around him. He will jump up and down in front of you expecting you to throw it to him. He is not patient enough to wait for us to finish our drink first. Max and Chloe had a special treat courtsey of my grandson Gabriel a few days ago. Gabriel took them in the back yard and for some reason squirted chocolate syrup all over both of them. He used quite a bit of the bottle before he got caught and stopped. But Max and Chloe didn't seem to mind.

My New Way of Thinking About the Word of Wisdom

2009-08-13T19:06:00.023+04:30

I know I have been slacking on keeping up with my blog. To tell the truth, I have been going through some stuff, and just haven't felt like sharing my feelings. But I am over that now. So, time permitting, I will be doing better at sharing what I think and feel.

In my reading this week I came across some scriptures in 1 Corinthians that helped me to think in a new way with more understanding. I have been doing my best to follow the Word of Wisdom now for the last couple of years. I have given up alcohol. Although I sometimes would like a drink or two, especially in social situations. But all in all, it hasn't been that hard.

Giving up coffee has been a different story. I love coffee. I used to drank it every day. My family still drinks it. We have a fancy coffee maker that grinds the beans automatically every morning, then brews really fresh delicious coffee. Let me tell you, it smells wonderful! I've been doing pretty good about not drinking coffee for the last couple of years. But it has been hard. I crave coffee every day.

Now we all know the health benefits of following the Word of Wisdom, but truthfully, it's not been my biggest reason for following it. I can't see how the little bit of coffee I drank could be all that bad for me. So the reason I have been following the Word of Wisdom, is because I am choosing to be obedient to what the Lord has commanded me. And that is a good enough reason to make it so that most the time I am pretty good about it.

The scriptures for this week are in the sidebar to the right. 1 Corinthians 3: 16-17 and 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20

To me these scriptures give me another very good reason for me to follow the Word of Wisdom, even when I don't really want to. My body is God's sacred creation. It is a temple for my spirit to dwell in. I should respect it as a gift from God and not defile it in any way. It is a precious gift given to me, and there was a price paid for it. That right there is a great reason to take care of it, but it is not only for me. It is also a temple so that the Spirit of God can dwell in me too. I need to keep it clean so the Spirit of God can be with me. Is there anything better than having the Spirit of God dwell with you? I should do whatever I can to take care of it. I should keep it clean, and treat it with the respect it deserves.

So anyway, that is why I am going to renew my resolve to follow the Word of Wisdom to the best of my ability.

Now I can also see how this can apply to keeping your body morally clean. And keeping it well groomed and neat too. And if I think too long on this line, then I also have to start thinking about keeping my body healthy by exercising too. (Ugh..) I suppose I'll keep working on that.

Before and After

2009-07-26T09:10:00.008+04:30

Before
See this nice picture I took of my family when we were out camping this last week. Sharaya and Gavin were sleeping in the cars so they were not in the picture. And I was the one taking the picture, so I was not in the picture either. Travis fixed that for me.

Scroll down to see the After picture...

After
It just cracks me up every time I look at this picture! I should kick Travis' but, but I laugh too much every time I see my face.

Freedoms I am Grateful for

2009-07-04T07:11:00.015+04:30

I am grateful for the the freedom I have to travel when and where I want to. I am grateful for the freedom I have to vote, and let my voice be heard. I am grateful for the freedom I have to raise my family in what must be the greatest country in the world. I am grateful for the freedom to play with my grandchildren. And take them camping! I am grateful for the freedom to write whatever I want on my blog!

I am very grateful for all the freedoms I enjoy. I have the freedom to choose. I can choose how I want to live, and the kind of person I want to be. I can choose to follow Christ and his teachings. I can choose to live the gospel. I can choose to obey God of my own free will, and abide by His covenants, so I can have his Spirit with me to guide and direct me.

Here is a very nice little video clip where people from around the world reflect on the freedoms they enjoy.
The Freedom To...

Happy Independence Day

My Glamorous Job

2009-07-02T20:45:00.007+04:30

I know the picture isn’t very clear. I took it with my cell phone. This is a circuit board out of one of the cameras the reporters use here at work. It has some problems I am trying to fix. One of the problems is an IC s has about 6 legs that lifted. The legs are so tiny and close together that I have a heck of a time re-soldering them down. This picture doesn’t really show how small everything is. But all the components on the board are surface mounted. I don’t have the proper equipment to do surface mount soldering. I sure wish I did. I use my smallest tip, and it is still too big.

Another problem is seeing the tiny things clearly. The leads on the ICs are less than a millimeter apart. My eyes just don’t go that small. So I have been trying to repair this board wearing 2 pairs of reading glasses at once, plus using my light that has a magnifying glass in the center at the same time. It is still not good enough, partly because I have to use one hand to hold the magnifying glass where I need it, and that only leaves one hand for soldering. It just wasn’t working.

I finally gave up and borrowed a co-workers weird glasses thing that straps to your head. They sure look silly! But at least I could see fairly well, and I still had my hands free. Besides, I’m sure I looked silly wearing 2 pairs of reading glasses anyway. One of my co-workers thought I looked pretty funny, so he graciously took a picture of me so I could share it with the world. Don't look too closly at the glass on the head thing. From this angle, it shows my nose extra wide, with a huge nostril. Nice.
If you are interested in seeing how surface mounted soldering is supposed to be done, Here is a link to someone who has the know how and the equipment to do the job right. I wish I had the equipment and the experience he has for this repair. I think my head might hurt less. Surface Mount Soldering

Max Update

2009-06-12T16:14:00.004+04:30

I thought I'd update you on how Max is doing. For just over a week, he has been taking steroids, muscle relaxers, and pain pills. He is better than the first couple of days. But he is not out of the woods yet. He used to be very energetic and was always running around happily. He isn't doing that right now, but he is walking around some. Of course his pain pills could be making him feel a bit lethargic, so maybe that will get better. But he has finished taking his muscle relaxers, and his steroids and he is still hurting. We are still giving him pain pills.

He will not jump up onto our couches like he used to,he just looks at it longingly. He has a very hard time going up and down stairs. He goes down them fairly well, but then going back up is very painful for him. Sometimes as he is walking, his back legs just give out and he stumbles. He is almost always shaking. As he walks around, and even when he is just laying down resting and not moving, he will occasionally yelp. When he does that, he looks back and jumps like he thinks someone or something is hurting him. It's pretty sad. I'm pretty sure he hurts probably most the time, and only yelps when he gets a sharp pain.

Hopefully Max will heal enough to have a nice quality of life. If this is as good as it gets, then I think it will not be good enough. I know that back problems can take a very long time to heal. So we are giving him more time and hopefully he will heal more.

Sad News

2009-06-03T15:44:00.004+04:30

Here is a picture of my Maximus. This picture is a couple of years old. But it shows his active and fun personality. Yesterday we thought that Max was acting sick. He would hardly move, he wouldn't eat, he would whine and shake. It was so sad. We thought he was dying. This morning at about 1:30 am, he started yelping frantically. He was obviously in terrible pain. So Bryan took him to the vet. There is a vet in this area that is open all night long. The vet said that Max's spine is injured somehow. They didn't do an X-ray, because they don't do xrays for this, he needed an MRI. We can't spend the $1500 for an MRI. And another $2000 or more for surgery. So the vet is guessing that Max has a bulging disc, or a broken spine. Basset hounds are prone to spine injury because of their long body. It may heal itself, or if his back is broken, it may get much worse. The vet gave us some pain medications and steroids, and told us what to watch for to know if his spine is getting worse. He has ordered Max to 10 days of bed rest. (Yeah, right). We have to try to keep Chloe (our other basset hound) off of Max. And keep our grandkids off of him too. And just pray that he heals. If he gets worse, and looses the use of his back legs or something, we will have to put him down.

I feel so bad for the sweet little guy. He is the most lovable and fun dog. He wants to be petted and loved all the time. Or he wants to play, or steal your water bottle, or just sit on your lap and get petted. He really is such a part of our family. I wish I could spend the $3000 or $4000 to try to fix him up. But I really can't do that. Please say a prayer or two for Max.

Learning the Hard Way--Teaching by the Spirit

2009-05-22T23:11:00.015+04:30

Look who is sitting up! Isn't he just the cutest. This is Gavin, my son Lane's son.

I want to say Hi to all of you. I don't usually have a lot to say on my blog that I think would interest many people. And I still don't have anything too interesting. But I thought I'd share a thing or two.

About a month or so ago I got a new calling at church. I am the Education Counselor for Relief Society in our ward. So far I think I will really like this calling because I can learn so much from it. A few days ago I had a "Teacher's Breakfast" for the relief society teachers and music leaders. They are all pretty new to their calling too, and it was going to be a while till we had a teacher training class. So I wanted us to have our own little mini class on Teaching by the Spirit during this breakfast. It was very good for me to study on this topic. I am not a very strong teacher by nature. But I am starting to learn that I am not really the teacher anyway. The Spirit needs to be the teacher. And I was trying to learn how to invite the spirit into my teaching.

In preparing for the lesson, I was using the scriptures as much as I could. The scriptures, being the word of God, is one of the best ways to invite the Spirit of God into our learning and teaching. I was also using a book "Teaching by the Spirit" by Gene R. Cook. In the book, Elder Cook helps us to understand how we can invite the spirit into our learning and teaching. He also tells us we should be flexible enough in our lesson to allow the spirit to talk to us. When I do my lessons, I usually have all the things planned out that I want to say, and I write them all down. I feel like I am not a very good communicator. I get tongue tied and can't express what I am feeling. So I try to rely on the Spirit when I am in the planning stage of my lesson. So when Elder Cook said that we shouldn't write down our talks, but rely on the guidance and promptings of the Spirit, I thought, Now Way! I just can't do that.

So the night before the lesson, I was just going to put together all the thoughts and things I wanted to cover into a final copy for me to print off. I had my rough draft on a jump drive. When I went to open the file, it wouldn't open. I tried multiple computers in my home and had the same problem. I called the IT guy at my work and asked him if he could open it if I emailed it to him. He tried to also, but it wouldn't open. The file was corrupt. So about a month and a half of studying and preparing was not accessible. I thought I'd be frantic. I am not a teacher by nature, like I said before. But I guess it was time for me to really practice what I had been studying on. So I looked up the scriptures again, and wrote the scriptures references on a paper. I taught the lesson the next morning with scriptures, and a very basic outline, and tried to rely on the Spirit as best as I could.

I don't believe my lesson was elegant. There were times I stumbled for words. But I do believe the Spirit was there. There was more involvement from the ladies then I usually get. I used my outline a bit, but I was very flexible with it. I didn't cover some of the things I had planned. And I relied heavily on the scriptures. I do believe what was covered, was what my Heavenly Father wanted covered. I, by myself, am not a good teacher. But when I rely on the Spirit to guide me, I can do anything the Lord wants me to do.

Yummiest Yogurt

2009-05-09T07:38:00.004+04:30

Do you like plain yogurt? A year ago I would have said no. I didn't like it because it was so sharp and tart and not sweet. I only liked yogurt that was sweetened and had fruit. But then I noticed how much sugars some of the yogurts had, so I decided to try making my own to see if I liked the homemade kind any better. I think I now have the perfect recipe. It turns out so thick, creamy and smooth, with just a touch of tartness. It's so good I can eat it plain without sweetening. I enjoy every bite. Here is the recipe that I like the best.

4 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs. powdered milk
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs. Plain Yogurt

Heat the milk to 185 degrees (just about to boil). Then let the milk cool to 110 degrees. Stir in the powdered milk, and the yogurt. Then put into containers and warm in the yogurt maker for 8 hours. That's it! It's super easy.

I'm sure there are ways to do it without the yogurt makers, but I didn't trust a hot pad or a warm oven to get the temperature right. So I just use a yogurt maker. My friend gave me it for Christmas. And I love it! I make yogurt on my weekend, and have enough to last me all week long.

Here a few things I learned by trial and error:

I use 2% milk, because I don't think I should have as much fat as the whole milk has. But I'm sure whole milk would be even more delicious. I don't like to use the fat free or 1% for yogurt.

The first few times I made yogurt I didn't heat the milk to 185 degrees, because I figured the milk I used was the store bought kind that was already homogenized and pasteurized. So I didn't think I needed to do this step. I just heated the milk to 110, and then added the rest of the stuff. But my yogurts kept coming out kind of runny. So I tried it with heating the milk. For some reason, the yogurt comes out really thick when I heat the milk like the recipe says to.

All yogurts use different bacterias for the cultures. I tried a few different kinds. I tried Dannon, and it was pretty good, but a little too tart for my tastes. I also tried Stoneyfield Farms, and it was my second favorite kind. But my most favorite kind to use is the Oikos Plain yogurt. (In fact, I like this kind just to eat too,)

If you have a yogurt maker that is gathering dust, I recommend you give my recipe a try. It's so good, store bought yogurt will never be good enough again.

Any Soldier

2009-04-18T02:13:00.006+04:30

I thought I'd post a little about a really cool website. AnySoldier.com It was started by a soldier that had people he knew send care packages to him addressed to "Any Soldier". Then he would distribute them to soldiers that he knew didn't get mail. Such a cool thing. It was so popular that it has been expanded to include any soldier in harm's way. You, your family, or your church group can put together a care package and send it to a soldier who is serving. Dustin got one not too long ago from a family that didn't even know him. He was quite touched that a family would send him goodies, a letter, and pictures drawn by their children. It is such a cool way to show you care and say thanks for the sacrifice and service to our country!

Book Review

2009-04-13T19:05:00.001+04:30

Can you believe it? I think I am a science fiction fan. A friend at work recommended the book "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. I got the audio book version from the library and Travis started to listen to it. When he was done he said he really wanted me to read it asap, so that we could talk about it. I wasn't all that excited to read it, because it was science fiction, and I'm not too into science fiction. But I had read a few of Card's other books and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I read the first few from his Seventh Son series and one from his Women of Genesis series. So on Travis' recommendation I listened to "Ender's Game". Now I plan on reading at least the next few books in the series. It was a great book. And a great book for teens too.

More Scripture Study for me

2009-04-12T06:41:00.003+04:30

I have a goal to try to study the scriptures more often then I do. As I study then I thought I'd post a "Scripture of the Week" on the sidebar of my blog. Now, knowing me, I might not change the scripture on my blog exactly weekly, although I will try.

There is only one way to happiness and fulfillment and that, of course is through Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful for his mercy and redeeming grace so that forgiveness for my sins is made possible. I'm thankful that he has overcame death and has given me the gift of the resurrection. He descended below all things, so that he could comprehend all things. He took upon him our infirmities and our sorrows, so that he would know how to succor and heal us. He is the only way to eternal life and salvation. I will praise him forever and ever for enduring what he endured for me.

Happy Easter everyone.

MS Walk 2009

2009-04-11T02:09:00.005+04:30

Tomorrow morning me and a few friends from work will be participating in the MS Walk in Salt Lake City. We do this every year. It's a lot of fun, and I know it is for a good cause. MS is a pretty rotten disease that usually hits people in the prime of their lives while they are still trying to raise families and hold down careers. It can be very devastating.

I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to collect very much in donations this year, since the economy is a bit scary and everyone is trying to tighten their belts. But I was able to get together just over $800! Can you believe that? That is nothing to sneeze at! And that was just me. There are others in my team that did similarly. Of course a bunch of that was company match from my employer. Bonneville International (KSL TV) will match our donations for anything over $25.

I asked fellow employees to sponsor me in this walk. I felt a bit funny asking for money, like I always do. But I figure they can say no if they want. And you'd be surprised at how many people thank me for the opportunity to donate. And they thank me for doing the walk too. There are a lot of people passionate about this cause. Most I asked wanted to help. Even the ones that didn't have much to donate would give me their lunch money, or whatever they had in their pockets. That added up pretty quickly too. I work with awesome, generous people in a pretty cool company.

If any of you are feeling like donating, here is a link to where you can donate online. MS Society

Not if But When...

2009-03-28T03:36:00.008+04:30

It's not if there is an earthquake, but when we have an earthquake. Are you as prepared as you think you are? I know I'm not. If you live in earthquake country then here is a book that you should have in your home. It's free. You can download it online with this link here.

Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country

Or if you are like me, and prefer a paper copy, you can pick one up from the Utah Division of Natural resources.

Natural Resources Map & Bookstore
1594 W. North Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84116
Phone (801)537-3320

If you live in Utah, this book might be extra interesting. It shows our area in quite a lot of detail. It shows why we should prepare and how to prepare. You might not be as prepared as you think. So look into it and be sure. You know there will be an earthquake one day. When it happens, what is likely to happen in our area? This book can give you a pretty good idea. It shows a map of how bad liquefaction will be in what areas. (liquefaction = Scary!) There are lots of good pictures too.

This book is made for Utah, but any of you in the neighboring states should read it too. If you live in the west, you are in earthquake country.

One thing I've learned that I never thought of before. When we have a big earthquake, there will be lots of broken glass. And chances are the power will be gone too. What if we need to try to pick our way through our home at night, or worse yet, at night in winter. With the glass all over the floor, a good pair of slippers (or shoes) by your bed, with a flashlight would be very beneficial. But I can't always find mine, especially if it is dark, and the glass from the windows is all by my bed. So put your slippers and flashlight in a plastic bag and tie it to your bed frame by the head of your bed. That way, if the bed is jumping all around during the quake, you can still find your slippers and light.

Another thing, What is hanging above your bed? Is it heavy, or is it glass? I used to have some nice pictures of some flowers. They were framed and had glass over it. Can you say guillotine? Now my wall is bare above my bed. I'll find something less dangerous to put there.

Here is a list of the top 10 earthquake states. It's a bit suprising that Utah or California is not #1!

1. Alaska 1
2. California
3. Hawaii 2
4. Nevada
5. Washington
6. Idaho
7. Wyoming
8. Montana
9. Utah
10. Oregon

Now just because Utah is #9,, don't let your guard down. A big quake here could be quite devastating. So let's do what we can to prepare now while we can.

One last thing. It could be about 3 days before emergancy help gets to us in a very bad earthquake. So get that 72 hour kit put together as part of your preparation.

72 hour kits made easy

2009-03-13T00:25:00.008+03:30

I found this online while I was trying to find info for our Relief Society newsletter. This makes it look easy! I'm totally going to do this, this month!

72 Hour Kit in 10 Steps

Step 1: Find a container
Step 2: Add clothing
Step 3: Add water
Step 4: Plan Meals & buy Food
Step 5: Add Tools & Lighting
Step 6: Add First Aid Supplies
Step 7: Add Shelter & Warmth
Step 8: Add medicine & Vitamins
Step 9: Add Radio & Cash
Step 10: Add other supplies

I have tons of unused backpacks and duffle bags. They will be perfect for this.

I was also thinking of other places that an emergency kit would be good. In your car trunk, at work, and what about your kids school locker. I also want to make sure my kids that have moved out have something like this.

Here are a couple of links to sites on preparedness that looked pretty good.

Food Storage Made Easy
Emergency Preparedness for the PG1st Ward
Other simplified lists from the preceding website(click on the picture to make it big enough to read.)

MS Awareness Week

2009-03-04T17:08:00.007+03:30

This week is Multiple Sclerosis Awareness week. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a lifelong and often disabling disease in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system and destroys the protective sheath (myelin) around the nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. As a result, scar tissue (sclerosis) forms and disrupts messages from the brain to other parts of the body. Ms is a “prime of life” disease-striking people between the ages of 20 and 50. It comes and goes unpredictably, leaving people to wonder, “Will I become paralyzed, blind, or have trouble walking? Will I be able to continue my career?”

Symptoms of MS are
Abnormal fatigue
Tingling and numbness in extremities
Slurred Speech
Blurred or double vision
Poor balance and coordination
Cognitive problems
Spasticity
Vertigo and dizziness
Paralysis

For the past 6 years or so I have participated in the MS walk here in Salt Lake City. This year, a few of my friends and I have decided to do it again. Our team “Walk On” is currently only 4 people strong. But we are committed to make our team bigger and better than ever. We are inviting you to join us. You can also invite your friends and family. The walk is on April 11th at the Gateway Center in Salt Lake City. It is really a lot of fun. I hope you will consider joining our team, or making a donation to support this worthy cause.

This year my goal is to raise $600. (Although I am really shooting for $1000!) My teams goal is to raise $2500. Anything you could give to help reach that goal is most appreciated. All donations are tax deductible. Of every dollar we raise, 83 cents goes towards programs, services and research to help thousands of Utah families statewide and 400,000 families nationwide touched by multiple sclerosis. If you would like more information about the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, how proceeds from Walk MS are used, or the other ways you can get involved, please visit www.curemsutah.org

Click here to visit my team’s page to join us, or help us with a donation, Walk On.

Click here if you would like to find a walk location in your area, Walk MS. Grab a few friends and have some fun!

Serving His Country

2009-02-26T16:44:00.007+03:30

This is my very handsome brother Dustin. He is on his way to Afghanistan to serve his country. He will be apart from his lovely wife and children and I know they will miss him so much. I'll miss him too. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. It must be so hard.

I really love my brother. I'm bursting with pride for him. Maybe "pride" is the wrong word, because I didn't have anything to do with how he turned out to be such a fine man. So why should I be proud. I admire him. He is a good and decent man. He's hard working and smart too. I really wish I was as smart as he is. He is a caring father and husband. He is also pretty funny.
I know he is all grown up now. But I can't help but to think of him as my baby brother. Wasn't he just the cutest little guy? When I was a kid I remember thinking he was the best looking baby I ever saw.

I want my brother to know that I am glad he is part of my family. I will be praying for his safety. And praying for his family's safety too. I will pray for his family and him to be comforted through this difficult and challenging thing they are going through. I love them so much.

Cute x4!

2009-02-21T00:54:00.003+03:30

You can't watch this and be grumpy! It's possibly the cutest thing ever! I saw it on the Today show. It is a youtube video.

6th Picture Meme

2009-02-13T21:36:00.007+03:30

I was tagged by a lady I met online a while ago in the soap making community. She is a very cool lady that has a tea shop in Eagle River, Alaska. She lives in an area where bears play on her kids's playgound, she makes really good herbal things and balms and stuff, and is just a nice and generous lady. Here is her blog.

A meme is "a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation)."

The rules of this meme are:
1.Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures
2.Go to the 6th Folder, then pick the 6th picture in that folder
3.Post that picture on your blog and tell the story that goes along with the picture.
4.Tag 6 other people that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them

So this is my 6th picture in my 6th file. Most of you know my family and I do a lot of camping. Utah has some beautiful camping areas. And it is a fairly affordable vacation. One of our favorite places to go is to camp at Red Canyon and visit Bryce Canyon while we are there. We think Bryce Canyon is so pretty. It is one of the most beautiful places in Utah. In my opinion it is even more beautiful than the Grand Canyon. This picture is nice because it shows my family and our cozy camp fire. But it doesn't show the beautiful scenery all around and all the red rocky cliffs and spires. I think most people who read my blog will know the area because I think we have had some Campbell Reunions there a time or two.

This picture is in the evening when we were just relaxing by the fire. The fire wasn't needed for warmth but it was just a nice way to end the day. This picture was from our trip last year when we took grandson Gabriel and we took our son's best friend Justin. He is a nice kid. And he eats almost anything. Even our dreaded Mustard Mellers, and tin cans. (That's probably another story.) On this trip we took bikes too so we could ride around the camp area. Gabriel got to ride in a buggy behind Bryan's bike. It was a hilly area so it was quite a work out for Bryan. Especially when Gabriel would tell Bryan to go Faster! It was a wonderful trip and I am looking forward to going there again soon.

I am not going to tag individual people this time. I did a tag similar to this a while back but it was for the 2nd picture in the 2nd file. But I will say that if you read this, just consider yourself tagged. But only if you want to do it.

Fireproof

2009-02-11T00:00:00.008+03:30

Bryan's friend gave him this movie, and then kept asking him if we had watched it. I was expecting some kind of action thriller about fires and rescues and stuff like that, with maybe a little on the guys relationship to make it interesting.

This movie is not like any regular movie. It was a movie about marriage. I recommend anyone who is married, or is going to be married to see this movie. It is a reminder that marriage is a covenant to be there for better and for worse. It is a covenant between the married couple and God. And it shows how to learn to love your spouse, even if they might not deserve the love sometimes. It shows how to love like Christ loves us. And the roll He should play in our marriage. I am not very good at describing things. There's more to this movie than that. So just trust me, and see the movie! It teaches what true married love is, and it is so different than what most other media shows it as.

I am usually pretty good at not crying during movies. I don't think I even cried when I watched Titanic or any other tear-jerker movie. But this movie really hits home, at least it did for me. And I think it will for most people too.

Since I have watched this, I've learned that almost all of the actors were not actors, but members of the church organization that made this movie. I also learned that Kirk Cameron (remember him from Growing Pains many years ago) will not kiss any woman other than his real life wife in his acting career. I think that is so sweet. And it shows how important marriage is to him. There was a kiss scene in this movie, and I've read that his wife stepped into the scene for this. And I didn't even notice in the movie.

In the movie, there is something called the Love Dare. It is a 40 day process to protect and enrich your marriage. I've decided to get the book and do this. The Love Dare Book And there is also a Love Dare Journal online. But even if you get these, please watch the movie too. It's that good. I'm going to make sure I thank Bryan's friend for sending it to us.

A Pretty Cool Perk

2009-02-04T06:31:00.012+03:30

When I was at work I needed to drive one of the transmitter engineers to the helicopter so he could hitch a ride up to the top of Farnsworth Peak for his week long shift. The mountain is of course very snowy, so they take either snow cat or helicopter to the top of the mountain. Usually during a shift change they have 2 engineers that go up on the helicopter, and 2 more that come back. This time there was only one that was going up and none were coming back. So there was an empty seat both ways. I didn't really think they would let me take a ride up there just for the fun of it, but Whoo Hoo! They did!
This is a self portrait of me on the helicopter! I wish I had a real camera, but all I had was my cell phone camera. The helicopter is so loud you can't hear a thing. You have to wear the headphones for hearing protection, and the mic thing is so you can talk to people in the helicopter.

Here is 1-80 and the river. Look how tiny the big semis are.

Here is another shot of the freeway.

Look how icky the air in the valley was. I was above the icky air where the sun was shining.

Here is the mountain we were flying to. It's pretty. I texted this picture to my kids and husband while I was in the air! I'm now a texting pro.

Here are the Oquirrh Mountains, quite close! There were 2 tiny little elk. Well, I'm sure they were actually big like elk are. They just looked little from where I was. Sorry I missed their picture. They wouldn't have shown up in the picture anyway.

Here was when we were just coming over the top of the mountain. That was so cool flying up over the peak and then seeing the other side! I wish I could have gotten sompe pictures of the transmitters. But I was on the wrong side of the helicopter, then they took a slightly different angle back, so I didn't get a shot of them. They look really cool too.

Here is Salt Lake City. But you can't tell because of the thick yucky air. I'm sure looking forward to a storm to clean up our air.

This is the helicopter I rode on. Anyway. It was a very fun way to start the day!

Buttermilk Bread

2009-01-29T15:42:00.014+03:30

A little while ago I ran out of yeast. I went to buy it, and had a hard time spending the money on the one I normally buy. I usually get Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast. I think it is a little expensive. I usually buy the big bag and store it in the freezer. If you store it in the freezer it will last for many years. But I noticed a different one than I that I normally use that was a few dollars cheaper. I figured yeast was yeast. And decided to get the cheaper one. I found out I was wrong when I tried to use this new yeast in my regular recipe for rolls. The rolls came out close to the same as normal, but the flavor just wasn't as good as it normally was. There was less of the good yeasty flavor that homemade bread usually has. That is when I noticed that I had bought Instant Yeast instead of Active Dry Yeast which is what I was used to. Since then I have done a little bit of research online to see the differences between all the different types of yeasts. If you are interested, read here to see the differences.

This last weekend I wanted to make bread to go with some soup I was making. I decided to try to find a recipe that would still have a good flavor even though I only had Instant Yeast. I found a fabulous recipe here on Fleischmann's Yeast Breadworld. They had a lot of wonderful recipes to choose from. But I thought the Buttermilk Bread sounded really good. I'm glad I tried it. My family really liked it. The bread was really soft and the flavor was yummy! And since it was using the instant yeast, it was pretty quick since I didn't need to proof my yeast. I added it directly to my dry ingredients like the recipe said. And I only had to let it raise once instead of twice like you do using Acitve Dry yeast.

Sorry I didn't get my own picture of the bread I made. My family ate it up too quickly.

Regina

2009-01-24T20:49:00.003+03:30

Bryan took me to see Regina last night. When I heard it was an American opera, I thought that I probably wouldn't like it. But I was so wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed it! The story was very good. There were greedy, selfish family members who would steal from or blackmail anyone to get what they wanted. There was even a plot to force Regina's daughter to marry her first cousin to keep the wealth in the family. These people were really horrible. Especially Regina. She was a cold-hearted monster. But the lady who played her part did a fabulous job. Her Husband was very loveable. He tried to protect his daughter from the family, although he was on his death bed. He and his daughter also did a fabulous job. One of my favorite characters was Birdie, the sweet lady who turned into an alcoholic rather than deal with the horrible family she was married into. And one of my favorite musical numbers was a Blues style duet that Birdie sang with Addie the maid.

The music was so enjoyable. I was afraid that American music wouldn't really fit into an opera style. But it was almost like a musical rather than an opera. The conductor for this opera was Utah Symphony's Keith Lockheart. There was Jazz, Blues, Spiritualism, and I am sure other styles that were very American and beautiful.

How Joseph Smith "Wrote" the Book of Mormon

2009-01-23T23:02:00.005+03:30

I found this on You Tube and really liked it. I thought I'd share it. It's only about 4 1/2 minutes long.

If you have never read the "Book of Mormon" I highly recommend that you do. It is a powerful testimony builder of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful that Joseph Smith did all he did so I can read the word of God.

Fave 5

2009-01-10T02:39:00.003+03:30

My kids and I got a new cell phones and a new cell plan. This is my first experience with texting. I find I am pretty slow at it. But my kids really like it. It's really cute they will text me throughout the day and just say hi and stuff. They like to have full conversations by text, which so far drives me crazy. I take way too long to type my message. They will send me 3 or 4 messages in the time it takes me to type up my first reply.

The first day I tried texting I kept texting my husband too. I had him on my "Fave 5" so it was easy to pull him up to send him a message. I texted him a few times and he didn't reply back. I just figured he was busy since he was at work. I texted him asking him where my heartburn medication was. He didn't get back to me, but I found my medicine so I was alright. The next day I came to work and heard about a bunch of layoffs. I was upset that friends had lost jobs, but at the same time relieved that I still had one. So I texted Bryan to tell him about it. A few minutes later he texted me back consoling me about the layoffs. A little later I texted him and asked him what my phone number was. He texted me back with it. I was starting to think I was getting good at this texting thing and thinking it was very convenient. Later that day I called him on the phone. I didn't get him; I got a very nice young lady named Heather instead. I was pretty confused for a little bit, until I realized I had entered her number into my phone instead of Bryan's. So she was in my "Fave 5" and not Bryan. A few minutes later I realized that I had been texting that lady for days! I was pretty embarrassed but did have a good laugh about it.

I can only make changes to my "Fave 5 once a month. So for now "Heather" is one of my "faves", although I won't harass the poor lady anymore or she might think I am a stocker. I'm just very glad I didn't text Bryan a secret little sexy note meant only for my husband yet.

Boy Scout Hero

2008-12-28T02:16:00.006+03:30

Here is a very good story about a 12 year old boy that was able to save 2 people's lives because he listened to the Spirit. Click Here

Not Just Surviving Christmas

2008-12-18T18:19:00.013+03:30

This is pretty darn long. So most of you should probably skip reading this post. But while you are here, notice the cute picture in the heading. It is a birdhouse that my son Lane made for me. I love it! I was asked why I have a hard time with Christmas and this is my answer. I know sometimes family and friends don't really want to hear about someone disliking Christmas. I can understand how it can put a damper on their Christmas. So I really do try to pretend that I feel otherwise. But I am a horrible actor so those who are closest to me aren't fooled a bit. It's not like Christmas is just a day. I could handle just a day. It is a whole long season!

I don't want to feel that way about the time of year we celebrate Christ’s birth. I have been working on trying to change how I feel about the Christmas season for the last few years. It's not easy but every year it gets better. Maybe one day I will actually look forward to it. Right now I am just happy enough to learn to survive it enough to get through it. And then finally January comes around and I can breathe a big sigh of relief.

I know it is quite common for some people to feel blue during the holiday season. I’m not normally a blue person. I am almost always happy, even when I am under stress. But I have had problems with how Christmas makes me feel. I don’t really know when I went from enjoying Christmas to getting sick about it. I didn’t notice it happening. A part of it may be because I have had a hard Christmas or two over my lifetime. Maybe I have some leftover feelings from then. But that is only a tiny part of it, because now my life is fabulous and has been for a while. And it keeps getting better and better. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Except to maybe add even more grandkids!

It’s taken me a couple of years to finally figure out why I dislike Christmas. And that has helped me to make changes so that every year gets better and better. I used to think it was only from lack of time and the fact that it costs too much. These are problems. I am a busy person during normal times of the year. Then you add Christmas to it with trying to juggle your job and family obligations too. There are work parties that we should go to (for political reasons) for both me and my husband. There is shopping to do, decorating the tree, decorating the house, putting up lights, wrapping presents and visiting loves who I want to see, but don’t know when I can fit in the time. It is easy to become overwhelmed. And Christmas does cost way too much.

Then there are the traditions. Who doesn’t love Christmas Traditions? Some are traditions that my mom did when I was a kid and she was a stay at home mom, Some traditions I had when I was a stay at home mom, and some are from my husband’s family that I have tried to keep up with too. I love these traditions. I enjoy them. I didn’t want to stop doing them. I remember how enjoyable they made Christmas in past years. Some of the traditions that I have tried to keep up with are making handmade cards, or even just sending out store bought cards, baking cookies or other goodies, seeing the lights around town or at Temple Square, stringing popcorn and cranberries for the tree, making gingerbread houses, making homemade decorations and having parties for extended family. Oh my gosh! No wonder I am sick about Christmas. Where is the Christ? Isn’t that what Christmas is really about?

So to improve my outlook on Christmas, I am in the process of making big changes. I have been in this process for a few years now. These changes are not so easy to make, and every year I get a little bit better at it. It's not like I can just stop doing all things related to Christmas. That would be sad too. I just have to be more picky about what I do. I decided a couple of years ago I really needed to simplify my Christmas. At least for the time being, I have given up on most of the traditions that I don’t really have time for. I may start them up again when I can, maybe when I retire. I still do some things. Like this year I am making a handmade thing for some friends and family for Christmas. Other years I may not do this and I will do something else.

But the biggest change for me is to get closer to my Savior. For the last few years I have also been trying to put more Christ in my Christmas. I have found that it is easier said than done. It’s hard to put Christ in your life if you don’t know Him very well. I knew the story of Christmas. I knew, or at least thought I knew about Christ. But that really isn’t enough. I needed to get closer to Him. To start doing what I know He wants me to do to get back to him and my Father in Heaven. I was inactive for many years. And for years I felt that I was missing something. I was missing the biggest reason why I was here on Earth. I felt like I needed to get back to doing what I knew was right.

I have made changes to how I live. It can be hard to be LDS. But I know the church is true. I know the reason I am here. And I know I am happier when I do. I have more peace, even during the unavoidable stress of life. I have been starting to get closer to my Savior, and to understand more of what he did for me. I have a long way to go still, I am sure it is a lifelong journey. But I am working on it still and will happily be able to do it for the rest eternity.

I am happy to say that this year is the first in a long time that I can actually say I am starting to feel Merry during the Christmas Season. And this year I am not just pretending to be. It is starting to feel good. I still can't say I look forward to the Christmas season. That may never happen. My stomach only slightly aches when I think of the holiday season. I am not nearly as stressed, I don't miss traditions that I don't need, and thanks to the scary economy, we are spending so much less!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you can feel the peace and love of our Savior in your Christmas season too.

Look what I found!

2008-07-07T21:09:00.008+04:30

This year I had a goal to read all of my Relief Society Lessons before our class on Sunday. I want to be able to participate in the lesson. And I know there is not enough time to cover everything in the lesson, so I didn't want to miss out on some of it. But good intentions don't really give me enough time to do everything I want to do. I only was able to get a few of the lessons read before class. But then I discovered the solution! So I thought I'd share it with you. I found on the LDS.org website that they have our lesson manual available in all kinds of formats for us to use. Lessons I used the MP3 format and listened to the lesson while I did my work at home! So now I plan on keeping up with my "reading" while I am doing dishes or laundry. An I a genius or what!

I think I can probably do that with my scripture "reading" at times too. All the scriptures are available in audio form too. Scriptures and other Publications I suppose if I owned an Ipod I could put them on that too.

I know for me, reading the actual book is way better than just hearing it while I am working. So I still will do my best to make time for actual scripture study. But in the meantime, I can listen to the scriptures, and my lessons on my way too busy times at home.

A Weekend Badly Needed

2008-07-03T16:45:00.003+04:30

Happy Independence Day everyone. It's one of my favorite holidays. And who doesn't like fireworks? I just love them. Sometimes we can just sit on our roof and watch them from one end of the valley to the other. Travis and I are going to go and see fireworks tomorrow night.

I don't really have a lot to say right now. I am excited to make some goat's milk soap this weekend! Bryan's friend has goats. They gave me a whole gallon of fresh goat milk! It's home in the freezer getting all ready for me to make a beautiful batch of creamy bubbly fun when I finally get a minute. I'm thinking of Oatmeal and Honey soap. Mmmmm. Or maybe a nice Sandalwood soap.

A "Magic Pill"

2008-05-24T06:09:00.008+04:30

I saw a sign on my doctor's office wall. It said something like this:

----------------------------

What if you could reduce your chances of all these just by taking a pill every day?

Premature death by 30-50%

Heart disease by 40-50%

Stroke by 30-40%

Diabetes by 30-40%

Breast cancer by 20-30%

Colon cancer by 30-50%

Osteoporosis by 40-50%

Also reduces kidney stones, and depression!

----------------------
Of course the "Magic Pill" is 30 minutes of exercise every day.

My Beautiful Day.

2008-05-18T03:14:00.009+04:30

I haven't posted much lately. You guys know how it is. There is just not enough time in a day. This morning I woke to the such a beautiful sound. It was the sound of a Mourning Dove cooing it's song. I love listening to that. I could have listened to it all morning long. But Bryan wasn't so excited by it waking him up. So he got up and shut the window, and turned on the fan so we couldn't hear it. I guess the poor guy really needed his sleep. He ended up sleeping in fairly late, and that is just not like him. I thought it was kind of funny that something so beautiful and relaxing to me was bothering him enough to keep him awake.

I hear that mourning doves are native to our area, but I had never seen one in my neighborhood before. I have heard many meadowlarks, and I do love those too! They are one of the benefits of living right by a big field. I hope the mourning dove comes around more often. Then I can hear both of their beautiful songs. If you don't know what they sound like, here are a couple of links so you can hear them.
Western Meadowlark
Mourning Dove Song

There is a very sweet lady that lives in my neighborhood. I think she is just beautiful inside and out. She is a very talented artist. The picture above is one she did. This afternoon she had an open house at her studio. I went in for a little while before I had to go to work. It was very cool. Her paintings are so pretty. I love the style she paints with. I don't know a lot about art. But I do know I love Vincent VanGogh's paintings. And I love Renoir's and Monet's paintings. There are others too, but I don't know their names. I do think my favorite so far is VanGough. I don't know what style they are, weather they are Impressionist or Expressionist or what. But I like the colors and the visible brush strokes, all put together to give the feeling or idea of what they are rather than a realistic picture that is more like a photograph.

Marla has so many pretty paintings. I have seen some of Marla's paintings in her home, but it was so impressive to see her beautiful collection all on display in her clean, bright and cozy little shop in an art studio. Here is her website, although it doesn't do her paintings real justice compared to seeing them in person. And some of my favorite ones are not on her website.

Marla Duggins Fine Art

Ceviche

2008-05-03T22:31:00.005+04:30

Have you ever heard of Ceviche? Traditionally it is a Seafood dish where fresh raw seafood is marinated in lime juice to “cook” it. Usually it also has peppers, tomatoes and other things added to it so it is almost like a seafood salsa. It is delicious!

We don’t actually use raw seafood in our family. The thought is just a bit hard for me to get by. Although I did have it that way once and it was good too. We used precooked imitation crab, and precooked shrimp. My family likes to eat it by scooping it up with tortilla chips. That is really good. Since chips are not very healthy, I like to eat it out of a bowl with a spoon, kind of like a cold soup. Mmmmm. It is so good, and healthy.

It is a fairly new dish for our family. Kayla learned how to make Ceviche from watching her boyfriend’s mother make it. Actually, she didn’t learn directly from her. Kayla said she couldn’t get the recipe out of her. So Kayla did a little searching on the internet until she came by a ceviche recipe that was similar to what she had seen made. She then tweaked the recipe just a bit so it was pretty close to her boyfriend’s mother’s recipe. Kayla makes fabulous ceviche.

I tried making my own version of ceviche a few days ago, since Kayla wasn't home. I have to admit it was really good too. Although Kayla thought I messed up a few things. Apparently I am not supposed to put onions in it, and I cut the avocados too small, I cut the seafood too big, and I used the wrong kind of peppers. But it was really good anyway. I’m sure there is more than one way to make ceviche.

I’ll share the recipe with you. But I don’t have an actual recipe. I’ll just tell you how I made it. And then if you want to do internet searches to get an actual recipe you can. Remember this is kind of my way I did it. Kayla might disagree with some of it.

This will make a large bowl of it. Start with a whole bunch of tomatoes, about 8-12. Dice them up pretty small. Use about 5 serrano chilies, deseeded. Dice them up really small. (I used an Anaheim pepper and a jalappeno pepper, Kayla said that was wrong.) Be careful when working with the chilies. You might want to protect your hands with plastic gloves or sandwich baggies. Every time I skip this, my fingers really hurt a while after I am done. I can’t tell I am burning my skin when I am cutting them, but they really hurt later. Use a lot of cilantro, chopped up. I used about ½ of a bunch. But more might have been good. I love cilantro! Squeeze about 3 limes into the mix. I put a fair amount of onion in, cut small. Red or green would be good, unless you are like Kayla, and would rather skip the onion altogether. Dice up some avocado, maybe two. Kayla prefers larger chunks of this. I did mine small. Either way is good. Then put in corn. Kayla uses canned, I used frozen. Put in cooked shrimp and imitation crab, cut into chunks. Kayla says they should be kind of small. Pour on some Clamato juice. Don’t make it too juicy. Add salt, pepper, and oregano. I hope I am not forgetting anything. I think celery or cucumber would be good in it, but I haven’t tried it yet.
This is good right away, and even better then next day!

Wheat, and other things...

2008-04-29T23:21:00.011+04:30

I had an interesting conversation this last Sunday in my Sunday School class. There were some of the men that mentioned that they want to learn how to cook with their food storage. One thing they want to learn is to make bread from wheat. I thought I'd talk to the lady in our ward that is called to help us with our food storage and see if she can set that up.

Have any of you made bread from wheat? I have made bread before, but not from my own ground wheat. I'd like to learn to do that. But I guess first I have to get a wheat grinder. And some wheat would be a good idea too.

Do any of you have a manual wheat grinder? Does it work well? Which one do I buy? I imagine that they might be hard to use if you have wimpy arms like I do. Is that true?

I remember when mom used to make cracked wheat cereal and whole wheat cereal. Mmmm. I loved that. Here is a website I came across while looking into using wheat. It has ideas about how to use it everyday in more than just bread. Wheat-More Than Just Bread

This next website isn't exactly on the subject of just wheat. I came across this while I was snooping around on the internet. It is about cooking with your long term food storage. I thought it had some great ideas for what to store, and ways to use it too. It even has recipes. Cooking from Long Term Food Storage

One final thing. Here is a link where you can find a nice new updated list of foods at our local dry pack cannery. LDS.org Longer Term Storage On the side of the page there is a place to click on that says "New Home Storage Center Order Form.

I guess that is enough rambling on this. Let's keep working on what we can with food and water storage now while we have plenty.

What's up with us...

2008-04-20T07:50:00.003+04:30

Here is Kayla with Max

I posted this on my family site too, so if you've already read it there, just skip it here.

Hi family, I just thought I’d do a post and tell you about what my family has been up to lately.

For the most part, it is just life as usual. We get up, and go to work (or school), we come home, we make dinner and work around the house or in the yard. And then we go to bed and do it all over again the next day.

Kayla is growing up way too fast. It is kind of freaking me out that she is almost 18. She is almost done with school. She started a new job a few months ago. She got a job doing collections for Gold’s Gym. She has done so well there that they are promoting her on Monday to a receptionist and giving her a raise. Kayla is dying to buy a new car. I am trying to steer her towards economical cars, but she really wants a fancy new jeep.

Travis is doing well in school. He is getting good grades, and he is attending seminary. He likes seminary. (I remember I used to love seminary too, when I wasn’t sluffing it.) Travis and Bryan have been taking long bike rides around the neighborhood. They are way too long for me to go on. I’d probably die. The other day they rode from my house all the way to Copper Hills High School, they ran around the track, and then rode home again. Copper Hills is probably about 4 miles away from my house.

Bryan and I are trying to spruce up our home here and there. He replaced some floors that needed replacing. I did a little painting. And you should see the back yard now! Bryan dug up a bunch of our grass and made a “patio” type area. It has small pea gravel and is lined with blocks. He also bought some hanging plants for our backyard. It looks pretty. Supposedly, Bryan is buying a hot tub from his dad. We’ll see if that happens later. It might be kind of fun to have a hot tub.

Nikki and TJ and their kids are doing pretty good too. TJ has been doing some schooling along with his job. And Nikki just got a new job too. She is working at the same place that Kayla works. Nikki is not as outgoing as Kayla is, so she is having a hard time adjusting to the new job. But I hear she is doing a good job. Nikki is a bit shy when it comes to talking to strangers. I hear Sharaya is walking how! I can't wait to see that. And Gabriel is a smart little handful as usual.

Lane and Darcel are expecting a baby in September. Poor Darcel has been pretty sick with this baby. They have an apartment that is not very far from my house. Darcel has a little girl named Kaylee Ann. She is a very cute 5 years old bundle of energy. They make a cute family. I’ll post their picture when I find where I put them. Lane and Darcel will find out if their baby is a boy or a girl in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait to find out. I’m crocheting him or her a baby blanket. I couldn’t wait to hear what gender to make it for, so I picked a color that I thought would work for either one. With this baby, and now Kaylee Ann, I will have 4 grandbabies! Whoo Hoo!

Well that is all I can think of for now. I love you all!

Almost Resting

2008-04-20T00:30:00.001+04:30

This is Maximus and Chloe' resting in the sunshine. Max, as you can see can fit nicely in the chair. Chloe likes her food, and she is a bit more of a couch potato than Max. So it is harder for her to curl up in a small circle. She didn't quite get on the chair enough to let her head rest on the chair. I was watching her head bob up and down as she was falling asleep, waking up, falling asleep and waking up again. I've seen kids do that before when they fall asleep sitting in a chair. But this was the first time I noticed it with a dog.
A few hours later, Chloe got smart and moved to this bigger and more comfortable chair. She is a pretty princess!

The Apostle Song

2008-04-19T19:56:00.001+04:30

This is a cute little video that my friend emailed me. I hope you enjoy it :)

A Rare Treat

2008-04-15T23:28:00.003+04:30

Look at my sweet little mini iris. Isn't it pretty? Well actually it is much prettier in person. I'm not the best photographer. The flowers on these irises only last for a couple of days a year. The plant is only a about 4 inches high. I think the flower will open up a bit more over the next day. But I had to take a picture now. I didn't want to miss it all together.

I was given a start for it about 8 years ago by an older lady here at work. When she gave it to me, she told me it was from her grandmothers plants and that was over 100 years old. The first few years I had it, it was multiplying like irises do. But then last year I didn't see them at all! I was worried that they were gone, and I wouldn't be able to get another one since the lady that gave it to me doesn't work here anymore. But this year this lone one came up! Whoo Hoo! I think I will transplant it to a pot after it is done flowering, and then replant it after the summer is over. I'm afraid something will happen to this one over the summer. Someone might think it is a weed and pull it out.

Visiting Teaching Workshop

2008-04-04T18:08:00.001+04:30

Have any of you got some good ideas for a Visiting Teaching workshop? Our ward is going to have one at the end of May. So we have a few weeks to plan it. Have you gone to any that were inspiring or uplifting to you?

A Different Dinner

2008-03-28T04:30:00.004+04:30

A while ago I ran across this interesting food item at Harmons grocery store. It is called "Israeli Couscous". I have used regular couscous in a few meals before. I like it because I think it tastes good, it goes with almost anything, and it is so fast to cook up. It really only takes a couple of minutes. But this Israeli couscous was quite a bit larger than the regular couscous. I used to think that couscous was a grain, but it is actually a pasta. Regular couscous is really small little balls if pasta. I estimate about 3 graduals of it will fit on a pin head. It's really tiny. This Israeli couscous was larger. It was more the size of a BB. It is also known as Pearl Couscous. I thought I'd try it out, although I had no idea of what to do with it yet.

I did an internet search to find recipe ideas, and I ran across this recipe:Pearl Couscous with Roasted Tomatoes and Olives.

Oh Yummy! The picture here is my actual dinner. I roasted 2 whole pints of tomatoes and some garlic cloves. The olives in the recipe were fancy ones that I had never tried before. Usually an olive for me is just the canned black ones, or the green ones you get with the red pimento in them. The olives in the recipe are Kalamata olives. They may be available in the grocery store, I'm not sure. I got these ones I used from Granato's here in Salt Lake when Bryan took me there for lunch one day. The olives are salty and very flavorful. They were a little expensive, but I think they, along with the roasted tomatoes, really made the dish.

Even though I had to make a few small substitutions in the recipe, It turned out so nice! I used some dried herbs in place of some of the fresh ones it called for. I couldn't find fresh mint, so I used dried from my garden. I used rubbed Thyme instead of fresh. And in place of flat leaf parsley I used cilantro. I don't know if they are similar or not. But I like cilantro and it was delicious in this recipe.

I made chicken breasts that I had marinated in some Balsamic Vinegarette. I think it was the perfect side dish for this. They were very good together. I like the texture of eating fun little balls of pasta. The couscous was very flavorful and fun to eat.

My Back Yard Visitor

2008-03-23T02:25:00.007+04:30

Who loves birds as much as I do? If I knew how, I would be one of those geeky people that go out into nature with a fancy camera just to get their pictures. I think I will have to take some Utah Bird Watching classes someday.

Last fall I saw the most beautiful bird land on my backyard fence. It chased off all the Starlings that like to hang out in my backyard and eat my dog’s food. It was hopping all around the fence and looking into the birdhouse that Lane had made me. I thought it looked like some sort of a woodpecker, but I wasn’t sure. I tried to run and get my camera so I could take its picture, but it flew away before I could. Then just the other day when I was talking to Sondra on the phone, I saw it again! It is so beautiful. I wanted to run and get my camera again, but I figured I would miss the chance to watch it if I did.

I have looked a few times online to see what kind of bird it is, and I finally found it today. It is a female Northern Flicker. It is a type of a woodpecker. It looks just like the picture I posted on my post here. I wish I could have taken credit for this picture. It is beautiful. But I just found this online.

Did you know you can set up woodpecker feeders in your backyard to attract woodpeckers? I didn’t know that till just today. And now I am excited to give it a try. But of course I need to do some research before I do it. I have loved having humming bird feeders in my yard this last year. I think it will be cool to have a woodpecker feeder too. I hear they are beneficial to have around your yard because they eat icky things like grasshoppers, garden pests, and spiders.

Here are some interesting links I have come across in researching about my backyard friend.

Wilipedia-Northern Flicker

All About Birds

Birds Forever

Woodpecker Feeders

The Good Wife....

2008-03-21T01:48:00.003+04:30

Most of you have probably gotten this in an email before. It's pretty funny. It is supposed to be an actual guide on how to be a good wife. Although there is speculation on the authenticity of this, it is still fun to read. I didn't want to retype this, so I just posted a link to someone else's site.

The Good Wife Guide

There is a link to Snoopes.com that tells a little about the origins of this list. It mentions a book called "Fascinating Womanhood". I have that book. My mom gave it to me when I was a teenager. I think I tried to start reading it when I was a teenager. I never did finish the book because it made me mad. I thought it would be interesting to read it now that I am an adult with an adult brain and see if it is still offensive to me or not.

Stupid Haircut

2008-03-16T07:59:00.004+03:30

I got my haircut yesterday. I sometimes like my hair kind of short. But this time, it is a bit shorter than I had in mind. And it has layers that are pretty short too. I usually like longer layers with the shorter overall length. I'm having a hard time learning to like this cut. So far I hate it. It looks like an old ladies haircut to me. Not a cute and fashionable haircut. I'm sure glad it grows so I will not have an old ladies haircut forever!

I may post a picture another day, if I get brave.

Young Women Transitioning into Relief Society

2008-03-02T06:31:00.009+03:30

I need a little bit of inspiration from you guys.

The transition from Young Women's to Relief Society is when a lot of the Young Women are lost. It is a time when even confident girls feel insecure. They don't see what they could possibly have in common with women who are a generation older than them. So they feel uncomfortable and they may start to avoid the whole situation by just not going. Too many of them fall away from the church this way. And sometime they don't come back.

I don't know if any of you remember the transition from Young Women's to Relief Society. I remember mine. I went from being active, to being inactive. That is of course what we want to prevent.

There is a very nice young lady in our ward. She is kind of a free spirited girl. Like a lot of teenagers she tried to stand out from the crowd. She is very sweet. She has been the one to try to fellowship Kayla into the church. Even though Kayla likes the girl a lot, Kalya really doesn't want to have anything to do with the church right now. But that hasn't stopped this girl from trying.

This girl turns 18 in a couple of weeks. That is when she leaves the Young Women's program and joins us in Relief Society. She feels like most young women do at that time, she doesn't want to leave her friends and peers and join us old ladies. Of course we are not all just old ladies, but you know the stereotype that Relief Society has.

Do any of you have any ideas to help? The Relief Society Presidency is going to take her a bag of things that we know she likes. We have a sister that we think she will get along with assigned to befriend her, and give her someone to sit by and stuff.

This last Sunday this girl was crying in her Young Women's class, because she says she doesn't want to go to Relief Society. She wants to stay where she is at. Does your wards do anything that you know of that eases the transition? Or do you have any ideas to help this girl feel comfortable and welcomed. Do you have any ideas on how to show her that we are not really old ladies that sit together and knit and make casseroles and green jello?. I'd like her to know about the friendships we make, and the support we give each other, and the fun we have.

I do plan on writing her a little note or card and telling her how I think she is a wonderful young women and welcoming her to Relief Society.

What I Did Today

2008-02-20T06:22:00.013+03:30

I'm going to show you something I usually try to hide from people. My front room closet...

Notice it is packed full. My family can't hang coats in my closet! It's no wonder they throw their coats on the couch or in the kitchen. That is one of my pet peeves.

And here is everything that was hiding behind the coats. Some of this stuff I haven't set eyes on for years!

Now look how nice it is. Half of the hangers in the closet are empty, so there is even room to have more coats hung. I even have room for my carpet cleaner and vacuum! Hallelujah! I spent the day putting stuff for DI in my car so I can drop it off on the way home from work tomorrow. It was worth the many hours it took. I wish I had a week to work on all the other areas in my house that need attention.

For My Beautiful Friend...

2008-02-18T08:45:00.003+03:30

This is for someone who I love dearly.

What are your talents? I believe you have more talents than you realize. To know what your talents are, it helps to understand what a talent is. A talent is more than things like dancing, singing, making beautiful art, or photography. Some people think of a talent as things they can create or do. They are talents, but they are only the tip of the iceberg of talents. A talent is a gift from God. And we all have talents. It is our job to develop our talents the best that we can and to not waste them. If we waste them, they will be taken away from us. We are given talents to serve others with. So that we may all benefit by each other’s talents.

The scriptures tell us:

For all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God.

To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby.

And all these gifts come from God, for the benefit of the children of God.
(D&C 46: 11-12,26)

I don’t think you see yourself to your full potential. My talent is not words or communicating, so I hope I can make you realize what a wonderful and talented person you are despite that. You are a beautiful daughter of God, and you have infinite worth. You spend your life in the service of others. That to me is the greatest talent of all. You are kind and nurturing. You have a talent of loving and lifting others. You make people happy. You are a joy to be around, and a good friend. You are a bright and intelligent person. You have a good work ethic and work hard for your family from sunrise to sunset. These are all talents your Father in Heaven gave you, and you developed. And you use these talents for the service of others all the time.

You probably never thought of keeping a clean and comfortable home as a talent, but it is. So is making tasty and nutritious meals for your family, sometimes on a very tight food budget too. You have developed the talent of being a wonderful mother. You have a talent for teaching your children, and being a good example to them. You play with them, and they can feel that they are important to you and that you love them. You are unselfish, constantly giving to your family. You are brave. You face the trials and hardships in your life. At the same time, you are humble too. I see all these talents in you. Your Father in Heaven sees even more than I do. He knows what talents you have yet to discover.

You have gifts and talents that you have not discovered yet or that are dormant. You will have different stages in your life where you will get the opportunity to develop these talents. You may be able to take classes, or learn a craft of hobby. You will also develop more of your character as you go through life. There will be no end to what you can do! You started developing your talents before you came to earth. And you will continue to develop talents all through your life, and then for eternity afterwards. Isn’t that just fabulous?

You are one of my very favorite people. I love you.

Food Storage (I know it's not exciting, but it is necessary!)

2008-02-13T06:35:00.009+03:30

Look what my husband did for our family this last weekend. He bought a nice big sturdy shelf so we can do a better job on our food storage. There are actually two shelves in our little storage room, the other one is a little bit smaller than this one. He also filled our big blue barrels with fresh water. We have about 4 of them. We usually use them for camping. We take extra water when we go.

We really think it is important to do as much as you can on a food storage. I know our prophets have told us to have a food storage for as long as I can remember. It's easy to get complacent and start thinking that we have plenty of time to prepare. But I really don't believe we have a lot more time. Please do your food storage now. And don't forget to get water stored. And while you are at it, make an emergency family plan. Plan how you will get with your family members in the event of an emergency. Plan for the cell phones not working too, and cars not working. Plan where you will meet, and the route you will go to get there. Hopefully you may not need this information, but it's better to be over prepared than under prepared.

Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said:

"Acquire and store a reserve of food and supplies that will sustain life. . . . As long as I can remember, we have been taught to prepare for the future and to obtain a year's supply of necessities. I would guess that the years of plenty have almost universally caused us to set aside this counsel. I believe the time to disregard this counsel is over. With events in the world today, it must be considered with all seriousness" ("If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear," Ensign, Nov. 1995, 36).

I want to point out what how Elder Perry mentions the times of plenty, which we are in now. And that with the way the world is now, to not set aside the counsel to prepare any longer. My husband works a job where he has seen some of how the world is. He came home from work one day a little while ago freaked out. He said we should start working earnestly on building our food storage. He had seen some things that scared him, but he couldn't tell me about them. He just told me to warn my family to get food and water and do it now. My husband isn't easily scared. So I take what he says on this subject very seriously.

We had a small food storage that would last a few months. But we have been trying to put extra effort into doing what we can. We want to get enough for all my kids and grandkids too.

I know not everyone is able to have fancy shelves, big blue barrels, or even storage rooms to put stuff in. But do what you can with any space you can find. And don't get too overwhelmed thinking there is too much to do. A years supply is hard to do. I am a long way away from that. But I am starting now with what I can do and I am going to keep growing it as the year progresses. The church says to start with a 3 month supply of food you normally use. Rotate it as you use it and get new stuff. You don't have to buy it all at once, buy a little extra every time you go shopping.

Here is a link to the church's website on Food Storage

I love you all. Please start now. I'll get off my soapbox now.

My Most Recent Batch

2008-02-13T06:26:00.006+03:30

I haven’t made a batch of soap for 3 or 4 months. I was really going through withdrawal and we were running very low on soap. So I finally took the time to make a fairly large 8 pound batch. It turned out very pretty, in my opinion. I used a warm yummy scent called “Mayan Gold” for a small part of the batch. I like that one a lot. It’s a very soft smell that I think both men and women will like. Bryan says it is the perfect smell. Here is what the manufacturer of the fragrance said about it: "This would be such a sexy men's scent! Luxurious. A mix of exotic woods, fruits and spices including patchouli, sandalwood, clary sage, mandarin orange and grapefruit touched with vanilla, chocolate and musk." Doesn't that just sound nice? I only had a little bit of that scent. I would have liked to do more of the batch with that. The rest of the batch I scented with some Cucumber Melon fragrance. I like cucumber melon. This one really smells more of cucumber than melon, so it is a clean fresh scent. I wish it did have a little more of a fruity melon fragrance. But it still turned out nice.

Like I said, I was really running low on soap. Last year I went through a lot of what I made giving them away as birthday presents for the Relief Society ladies in my ward. I wrapped them in a cute fabric and tied it off with a ribbon and a little flower. They were really cute and nice gifts that I could make for about 50 cents each. This year we are doing something different (lip balms, their cute too!) so it should be easier for me to not get so low on soap.

A Very Good Soup

2008-02-06T23:18:00.000+03:30

Last night I tried a new recipe for a soup that I saw on Studio 5 here at work. When they made it here, the fresh herbs in it smelled so fantastic that I couldn't resist trying it. I tried it and it was so good I had to make it for my family. I figured they would love it. There is nothing better than a good homemade soup on a cold winter day.

The recipe calls for butternut squash, apples, pears and onions. It has fresh herbs and a little half and half too. It was delicious. Although I did have to substitute dried herbs for the fresh herbs because I couldn't find them at the grocery store. I do recommend using fresh herbs if you possibly can. The fresh herbs are heavenly in this soup.

Here is the recipe:Butternut Harvest Bisque

The picture on the website above isn't quite right. It is a bit smoother than how mine turned out. I guess I didn't puree it quite as much as they did for the picture.

While I was making the soup, Travis kept calling it my "Fruit Soup". He thought it was a strange combination for a soup.

I made homemade biscuits to go with the soup to round off the meal. My family did like the soup, and the biscuits, but they felt like they were missing the main course because I didn't have meat in the soup. They felt like I had made 2 side dishes for dinner, and thought they were hungry a couple of hours later. So next time I make it, I'll grill some chicken breasts with it or something.

“We’re not a weird people.”

2008-02-03T07:17:00.000+03:30

I’m a little slow to get this post up. I’ve been meaning to all week long. I was sad to hear about the passing of President Hinckley. I was sad because I knew that I would miss him so much. But, like most who knew him, I was happy too. I know he lived an extraordinary life. I knew he was having a glorious reunion with his lovely wife, with other loved ones, and other prophets that had gone on before him.

You may have noticed the title of my post. I just liked it. It is what President Hinckley said in one of the interviews he did on prime time TV.

I love President Hinckley. I’m glad he was the prophet while I was a member of the church. I loved how you could feel his love for you. I loved how you felt like he was your friend. I loved to hear him speak. I would look forward with anticipation and almost an excitement to hear what he had to say. I loved to hear his guidance. I loved to hear his testimony. His testimony helped mine to grow.

He was a gentle and powerful force for good. I will miss him, and I am looking forward to seeing him again on the other side. Maybe then I will get the chance to tell him thanks for all the service gave for us.

I have two new goals. One of them is to remember to pray for our prophet more. I want to pray for him often, and to pray to thank our Father for him. My other goal is to follow President Hinckley’s example and serve more. I’m sure I will never measure up to what he did, but I want to do my best to serve to the best of my ability while I am alive.

Just in case you wanted to read President Hinckley’s testimony, here is one: I remember this one, just like he hoped I would. It was given during a conference in 2006. It was while I was inactive still, and having the feelings to get back to living my life the way I knew I could.

"I hope that all of you will remember that on this Sabbath day you heard me bear my witness that this is God's holy work. The vision given the Prophet Joseph in the grove of Palmyra was not an imaginary thing. It was real. It occurred in the broad light of day. Both the Father and the Son spoke to the boy. He saw Them standing in the air above him. He heard Their voices. He gave heed to Their instruction.

"It was the resurrected Lord who was introduced by His Father, the great God of the universe. For the first time in recorded history, both the Father and the Son appeared together to part the curtains and open this, the last and final dispensation, the dispensation of the fullness of times.

"The Book of Mormon is all that it purports to be—a work recorded by prophets who lived anciently and whose words have come forth "to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations"

"The priesthood has been restored under the hands of John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. All the keys and authority pertaining to eternal life are exercised in this Church.

"Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, the great Prophet of this dispensation. This Church, which carries the name of the Redeemer, is true.

"I leave you my testimony, my witness, and my love for each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

President Gordon B. Hinckley
April 1, 2006, Sunday morning session of the 176th Annual World General Conference

Bright Fun

2008-01-24T01:11:00.000+03:30

Does he look innocent to you? I have been crocheting a bright hunter orange scarf for when I go hunting. I admit it is kind of an ugly color for a scarf, but I will really appreciate it this fall when we are hunting. I have to be very careful to keep my scarf up where Max can't find it, because if he sees it, he tries to get it. And while I am crocheting on the couch, he stares at it longingly while I am working on it. If I don't pay attention, he jumps up and tries to snag it from me. I had some left over yarn that I rolled into a ball and gave it to Max to play with. He had a lot of fun with it for a while.

Max is almost blind. So I wonder if the color of the yarn is part of the appeal for him.

My Grandbabies

2008-01-13T02:46:00.000+03:30

Are Grandbabies the most fun or what?! Here are my adorable grandbabies. Gabriel is 3, and Sharaya is about 7 months old.

We had them both over for a sleep over last night. We've had many sleep overs with Gabriel over the years. But it was a first for Sharaya.

Gabriel is a big Papa's (Grandpa's) boy. He has been since he was a tiny little baby. Now that he is such a big boy, he likes to do whatever Papa does. He likes me well enough, but he adores his grandpa. In fact if he comes over, he is happy to see me, but the first thing he asks me is where is Papa.

I was kind of worried about how Sharaya would be on her first sleep over. She is teething, and she nurses and doesn't take a bottle too well. But for the most part, it went pretty well. Although I didn't get a whole lot of sleep since she wanted to be nursed and she didn't understand why I wouldn't do it. She wasn't digging the bottle too much.

Gabriel slept downstairs with his Papa on the blow up mattress, and Sharaya and I had my room to ourselves. It was nice. Gabriel and Bryan played race cars, Lincoln logs, Wind up motorcycles and stuff like that. They had a midnight snack of Cheetos too. We decided we are going to try to do a sleepover once a month. It is a great way to bond with our grandbabies and stay close. Plus it gives my daughter a break that she doesn't get very often.

Authentic Tamales

2008-01-10T18:35:00.001+03:30

My daughter Kayla has a Hispanic boyfriend. His grandmother made us some tamales. Oh boy, were they delicious! They were fairly large made with pork with a red sauce. The sauce had a really good smoky flavor to them. It was in my opinion very spicy. But Kayla said she had watered it down for us. It was very sweet of this lady to make them for us. I will make her some soap to say thanks.

I wanted to take a picture of them, but we ate them before I got my camera out. This picture is similar to the ones she gave us.

I want to learn to make tamales. But Kayla says her boyfriends grandmother won't give out her recipe. So I will have to figure it out on my own. I'm pretty sure mine won't be as good as hers, because hers were probably the best tamales there are. But I bet I can make a pretty good one eventually. They look like quite a production to make. You have to wrap them in corn husks and steam them in a steamer. If I can figure it out, I can freeze a bunch so I only need to make them every now and then.

Do any of you know how to make real tamales?

German Chocolate Cake

2008-01-03T22:07:00.001+03:30

My very favorite kind of cake is German Chocolate cake. And this one is the best one I have ever had so far. I made it compleetely from scratch!

This three layer masterpeice has 10 eggs, 3 cups of milks (regular and buttermilk), 2cups of butter, and plenty of sugar. I even bought the little round cake pans special to make this recipe. The frosting of course is the best part. This homemade Coconut Peacon frosting is heavenly. The cake is very fluffy and light.

I got the recipe from a lady's website German Chocolate Cake

Bryan called my cake my "All Day Cake" since it took a long time to make. But it really wasn't an all day cake, just a few hour cake. And Bryan did say it was the best German Chocolate cake he has ever had.

Camp Desolation Christmas Menu

2007-12-18T08:02:00.001+03:30

I'm reading a book called "A Rocky Mountain Christmas: Yuletide Stories of the West". I was expecting some Christmas stories from our pioneer ancestors and things like that. But it is more of a history of Christmas in the Rocky Mountain areas. So it is more of a history book than a story book. But it has been interesting to read.

My favorite part tells about a group of explorers in 1848 that found themselves in an area in Colorado during a big and long snowstorm. The game had been scarce and there was a real possibility of starvation. The explorers experienced many hardships. They named their log outpost "Camp Desolation". Cold and miserable, the men were determined to celebrate the holiday. One member of the party recorded this whimsical Christmas dinner menu.

Soup
Mule Tail

Meats
Mule Steak, Fried Mule, Mule Chops, Boiled Mule, Stewed Mule, Boiled Mule, Scrambled Mule, Shirred Mule, French Fried Mule, Minced Mule, Damned Mule, Mule on Toast (without the toast), Short Rib of Mule with Apple Sauce (without the Apple Sauce)

Beverages
Snow, Snow Water, Water

The Lord's Love Through Us

2007-12-16T05:14:00.000+03:30

This isn't much of a post. It is just something I read and liked.

"The Lord's love is often delivered through others as they respond to promptings of the Spirit. Are we hearing and following those promptings?"

"I fear sometimes we see the Lord's love only in the big events of our lives; we must also see His love in the smallest of things.
Don't underestimate your ability to share His love through a simple, genuine gesture such as sitting next to another sister and making her feel welcome."

(Bonnie D. Parkin, "Eternally Encircled in His Love," Ensign, Nov. 2006, 109-10)

The picture I found on a friends website. She is a beautiful lady in my ward that paints beautiful pictures. Her website is Marla Duggins

What I am Thankful for This Month

2007-12-07T00:23:00.001+03:30

Okay with all the exciting and special things that have been going on in some of my family member's life's, what I am about to post about is probably just silly. But it has been consuming my life lately so you all have to hear about it. And it is long. So skip it if you need to. Especially you sisters who have more important things going on than to read my rant.

For the about 3 weeks I have been in some pretty strong pain.

3 weeks ago I had 2 teeth that had very large and old fillings. I needed to have them crowned so that the teeth don't break or so the old fillings will not break or fall out. I decided to get one done now at the end of this year so that my insurance would cover it, and do the other one this January when my insurance started over for the year. A few days after I got my pretty new crown, my teeth really started to hurt. It hurt half of my whole head, and down into my neck and down my left arm. I made an appointment with my dentist and we discovered that the filling in the tooth that I didn't crown had come loose and was getting an abscess in it. Since it was heat sensitive, and not just cold sensitive that meant that it needed a root canal. I was very bummed out because my dentist didn't dare do the root canal because the roots were curvy and they went into my sinus cavity. He gave me the names of a few Endodontists that he recommended. An endodontist is a specialist that deals with the nerves, soft tissue and roots of a tooth. The soonest any of them could get me in was about 10 days later. 10 days! I was in terrible pain almost all the time. I'm a wimpy girl that hates pain. I was taking 4 Advil and alternating them with 3 Tylenols way too often. I was getting sick to my stomach almost all the time from the pills. Every night I would wake up every 2-3 hours and need to take some more pain pills.

So I was trying to keep up with all my normal responsibilities at work, at home and in my calling. Oh my gosh! I am almost useless when I am in pain. I had a house to clean, I had a job to do at work, I had a room to empty in the basement, I had a work Christmas party to go to, I had Thanksgiving to deal with which included making a bunch of pies, a lesson to prepare, I had a newsletter to make, I had a Relief Society Christmas gift tags to make, and so on. It was one of the busiest little stretches of my life. Plus I wasn't in the right state of mind for talking to my family. I couldn't respond on my family site and I was too sick and in pain to even email my sweet niece who I love to talk to. These were all so hard to do when I was in so much pain, and sick from all the pills! When the painkillers didn't help anymore, I got a prescription for Lori tab. I didn't take them very often. I couldn't take them at work at all. And I was afraid of getting addicted. So the few nights I finally gave up and took one, I was a dumb jelly log on the couch all night long.

Finally the day to get my tooth fixed came along. Let me tell you how cool and talented Endodontists are. In 45 minutes, he was done. And they have the coolest equipment! They need to know when they get to the bottom of the root with their files so they don't file too far in. They way they do that now days is with an electronic continuity meter. They put a metal wire on the side of your cheek, that wire is connected to a meter. The other wire of the meter is clipped on the metal file. When that file hits the soft tissue at the bottom of your root the meter beeps. This is because the meter sends a small current that I couldn't feel. But the current runs through your soft tissue and the meter beeps when it detects it. Is that cool or what? I think they used to guess, and then take more x-rays to see if they got far enough. He also used cool digital x-rays that were ready instantly and can be emailed to my dentist. And he had an instrument that looked like a microscope on an arm from the ceiling. He did most of my root canal by looking at it through this thing that looked like a microscope.

I went home that night and had the first night in a long time with not very many drugs and not much pain. For a couple of days I felt a little better, but not all the way. Then the pain started coming back. Oh my gosh again?! I had heat sensitivity again, and a lot of pain. Since with tooth pain the pain radiates everywhere, it is hard to tell which tooth is the problem. I went into the another Endodontist because mine wasn't in. In his tapping around we couldn't decide which tooth it was. He thought it was my new root canal and it just needed more time to heal. A root canal takes the nerve out of the inside of the tooth, but the outside of the tooth still has a web of nerves that gets inflamed and swollen from the procedure. He thought I'd be fine in a while and I should give it another week or two. I could only give it 2 days. I called my Endodontist and he had me come in. He put cold on my teeth that were in the general area of the pain and when he put cold on the tooth that had my new crown on it, I went through the roof! Usually with extreme cold, a tooth will have a sharp pain, but it will go away in a few seconds. This one kept getting worse and worse with every second. He had tested that exact tooth when I came to him the first time a week before and it didn't do that. Fickle little tooth. So anyway, he gave me another very complicated root canal in about an hour. This tooth had 4 roots that curved to the back of my head.

So within 1 week I had 2 complicated root canals. When people hear about 2 in one week, they feel sorry for that. But I am quick to tell them the blessings of root canals, dental insurance, dental professionals, and new technology. One of my insurances is maxed out. So I have to pay at least couple hundred dollars. But let me tell you. I am so thankful for dental insurance. Without it I would probably be paying about $1500 dollars per root canal. And I am so thankful for the dental professionals. I am thankful I am not a pioneer woman. I don't know what kind of a woman I would have been in pain all the time. I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten anything done. I think I would have been known as the mean old lady that never smiled. Last night I went to bed with no pain. I didn't wake up once because of pain. I don't have to take any Lori Tabs any more. My tummy feels better. I am feeling fabulous! And I can get stuff done without getting distracted. And I can email my sweet niece again.

Beautiful Poinsettias

2007-11-25T03:25:00.000+03:30

I love poinsettias. They are so beautiful. Every year I like to have one at my home. Some years I have even gotten them to last till spring!

Every year at my work, they always do such a good job of decorating the whole building with beautiful poinsettias. And they are the big, healthy expensive ones that I can't afford. There must be over a hundred of them, maybe even 200. At least they decorate the areas that clients and viewers see. And they decorate the offices of the big wigs. But they never decorate the shop where I work. I've complained to my supervisor before about the lack of poinsettias in our area. But it does me no good. My area is always cold and messy, and full of tools and equipment. Basically it is an ugly and dismal area. We try to keep it cleaned up, but there is only so much we can do. But this year I "borrowed" one of the poinsettias that would have been put into the newsroom. I figure if anyone complains too much, I will give it back. But meanwhile it is brightening my area. So if you notice one less poinsettia when you are watching the news, don't say anything about who has it on her tool box. We'll see how long it lasts here. My boss might make me put it back. But I will only put it back if he comes to me and makes me.

The picture I posted I just found on the web. I don't have a camera here at work today so I can't show you "my" poinsettia now. Maybe later, if it stays longer than this weekend.

A nice Blend

2007-11-16T23:39:00.001+03:30

I found this on Kristy's blog and tried it. I like cats and dogs. Pets are the best!

You Are: 60% Dog, 40% Cat

You are a nice blend of cat and dog.
You're playful but not too needy. And you're friendly but careful.
And while you have your moody moments, you're too happy to stay upset for long.

Are You More Cat or Dog?

Flutes

2007-11-16T02:20:00.001+03:30

I am teaching myself to play the flute. My husband gave it to me for my birthday this last year. I’m not very good. I have a tendency to try to play by ear. But I really want to learn the notes. So I have been trying to concentrate on how to do that better. I am getting better, slowly. I thought I’d be embarrassed to play my flute in front of my family, but I have gotten over that. In fact, I will even play when my kids have friends over. My family hears me making mistakes, and sounding wrong quite often. I don’t think I drive them too crazy yet, or at least they haven’t told me that I do. And my husband says he thinks it’s relaxing for him to listen to me practice. Although I think he may have been telling me a little white lie.

I like flutes very much. There are many different types of flutes with different sounds and different sizes. I have a very pretty flute. I think it is a C Concert flute. That means it starts at middle C and goes for 3 octaves. But I only know about the first 1 1/2octaves.

I finally bought the large print spiral bound book of church hymns. I am teaching myself to play some of the hymns in it. I am currently working on “The Spirit of God” that is on page 2. I love that song, and it is kind of fun to play because it goes all over the range of notes that I know how to play. I have learned how to play the song that my Great Great Great Grandfather wrote called "High on a Mountain Top". It's pretty cool to play something that your ancestor wrote.

This flute is very much like my flute.

I have a new plan to help me enjoy Christmas this year and to keep more of Christ in it. The other night, I had a list of stuff I should have been doing. I was starting to get a bit overwhelmed by all I was supposed to do. So instead of doing any of it, I skipped it all and played my flute for about an hour or so. I found the Christmas hymns in my new music book and started learning them. I think it will be a nice way to relax, a nice way to bring more Christ into Christmas, and a way to improve on something I really want to learn. It was fun. I am still overwhelmed with too much to do, but at least I enjoyed the other night’s flute playing

2007-10-25T20:43:00.000+03:30

My son Travis has gone on the deer hunt with us for many years. But this year was the first year Travis had his own tag and his own rifle. Bryan got a spiker, I can't wait to eat that one. It's little, so it should be really yummy. Travis's deer is a 3x2. It's pretty big too. Remember Travis is almost 6 feet tall. Then you get an idea of how big this deer is.

I'm so happy that Travis is a hunter. Because now Bryan has another hunting buddy. Bryan likes to hunt really hard, and I am more of a casual hunter. I like to stay in camp and read books for a good portion of the day. I also feel like I have less pressure to shoot a deer myself. I do enjoy going on the hunt, because I think it is good family time. And I don't have a problem with shooting a deer, although I do think they are pretty cute. I just have a problem shooting a running deer, or a buck with a bunch of does around it, or a buck hiding in thick trees. And the perfect shot just never seems to happen for me.

Bryan processes the deer himself. He bought a meat grinder today so we can try grinding some up into burger. I've never had venison burger before. It should be interesting. We thought we'd try mixing venison with some ground beef, since the venison is so lean. It needs some fat to make burgers with.

The Flying Dutchman

2007-10-18T17:17:00.001+03:30

Last night Bryan and I went and saw the opera "The Flying Dutchman". It was a nice evening. We went to dinner first at the Olive Garden, then we walked over to the theater.

The opera was an interesting story. It was about a sailor who had been cursed to sail the seas and could only go on land once every 7 years. The curse could only be broken by finding a woman to love him, and be faithful to him to her death.

The opera was good, but not one of my favorites. I think the orchestra was the best part. Especially the overture. You could almost feel the rolling ocean in the orchestra music.

You can tell the story was written over 150 years ago. A ship's captain meets the Flying Dutchman and agreed to arrange a marriage to his pride and joy daughter, Senta, for a shipload of treasures. Senta was going to sacrifice her life to save the dutchman who she never met, and was also going to be an obedient daughter and pledge her love and life to the dutchman. To add interest to the story, a hunter also loves Senta.

Fun at the zoo

2007-10-06T17:45:00.000+03:30

This last year we took my grandson Gabriel to the zoo. He has a lot of fun there. I think Gabriel likes snakes more than his Papa does.

There is a nice little play area at our zoo. Here is how Spiderman probably got his start.

Have you ever seen a cuter turtle?

We had a bunch of fun.

Flower Slide Show

2007-09-28T17:17:00.000+03:30

I am trying something that I don't know if it will work.

This is a link to a slide show of some very pretty flower photos.

The Colors of Flowers

My Tags

2007-09-24T03:18:00.001+03:30

Here is my family when it was new.

This is a picture of me when I was target practicing in the desert.

Three Generations

2007-09-08T19:36:00.000+03:30

This my husband's dad, my husband and my son. We are looking out over the town of Manilla. That is Flaming Gorge in the back ground. Click on the picture so you can see my father-in-law's face. He is a lot like Bryan.

I have the worst time getting Bryan to take off hats, sunglasses and smiling in a picture. It's hard to get a picture of him looking happy.

Manilla is a nice town. We wouldn't mind property up there one day.

Today I saw a hummingbird tongue!

2007-09-08T04:57:00.000+03:30

How cool is that? She was sitting aways up above me, just behind a branch so I couldn't get a good picture. But I did see her flick her tongue out a few times. I don't think I have ever seen that before.

I have been sitting out under my tree for the last 3 nights trying to get a good picture of my hummingbirds. They will feed like normal every evening if I sit on the other side of the tree. But if I move my chair to the side that gives me a better shot, they avoid the feeder. They will come along for just a few seconds and then flit to the other feeder.

Does anyone know how to take a good hummingbird picture? Or do you know what kind of hummer this is?

Reading With My Son

2007-08-28T06:02:00.000+03:30

This first picture in this post is Travis while we were reading the first Harry Potter book together all those years ago. He was big then for a little boy. But scroll down a bit and get a look at the big manly guy that is in this second picture! That is him now that we just finished up this last Harry Potter book. Wow how he has grown!

Travis and I just finished reading the last Harry Potter book. All I can say is Wow. What a wonderful series. And this last book was the best of them all. I really enjoyed the whole series. And I am really going to miss reading them. My son Travis and I started reading the first one when Travis was probably about 7 or so. I started reading it with him in the hopes that he would learn to enjoy reading as much as I do. I had heard that it was doing that for kids, but it was a ways above Travis's reading level. So we read it together out loud. We love it so much that we had to keep reading them as the new books came out. When book 6 came out, Traivs was by then old enough to read them on his own. And being as busy as we always are, he had to read that one on his own. But we decided to read this last one together again. It is so much more fun to read it together, so you can talk about what you are reading about as you go. And it is very nice quality time together.

This book was sad in parts, and other times sad but happy. I had a few times where it was hard to read aloud because I was crying. Yes, I know they are fictional characters. But after you have read so many of the books, You can really get attached to and feel like you know the characters. I don't usually read a book more than once. But I'm pretty sure I will read this series again. Maybe I can share it with some of my grandchildren too.

I hope that Miss Rowling writes more books. I really like her imagination.

Travis and also read the Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe together a while back. I cried trying to read it aloud too. I'm such a wimp.

My Grammy

2007-08-27T21:28:00.000+03:30

This is my Grammy. She popped in one Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago on her way home from a Jehovah's Witness convention. She was able to spend the night and visit with me and my family. It was very nice. I don't get to see my Grammy very often. She lives about 45 minutes away. It's hard to find the time. But my family and I have been trying to do better about going to see her lately.

Isn't she pretty? I have always thought my Grammy was an amazing lady in many ways. I like to think I got some of my independence and brains from her.

Our Bryce Canyon Fun

2007-08-26T03:22:00.001+03:30

We went to Bryce Canyon a few weeks ago. This is me and my very handsome husband. We don't always get to spend as much time together as I'd like. That is one reason why I love the trips away together. We stayed in Red Canyon Campground which is just a few miles out of Bryce Canyon. It is ons of our favorite places to go. The area is so beautiful. I love all the red rocks and cliffs. And the weather was perfect. It usually stayed around the mid 80s. We had so much fun! We are talking about going there once a year.

I like to sit by Travis. He is so big and manly that it makes me look petite. And isn't Kayla just beautiful. I had a very nice time spending time with them both. Next year I want all 4 of my kids to go with us. And maybe some other family members too!

This was the hill above our campground. Can you see why we like to camp here? It's just so pretty. This was a bit of a climb to get up to this spot. I did it in flimsy sandals and made it. Next time I will wear better shoes.

Our Campground

2007-08-26T01:16:00.001+03:30

Here is what the campground looked like. We usually avoid the camp grounds since we have a nice big trailer and we don't want to be around a lot of people. But the camp ground is really nice here anyway. And there is running water, and showers too! And there are red cliffs to look at right from your camp spot. I think we should have another family reunion here at this campground. In the evening we listened to Native American flute music and ate roasted marshmallows with chocolate.

Here are the cute little critters that visited our campground. The ground squirrels and chipmunks were our constant companions. If we were not careful, they would climb right on the chairs or tables we were using! That startled a few of us sometimes. The bird is a Blue Jay. We also saw Ravens, and snakes too!