01/29/12 EFY & talent show

Beautiful sunset

1/29/12

Wow -- busy great week!

We went to EFY yesterday.  There was about 6 boys and 6 girls.  The boys were pretty disappointed in their turnout (they thought they would have 12 kids) but I was happy with the YW -- I thought 5 and got 6!  And in chruch today we had 7!!!  Only had 2 missing Laurels and one of them was out of town.  Not sure where the other one was but that's about the best turnout ever.  Pres Ellsworth spoke and he did a really great job, as usual.  He really connects well with the youth.

The talks we had were on Laughing (Enjoying life), Law of Chastity and Arise and shine forth.  I will have to type up the Law of Chastity talk notes I have sometime and send those to you.  Really great talk (not that I think you need it -- you were always good at following the rules) but it might be a good talk for you to give out in the mission field if the opportunity arises.

After EFY the kids came over and had a big fat sandwich from walmart, jello, chips and cookie bars with rootbeer floats.  Everyone was in good spirits and seemed to have a nice time.

This coming week we are doing Daughter of a King, New Beginnings that promises to be lots of work but also a great experience.  Sister Holt is in charge and she always over - does which means it will be great!

The girls both performed in the talent show this week and did a great job.  Holly did Somewhere over the rainbow and Katie did Honey, I'm home.  Katie hula hooped and sang and Holly dressed up like dorothy in the wizard of oz and carried a little dog in a basket and sang her little heart out.  The performance was only to be 2 minutes so dad cut the songs down and they were great that way.  Pretty quick song, 2 minutes.  Holly was so scared the night before that she was balling like a baby (I told her to forget about it she didn't need to do it and just go to bed.)  Next morning she woke up raring and ready...They were both very brave and showed no sign of stage fright.  (Where did they get that???)  Very impressive.   Dad took some video and pix...hopefully he can send something your way.

Dallas has been working.  Very impressed.  This weekend in order to go to church and EFY he had to start working at 5:30 or 6.  No complaints.  He just did it.  He seems to really have his head in the game lately and really trying to choose the right.  He is the first assistant to the Bishop and Brother Campbell keeps him busy trying to activate the inactive boys and leading the meetings and just being involved and being there.  They really seem to get along well.

Well we are heading up to gma and gpa house now.  Eldon and Diane are going to be there tonight so we will get to visit with them too.

** Eddy might get a job in Santa Clara.

**Nick and Brees condo complex had a fire this week that made the paper but supposedly their house is ok (lots of smoke damage) and they get to stay.

**Jared and Brit is moving to a home in Bloomington

**Ben's released as a bishop as of today.

I think that's all the latest.

XOXO Mom

01/23/12 Kalua Pork Recipe

1/23/12 ONE OF OUR FAVORITE MEALS:

Kalua Pork, Yumm!

Get a pork roast (we usually get about 3 lb roast).

Mix together equal parts of salsa and brown sugar.  (1 cup salsa with 1 cup brown sugar for example).  Pour mixture over the roast BEFORE you cook it.  Leave it alone and so many hours later,  ummmm ... like candied meat.  No wonder it's so good, eh?!

Cook it for 6-8 hours on really low heat.  Crock pot on low (about 200 degrees I think).

I don't know if you can make this due to you not having an oven or a crock pot or anything cool like that.  But this is actually really easy to do if you want to pass it on to Sis C.  Maybe she can cook it for you.

Also the tortillas that I make are also very easy...Just flour, baking soda, water, shortening...something like that.  Any recipe off the internet would work.  Let me know if you want one of those too.  (Much easier to just buy tortillas but they are super yummy homemade.)

We had kalua pork on Sunday (just port roast cooked with sea salt (big fat salt) and liquid smoke.  It was So totally yummy and moist and delcious too.  I love pork.

K, well just thought I'd tell you how to make it!!!!

Homemade Tortilla

Recipe for tortillas off internet:

Tortillas

Makes 24

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons lard (or butter, margarine, shortening)
• 1 1/2 cups water

Directions

1. Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Mix in the lard with your fingers until the flour resembles cornmeal. Add the water and mix until the dough comes together; place on a lightly floured surface and knead a few minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.
2. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Use a well-floured rolling pin to roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla. Place into the hot skillet, and cook until bubbly and golden; flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side. Place the cooked tortilla in a tortilla warmer; continue rolling and cooking the remaining dough.

Add lettuce, tomato, cheese, taco sauce, whatever...delicious!

01/22/12 Ugh flu. Dad misses first broadcast ever.

1/22/12

Well we survived the week. But just barely.  Ha ha.  Dad made it through flu # 1 and flu #2 hit him.  Hard.  On Wednesday.  Poor guy threw up for good solid 12 hours.  I think he counted 14 times.  It was horrible.  Horrible. H O R R I B L E!  So bad that the acid burned his throat and he can hardly talk.  And it's 4 days later.  He had to take off Thursday and Friday (besides being tired his voice is just not good).  We are hoping he can talk in the a.m. although today he still doesn't sound good.  Certainly not a radio worthy voice!

So Katie got it Sunday I think.  And Monday was Martin Luther King day so she didn't even miss school.  I saw the writing on the wall and have been afraid to eat all week.  Hit me Friday night.  Luckily not nearly as bad as Dad.  I only had 2 episodes in about a 4 hour period.  I had fever and chills and aches etc and stayed in bed for about 36 hours (which was way nice!!!) but thank goodness pretty mild actual flu ew!

We keep telling Holly, Bryce and Dallas to eat carefully but they just laugh and say they won't get it!  Ha, we shall see.  I hope they are right -- for selfish and not so selfish reasons!!!  But I fear they may be next!

This week is a busy week for church stuff.  We have a fireside this evening.  Baptisms for the dead on Tuesday (i don't get to go...so sad!!!).  Thursday is sports basketball games for the YM and YW and Saturday is EFY.  Lots of great stuff.   Wish I could go Tuesday.  But alas...our time is 6 p.m.  Right in the thick of court.  I could probably have Kathy cover but I wouldn't want to do that to her.  Or me (I usually have clean up after I miss).

We had 5 YW in church again this week.  Yeah!!  And that did NOT include my 3 new girls.  I guess it was their week to be up at the mom's house.  I dunno.  I'll have to find out more about them.

Katie and Holly are still busy playing basketball.  Katie's team is undefeated this year and I think they will win the league.  Holly's team was doing well but I think they've now lost 3.  Seemed to have lost whatever it was they had in the beginning.  The girls have signed up to do the talent show.  I think they are going to sing or something.  I don't think you could pay me to do that -- we'll try to record that and send you a snippet if they do it!

Dallas is still working for the city and doing his band stuff.  He just arranged to start piano lessons with Brother Nick Bassett (was he here when you were here?).  He is totally jamming awesome piano player and he and Dallas made some kind of arrangement that Dallas will go to his house on Thursday nights at 8:30 I think and Nick will give him a lesson and in exchange Dallas will babysit or do odd jobs or something.  Anyway, Dallas has been practicing and seems to really want to learn.  Brother Bassett is pretty talented and pretty righteous.  I hope he follows his example.  His wife is a return missionary too.  They are both pretty cool.  She serves in the Primary presidency.

Bryce has been taking his meds for his face for quite awhile now and he looks so good. Dallas has completed the medicine and looks good too.  Bryce still has 6 weeks left or something.  Not sure.  But it's amazing the difference in their faces.  There is some girl from Desert Hills (Maddie I think is her name) that is sweet on Bryce.  They met at a band thing I think and have seen each other at a basketball game or two.  She came to a concert he was in to "watch him play".  Ah.  Sweet, huh.  They have talked on the phone a couple of times and I would guess he sees her at stake dances, but I'm not sure.  I hope the fact that she lives so far away will help keep their relationship on the up and up!

Everyone BOY got hair cuts this week and they all look very handsome.  Dallas went to great clips and Bryce settled for me and Dad did his own with a little help from Bryce.  All worked out.  Everyone looks great.

Well not much else to report here.  Things are about the same as usual.  The weather is kind of like the family has been this week.  Overcast, cold and a little rainy.  Hoping for the sun to come up tomorrow and everybody be healthy too!  We shall see.

Well I hope things are good there.  Brother Johnstone asks about you regularly.  As do many other people.  I'm glad you are doing so well.  You are inspiring!  

Love you lots.  Keep up the good work! Love you mom.

01/15/12 BYU basketball for the boys & practical joke at work

1/15/12

Well Sunday has just about finished itself off!

Today was kind of a lighter Sunday (only had BYC -- which is pretty brief) and church.

The boys and Dad went to BYU for a basketball game yesterday and got home at 1 a.m. this a.m.  Dad has got some kinda cold/flu thing going and has been in bed all day today. Seriously.  I thought he'd be all chipper when I got home from church but he was looking like death warmed over.  Poor thing.  Hopefully after a full day of sleep he'll be back to himself tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day so we all have the day off.  YEAH!!!  Treasure the time off lately!

Didn't go to the Grandparents today.  Dad didn't feel good and they wanted to come down here and visit a ward member who was in the hospital.  Worked out.

Sister Holt (Ferrin's wife) was diagnosed with breast cancer this past week.  She is having a mastectomy on Monday and whatever else treatment that entails.  Scary.  She didn't come to church today. (She just found out Friday).  I think she didn't want to hear everybody saying what everybody says.  It is hard to take sometimes.

We got 3 new girls in our ward today.  Only turns out they are only part time in our ward.  So it may be a challenge to keep track of when they are here and when they are not.  Their dad has been in IRAQ and their mom lives in Cedar City so they will be back and forth but they didn't know what the schedule would be.  Sounds like it might be random.  They are 14, 15 and 16.

We had 10 girls out last week to Wednesday night so things are good I guess.  Seems like everybody is just a little flaky.  Come one week, not the next, etc.  Oh well.  Just keep plugging along.

We have EFY toward the end of the month and baptisms for the dead.  New Beginnings soon too.  Lots going on, always.

Brother Eves and Brother Stevens (sam) are still our home teachers.  They came by today and were asking about you.

The girls got curlers for Christmas and so we have been curling up their hair 1 or 2x a week.  It looks really cute.  Katie is such a funny girl.  Seems that if you don't really dry her hair good and only put a little hair in each curler her hair doesn't curl well.  The other day we hadn't dried it good and had too much in the curlers so her hair came out...well...kinda flat.  She got this mean grumpy look on her face and was pretty mad.  Ah, teenager years are coming on too quickly.  We had a "talk" about how we all have "bad hair days" and you just gotta suck it up and not let it ruin your day (or all those around you, as was the case this morning!!!).

Sister Porter gave a great lesson today about always living as though Christ were in the room with you.  Would you watch that TV show if Christ was with you?  Would you read that book? Listen to that music?  Dress that way?  Leave messes, yell at your kids, get mad at your co-worker...etc.  She said she had been trying to live the last week always asking herself if she would act differently if Christ were there with her.  She challenged us to try it.  Very good lesson.

Well I hope you have had another great week.  Keep looking for you on the website but so far no pictures of New Year's.  You seem to be expert at avoiding Sister Carlos' camera.  Cut that out!

The girls are enjoying the movies you sent today...I can't remember if it was Shrek or sponge bop...anyway, one was in Tagalog and that didn't last long.  The other is in English and they are enjoying that.

Anything you need?  Were you in on the teasing of Sister Martinez recently?  There was a story on the website that Bro Carlos (I think) told the girls they were transferring one of the sisters.  They got upset and they said they were teasing them they were really transferring Sister M.  Again they all cried and stuff and then they were like, no just kidding.  I don't think that went over very well with the girls?!  I'm sure they guys enjoyed it though!

Oh yeah, and that reminds me of the fun I had this week at work.  So this guy came in with a $165 warrant for a window tint violation.  He was supposed to get his ticket signed and turned into me by early December.  Apparently he had it signed and stuck it in his pocket.  Fastforward 6 weeks, and there is a warrant out for his arrest.  So he came in and told me his tale of woe and I called the judge.  He of course can't hear what the judge is saying (which is to dismiss the ticket and tell him to not be a knot head in the future).  So I hang up the phone and seriously look at him.  He says, well, what did the judge say???? And I say, well, he told me to call some officers and have you arrested.  I wait about 20-30 seconds and then smile and say, I'm just kidding, he told me to dismiss your ticket.  The guy all but doubles over and holds his stomach and he's like ... oh, you have no idea how bad you scared me.  I couldn't help but laugh and say, yeah, I know, I love my job.  Oh, I gotta stop doing that.  But man was it fun.

K, well Katie is begging for help with her dishes now and so I guess I'll go and see what I can do to help her.  You take care of yourself and make sure and tell us all about what great things happened this week!  

Love you lots. Mom.

01/08/12 Holly gets dunked!

1/8/12

What a great day!  Holly was absolutely bubbling over all day long so excited to get baptized.  She really was glowing.  They sang the baptism song...I like to look for rainbows and she belted it out with all her heart and soul.  Turned out there was only 2 baptisms yesterday (usually there are at least 4 or 5 and sometimes as many as 10 or 12) but the chapel was still pretty full.  Several people commented on what great support those 2 little girls had.



 Good thing we didn't wait any longer. She just barely fit in the baptism dress that Katie wore (handed down from the Schnabel's made by their grandma).  She looked beautiful.

Dallas gave the talk on baptism and I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.  Nice short meeting.  We were ready to dunk Holly by 20 after 5 (the other little girl got dunked first).  We passed around the cards for people to write notes to Holly and she got a lot of loving kind words of support.

Sister Condie made her a baptism towel that has a little girl embroidered on it and her name and baptism date.  She got scriptures and a journal from us.  Ben and Laura gave her the book Daughter of a king.  I think grandma and grandpa G gave her a baptism book.  She also received sweet notes and book markers and all sorts of other things from her piano teacher, Cristy Peck, Warby's.  I don't even know.  She really was loved and supported though.

At the end of the evening she scooped up all her treasures from everyone and as she went down the hall toward bed said, "Ah, sweet memories!"

What a cutie!

We had a nice get together afterward.  We made meatballs, little smokies, salad, pretzel bites and served chips.  Others brought jello, cookies and soda pop.  Pretty yummy spread.  The Greeley's, Warby's, Sharps, and Riley's all came along with Gma and pa L and G, Ben and Laura.  I think that was everyone.  Nick and Bree came to the baptism and then left.

Another busy week behind us.  The girls both won their basketball games yesterday.  They are on pretty good teams.

They didn't have school Monday and Tuesday but things got really busy come Wednesday.  Student Council before school, piano after along with YW.  We had a neat activity Wednesday night.  I was a little nervous it would be rowdy and unsuccessful but it wasn't.  We did a book of mormon pajama party.  Everyone wore their PJ's and brought a blanket and pillow and their scriptures.  We laid out in a circle and took turns going around the room reading the first 3 chapters of the book of mormon and talking about it.  After we had BoM treats...like the waters of mormon, lamonaide, chief judge fudge, secret combination salad...etc.  Really cute creative names for treats.  They all got a big plate of goodies and then we played BoM Jeopardy in 2 teams.  The beehives vs. the Miamaids.  The kids really seemed to have a good time.

The girls will sell G.S. cookies starting next Saturday.

The boys were in the all region band so they spent Friday and Saturday over at the college and then had a concert last night after the baptism.  Both boys were "tuxedo" wear (Dallas w/a tie, Bryce with a bow tie) to the baptism and they looked very handsome!  The concert was a huge success.  They said they have 2000 seats at the auditorium and when we got there (10 minutes late) they said 1800 of the seats were filled.  And people were still coming behind us.  We stayed out in the hall because we couldn't find seats next to each other and didn't want to disrupt the audience.  The kids sounded great.

Well it's fast Sunday today (strange...due to holiday last week I guess).  So things are kinda weird.  The boys will have to collect fast offerings today.  We will probably have dinner tonight with both sets of grandparents.  Should be a not so restful Sunday.  I think we have ward council after church (2nd Sunday schedule) and then we'll go to New Harmony around 5.  At least that's the plan right now!

You are such an inspiration and a great example.  Thank you for all you have done for our family.  Every time there is a prayer you are prayed for.  Every time the kids give their testimony they mention you.  They really have grown and tried harder to choose the right and I am sure a big part of it is following your footsteps and trying to be more like their big brother...who is trying to be like the Savior.  Thank you and know that you are loved and supported and prayed for and worried about and admired.  Love you lots! Mom.

01/01/12 Katie gets her own community center pass

1/1/12

Wow it was so great to see you and talk to you and "hang" with you last week!  That was so great!  Sounds like we were lucky.  Everyone else was saying they were given 40 minute time limits in the other missions. 

Several were only able to phone and not skype and one of my friends told me the calling card ran out so they didn't even get to talk that long either.

We had a good week.  The girls are loving the shoes you sent and the fans and the boys have the change purses and lanyard (?).  They are going to put the machetes on the mancave wall and we are in search of a frame for the picture you sent.  All in all a pretty awesome package!

It's been nice not having things to do this week.  I still worked but Dad's been off and the girls don't have any activities.  Dallas has worked all week and his mono is back (or still here, or whatever you want to say).  Took him in to the dr. yesterday because his tonsils are HUGE again.  So he is starting on new meds and trying to get better fast so he can get busy with school again.

Katie got a card to the rec center this week.  She was so excited to finally be 10 and get her own card!  She hasn't gotten to use it yet but she is way excited to get over there.  She can go with friends and no parents now.  Crazy!?

I had the lesson today in church.  Usually I finish up and have a ton of time left over.  Today I only got through the first paragraph and then time was up.  Sunday school was late and the girls were kinda silly and then the first part of my lesson was for everyone to "introduce" themselves and they all took up all the time. I got to say a couple of words and have a special musical # and it was over!  Had lots of other good stuff that inspired me but didn't get to share it!

This new year has brought a new schedule to our meetings.  We are back at the 9 a.m. time.  So now there are some days the meeting is before church, other days after. Today dad has both (maybe he always will, not sure).  Anyway it's kind of all topsy turvy trying to get on a new schedule.  I am hoping ward council won't take all afternoon now that there is no meeting to stop it from going on and on!

Dallas is making cookies and keeps coming in and asking me to come help him -- so I guess I better get.  I'm sure I'll help with Dad's letter later!

Love you tons.  Glad you are doing so well.  Can't wait to hear from you again.  Hope you don't get split ... I really like your comp, he seems cool and like a good match with you!

XOXO mom.