Defense, Panthers, Defense!

Tonight was the last game of this league. The day has been absolutely stunning. Cool. Bright. Blue. White puffy clouds. It was a little bit crazy getting there with the timing: Chris gets home from school at 4pm, something to eat, change into uniform, and travel to the game and do all that in 30 minutes. We made it but it included running! Here she is in the goalie box. She does really well. They played the #2 team in all of southern Cal. They lost, but she played awesome. The girls JV coach at the high school wants her to come for a try out.

The gals trying to understand the game. It is still a mystery to me too!

The guys intently watching. Shaun wanted to get out there and strangle the refs.

Chelsea came to cheer on her friend. Love you, Chels!

And of course the ever faithful Sister Steinert from YW and her hubby who brought the kids too. Thanks for your support!

Calendar

Friday 6/5: Christine's last lacrosse game in the evening. 5pm. She'd love you all to come. It's an hour. Call me for the rest of the details.

Saturday 6/6: 9am-noon. Strawberry jam. Girls, bring your own jars and a 5 lb. bag of sugar. Last year Adrianne got some cool new jars that Kerr is putting out. They are more in keeping with the current contemporary style. Call her for those details. I suggest a dozen pints or 2 dozen of the 1/2 pints, or a combination of both to start out with. Next year you can add some more. I will provide the berries and the pectin.

Sunday 6/7: Fast Sunday. 'First Sunday of the month' dinner at 5:30, here. We're having turkey with all the trimmings since I still have some turkeys in the freezer from the holidays. Please bring: Meredith and Josh--green salad, Adrianne and Mike--green vegetable, Natalie and Robert--rolls and butter. FHE to follow!

LOOKING FORWARD TO:

***Taco Sauce canning day. When do you want to do this? June, July??? I'm out. I only have one last container. So I'm kind of thinking late June????? You need plastic containers for this: cool whip containers, Glad or Ziploc square containers, etc.

***Grandma Duffy's Salsa canning day. I'm thinking August. You will need additional pint or quart jars, depending on how much you want to make. I do mine in quarts, but that's because some family members, who shall remain nameless (!), can go through a whole quart in one sitting! (because it's so dang addicting). But Grandma always did hers in pints.

***Sound of Music Sing Along. 9/26. Hollywood Bowl. See Adrianne for tickets. Do we want to potluck dinner in foil containers? Sub sandwiches? Do you want to go in costume? (Christine says no to the costumes.) Set the dvr's for the General RS Broadcast so we can all watch it the next day after church, 'k?

ANNOUNCING: Homemade Ice Cream Throwdown!

4th of July. Here. I'll be doing our traditional vanilla. Bring your freezers, and ice, and ingredients. We'll provide the rock salt. Start planning your winning recipes! Awards will be given! Maybe Bobby Flay will show up....j/k.

It's BYU Official--

The news is official: Jake Heaps has committed to attend BYU.

Heaps, the No. 1 quarterback prospect in the country in the 2010 class according to Scout.com, verbally committed to BYU on Thursday at a press conference at Iggy's Sports Grill in Salt Lake City.

He brought along some friends as well, as Ross Apo, a wide receiver out of Texas, and Zac Stout, a middle linebacker from California, also verbally committed to the Cougars.

Heaps, who is LDS, will be a senior as Skyline High School in Issaquah, Wash., this fall. In two seasons as a starter for Skyline, he has thrown for 6,104 yards, 69 TDs and only 11 interceptions. He also has 21 rushing touchdowns.

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Heaps is 28-0 as a starter for the Spartans and has taken Skyline to back-to-back state championships.

Apo (6-4, 190), from Oakridge School in Arlington, Texas, is the No. 56 wide receiver in the 2010 recruiting class, according to Scout.com. He had given a soft verbal commitment to Texas a few months ago.

Stout (6-2, 220) is a four-star recruit from Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village, Calif., and the No. 5-ranked middle linebacker in the 2010 class, according to Scout.com.

(From the Provo Daily Herald today. I'm getting excited for football season already!!!)

Dry Out, Etcetera

Day 3 of the dry out.

When we went to put all the 'stuff' back under the kitchen sink, we pulled the vinyl covering out so I could wipe it down really well, and got a BIG surprise. Water damage all over the wood underneath. Apparently the faucet has been leaking and we didn't know. AND naively thought the vinyl would protect any said leakage. NOT!

So we have had the cupboard doors open and a fan there to dry it out. It is coming along, but not as fast as we would like, especially considering all the moist, June Gloom days lately. I'll bet we will need to have it replaced. In the meantime, we just dodge the fan while we traverse the kitchen!

I made some delish banana bread with mini chocolate chips using up all those nasty over-ripe bananas.

Mike stopped by to work on his power point for school. Josh stopped by as well, and Duff helped quiz him on bar review questions for the upcoming test.

Christine made dinner tonight. She chose Salisbury Steak. She did an outstanding job on it. Followed the recipe very well and got it on the table in 45 minutes! Wednesdays are her night for dinner. She chooses the dish, and I help her learn how to make it, start to finish. Natalie and Robert have Thursdays, Shaun has Mondays, Fridays are fend for yourself nights (what ever is left over or quick out of the pantry), and Duff and I have Sundays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays. This is our 2nd week of the summer dinner schedule. So by next week the kinks should be worked out. At 14, Chris has really good kitchen skills. I'm really proud of her. We started this last summer when we had so many home for those months. It is really helpful for me, and gives them more experience in the kitchen. They all do pretty well, and we get to taste new recipes and how they put their own style into them along with the old favorites.

The marriage class was tonight. We had everyone there except for a couple of spouses who were out of town for work. One of the gals had the dessert and made a decadent cheesecake with a nut and caramel topping and chocolate crust. We all want the recipe!

A Lost Art

Hmmmm. What could this be?

Here is the cute 'package' I got the other day from Adrianne.

It is the flour-sack dish towel she has been working on for my birthday.
Click on it to see it larger, and what good work she does. This is a dying/lost art. I love the colors. Old fashioned hand embroidery with contemporary hues.
Do I dare to use it? Yeah, I guess I will so every time I do I can think of her and all the love that went into this.

Look at the vine stitch she did with her sewing machine (the boys still give me a hard time that 'their' Christmas presents were sewing machines for their wives...hehehehe. Hey, it was a couples gift and the things done with them benefit the whole family, right?)

Thanks, Adriannie. Love You!

Cute Birds, Cute Birds

These little birds are here EVERY morning. Sometimes they are as early as 5am at the other end of the house by the guest room slider.

For some reason, they think they can fly through the glass. So they sit on the clay pot and jump as hard as they can into the sliding door. They hit it full force with their beaks and fall back into the pot. After a while they give up, go to the guest room and do the same thing. They give up there, fly around the yard and come back to the kitchen glass. And repeat this until around 10am at which time they fly away to who knows where only to come back in the morning again.
I wonder what they think they will find if they could come in.

Cute little birdies!

JUNE PROVIDENT LIVING

Fam-o-lee! Look how good I am! It is June 1st, and I already have the new emergency preparedness goals up on the sidebar. Woohoo. I hope the rest of the month I can be this on top of things. Probably not, but hey, it's a good start, right?

All things WATER. Make goals now. Remember to set aside a place for your storage. Even just a small one will do as you get started and make progress. This month's items are very reasonable ones that you can fit into your budgets.

Look for coupons on line, in the paper, in the store. Some places will double your coupons and you can get a lot of these items greatly reduced or next to nothing!

I've got my pom-poms out and I'm cheering us all on. We CAN do this!

Love, Mom

Change Up

First of all, I have to say I love visiting teaching. Oh, I struggle with getting it done on occasion just like everyone I suppose, but I marvel at God's wisdom in it. I have had great visiting teachers that I learn from and with, and I've had less than expected visiting teachers that teach me different lessons. I have loved them all and am a better woman from being associated with these great ladies. These fabulous gals are currently my VT's. Kristin and her mom, Janis. Kristin is a Laurel and is partnered with her mom in a brilliant program to introduce the YW to visiting teaching and help with their transition to Relief Society.

They are faithful! Every month. I know they love me. This month they did a 'change up' on me. They had me over to their house for visiting teaching. Janis makes the fray/rag quilts. I have wanted to learn. So they had everything set up for a demonstration from measuring fabric, to cutting, to sewing, to finishing, to the 'fraying'. They even gave me notes to take. Then we sat around the sewing machine and had the lesson. I loved it.

Thank You.
I Love You!

Where Are The Ancestors, Sunday

Sleep in morning for everyone. Gotta love late schedule this year for church!

Meetings were good. We had both counselors and executive secretary changed in the bishopric today. We will miss seeing them on the stand and all their diligent work. The new ones called will be great. And that's what it's all about. Standing up and moving a few chairs to the left or right and serving wherever we are called. Learning and growing. Everyone is called to whatever we are because we can give what we already have and we can learn what we don't. We all do some things pretty well, and we all make plenty of mistakes. And on we go in this journey!

Duff and I were signed up to go to the new Family History class. Wow. I was impressed. So now we are all on line with the new program finally. My sister's ward has been up and online for over a year now. Our building has one whole room dedicated to this. There are 5 brand new computers, desks, office chairs, furniture, printers, bookcases, etc. in this room. The interesting thing we found was that the information is very incomplete for all four sides of our families. I have always been under the impression that a lot of work has already been submitted, done, and recorded, but that is not what I saw yesterday.

I was able to enter all of our children-in-law, so now they are all on there--whew, we've GOTTA have those kiddos! My parents didn't even have their birthdays listed. What's up with that? And a relative in Germany is saying that my grandfather's ordinances have never been done, and I know they have. So I have to get that resolved. And that's not even going back any farther than the 3rd generation. Gee--lots to be done, I guess. Duff's siblings were not even listed. None of them. So he added them yesterday. It showed on the church records that he didn't even have any brothers and sisters! Crazy. So, the good news is, we have started, and with Brother and Sister Gardner's help we can get it all sorted out and correct.

Stuffed flank steak for dinner. Always a good Sunday family meal.

Quiet evening. Christine went to the fireside and said it was really good. The bishop talked to them all about technology and the appropriate and inappropriate uses of it. Natalie and I found ourselves in the living room alone with our thoughts and handwork. The Koellikers and Claytons dropped in for a visit. We all hung out everywhere there was space in the living room and visited and laughed. Brett was beside himself when Duff told the story of how he crashed into the bathroom in the dark the other night. I'll have to post that another time...

More May Gray, but tomorrow it will be officially June Gloom.

Saturday Stuff

Up early, and off to Chrissy's lacrosse game. We have had May Gray for the past 4 days and it has been wonderful. I like it. May Gray is when the marine layer from the ocean comes in and stays all day and doesn't burn off. It is coldish, misty just enough to be almost annoying, and the green and spring colors just pop.

This morning was thick May Gray.

The game was great. She is doing so well at goalie. She was blocking those shots left and right, up and down! The sidelines were actually cheering her. Her coach talked to the high school coach about her and they want her to come to some of their practices. She will for sure be on the JV team as a freshman we've been told. We'll see, but that would be nice for her! Yikes, am I ready for this? Maddie's mom and I walked around the track pre-game and halftime and got a mile and 1/2 in.

While we were gone, Natalie went to BBB and got the bridal shower gift for Heather's shower this afternoon. We went at 3:30. It was really nice. The old-fashioned, real kind of bridal shower. Games where everyone participates. All the attention is on the bride-to-be and not everyone having their own conversations with others. Appetizers--like crackers and cheese and grapes, etc. Then a sit down salad buffet (contradiction huh?). We buffeted first, then sat down to a catered, tableclothed, china place-setting with place cards table to eat. Champagne for the toasts (we just turned out stemware over and used our water glasses). We all held hands for the blessing by one of her best friends. One gift at a time to be opened with everyone spell bound with attention on every detail of each gift and the giver. Small--only 25 honored guests of which we were 3.

So imagine my akwardness when we had to leave early. Yeah. We had arranged to do sealings at the temple with the family together. So we excused ourselves.....and felt bad when we got in the car at the akwardness of it.

But the flip side to that akwardness was the simple time at the temple together. Testimonies strengthened of eternal families and God's love. A reminder too that each of us has a very unique responsibility to do our part to fulfill this.

After, we went to dinner at a family favorite: SuperMex. Christine got really sick, so Meredith finished eating first and drove her home, while the rest of us finished up. I don't know if she got car sick on the way over, or if she's coming down with something. It was nice of Mere to take her. There are not many things worse than feeling sick in a restaurant!

So, I'm tired and going to bed and taking Tums for the mexican heartburn. Haha!

Happy Birthday Berta--

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR ROBERTA,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUU!!!!

We hope you have the bestest of days.
Thanks for being 'you'!

Love Ya!

The Faucet Blew Up

Well, over the weekend our kitchen faucet 'blew up'. From time to time, it does this weird thing where water spurts out of the handle part. Then all of a sudden it stops. We've just dealt with it over the years not wanting to put money out for a new one. But this last weekend it never stopped spurting. I've had a dishcloth tied around it which only diverts the water down instead of spraying all over the window and sides of the counter.

We finally decided we needed to get a new one. I was shocked at the prices. We found one that I think I can live with. I like other ones better, but they didn't have any in stock at Lowe's and Duff wasn't willing to drive to any other places. He doesn't do good with handyman issues, but let him crunch numbers and he thrives.

Now I have to get a plumber to come and put it in. I've learned I should be happy about how long we've had our current faucet. Just about everyone I talk to on the street has already had to replace theirs years ago.

Duff took me to lunch at Wahoo's first. It was such a fun treat. They have my favorite fish tacos EVER. Not breaded and fresh from the ocean that morning. Oh! I salivate just thinking about them. I decided to have a cheese enchilada with my taco. It was equally delish, but no sooner did I get in the car to go to the hardware store and my tummy wasn't taking it. It passed and I though all was well. Until we got to Lowes. Nope. Gall bladder tummy hit in earnest.

I barely got to a restroom in time. It is a funny thing, this not having a gall bladder. I can go a long time eating certain trigger foods and be fine. Then all of a sudden I can eat something and it isn't fine. And I just 'know'. It is a different kind of tummy ache and what ever the food source is just goes right through you--fast! Cheese was it today. Sometimes it is sour cream. Or butter. Or a slice of bacon. When the tummy ache hits, I quickly go through a mental checklist of what I've eaten and can always identify it. The funny thing is, the offending food doesn't even have to be in any kind of excess. Even a tidbit will do it. The liver lets go too much bile and there is no gall bladder there to 'pasturize' or 'homogenize' it before it goes into the digestive tract, resulting in a pretty intense stomach ache and resulting run to the restrooom.

Duff cruised the aisles and once all was fine with me we resumed the faucet search. I'm funny. I get attached to things like this faucet that has served us so well for the last 15 years. I know once the new one is installed I will move on, but it just looks so sad all old and broken. Thanks to you dear kitchen faucet for being part of the family and doing your part!