Hanging Pictures

We are cleaning and spiffing up from winter.  The trees have grown A LOT!  Again, all the water.

Nicole came up today and helped me hang some pictures.  The kids characitures, the BYU stadium Shaun gave Duff for Christmas, and also all the vintage musical albums the kids gave us for our anniversary and Father's Day.  Everything looks really nice.  And one of the things I love about it is that they are personal to us and the decor evolves over time.  Nicole and I talked and talked and talked and I enjoyed seeing her.  It's been a couple of years.

It is peaceful and quiet and just what we've needed.

Midway or Ireland?

Duff and I left for the cabin this morning.  It was just the two of us this time, which we really enjoyed, but at the same time it felt a little odd.  We always have someone with us or Darla.  Christine has lacrosse the next two days and our puppy is 'gone' since the last time we were in Midway.  When we walked in the door it hit us that Miss Darla wasn't with us.  She loved this place.  When we got to the switch backs she somehow knew where we were and got really excited.  She would wait not so patiently at the front door to get inside and ran right over to where her dish goes and stood there until I put a drink of water down for her.  Then she would run to her kennel in our room and bring out every 'baby' she had in it and scatter them all over the great room squeaking them with pleasure.  Her arrival routine was complete as she jumped on to the giant bean bag and settled down with a sigh.  We both started crying and missed her a lot.

There is still snow on all the mountain tops and it is June 29th!  I have never seen that.  Midway looks like Ireland it is so green from the heavy winter and long wet spring.  We have had a summer storm ever since we got here and are loving it.

Busy As A Bee

When I do my embroidery projects I thread lots of needles with all the different colors of floss so I don't have to change them out all the time.  It's easier that way for me.  I line all the threaded needles up and stick them in the arm of the family room couch.  My family hates it.  They constantly forget they are there and get stuck by them.

I solved the problem by making this cute pincushion.  I finished it today.  I got the pattern from Cross Stitch Happy.  I think it turned out really cute and I love it.

So-ing

 This is my embroidery floss tote.

It has all my DMC and accessories in it.  I like the catalog system. 
All the pouches are numerical and I can find what I need quickly.

See the lime green sewing box?

My mom gave it to me when I left for college.  It had basic sewing supplies in it.  I didn't think I needed it, but I used it a lot.

When I was in the floss box today, I looked more closely at the green sewing box.  I had a great memory.  It was written all over with a white sewing pencil by Shaun when he was a little boy.  On the top it said:  "So-ing".

I remember when he wrote it.  I couldn't bring myself to clean it off.  It's been on there for 20 years.

My laptop is having issues.  I think it's time for a new one.  I'll post when I get this figured out---

Quiet

No one is home right now.
It is weird.
Chris is at Girl's Camp.  Josh and Meredith are in Arizona.  Shaun is up in LA at a concert.  It's a gal he knows from high school that Griffin is working with recording.  Griff was at the concert too and they got to hang out together.  Mike and Adrianne went to spend the weekend at Josh and Mere's to have some much needed alone time.

Duff and I haven't been alone in the house on a Friday night for a lonnnnng time.  It was really nice.

Colors Of The Wind Keep Us Steady As A Beating Drum

Christine left for Girl's Camp today. They have good things planned and she will have a great time. I like their theme this year.

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!

Garden (two weeks later)

The whole garden has just taken off!

Pictures two weeks later.

We are going to have more tomatoes than we can handle.  So we will be canning hot sauce, salsa, and whole tomatoes come August/September.

It Is Finals Week

It is finals week.

She gets out of school early every day only to come home and cram some more. Oh, and Panda Express.  Our finals lunch treat tradition. Two more days.  Then she'll be a junior.

Where has the time gone?

To All The Dads...

 Our Father's Day was a good one!  We had a great dinner of steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cobb (Josh and Mere), brussel sprouts (Mike and Adrianne), and Duff's requested Chocolate Eclair Cake.
The kids got him several original long-playing albums from all the musicals he loves: South Pacific, Oklahoma, The King and I, Music Man, Carousel, Fiddler On The Roof,   I am going to frame them and we will hang them at the cabin going down the stairs to the game room.  Perfect.

And our grand-dog-ter, Gidget waking up from a nap.  She likes to sleep on her back with her head hanging off your arm.  Haha!

Father's Day Cookie Bake a.k.a. Personal Progress Project

Shopping for cookie ingredients.

They had a budget of $125.00 for all of it.  The cookies and the wrapping.

I helped them calculate how many ingredients they would need to buy for the amount they needed per recipe/batch of cookies.  They learned a lot.  I learned a lot.  Did you know that there are 37 cups of flour in 10 pounds?  We did a lot of that kind of figuring.

 They went down all the aisles to be sure they had everything they needed.

Christine had also already played 2 lacrosse games that morning.

 Checking out.

 Cookies, cookies, and MORE cookies.

 The girls had an assembly line going on the kitchen table for the wrapping.  It went smoothly.

Now they are all ready for tomorrow.

The cute tags.

We are over-dosed on chocolate chip cookies.

I don't think we will be making some any time soon.

They worked from 1-8:30pm on this part of the project.

Then had friends over and played board games.

(Can I borrow some of their energy?  I went upstairs and took a bubble bath.  I was tired.)

Getting Ready For The Big Cookie Bake

Christine and Leslie are doing all the Father's Day gifts for church on Sunday.  It will be one of their Personal Progress projects.

Leslie came over tonight and they chose the quote/poem, copied it, cut it, punched the holes in each tag, and got all the ribbons cut.

Gifts for 125 men equals:

250 chocolate chip cookies

125 cellophane bags

375 18" lengths of ribbon  125 robin egg blue, 125 white, 125 lime green

They worked from 5-10:30pm.

Garden Update

 After several weeks, here is the garden.  It is coming along really nicely.  We are already using chives, basil, cilantro, thyme, rosemary, and green onions.

FLAG DAY

Happy Flag Day, all.

It's not one of our most serious holidays, but I've always loved the striking appearance of the U.S. flag, and what it stands for.

Take a moment to pause and be grateful.

Tuscan Lemon Chicken

We had this for dinner on Saturday.

It was amazingly fast, easy, and oh-so-tasty!

I also added fresh thyme because I have it growing in my garden and I love thyme with chicken.  It just adds a bit of slighly lemon-ish goodness to it.  I found on my gas grill that it needed to cook the 15-20 minutes on each side.  I did not grill the lemon halves.  It was the first time I have cut the back out of a chicken and flattened it whole.  I used my kitchen shears and 1-2-3 it was done!  If I would have known it was that easy I would have tried doing it long ago.



Tuscan Lemon Chicken
By:  Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa

Prep Time: 20 min 

Cook Time:  40 min

Level:  Easy
Serves:  2 to 3 servings  (I cut it into individual pieces and it served 5)

Ingredients

• 1 (3 1/2-pound) chicken, flattened
• Kosher salt
• 1/3 cup good olive oil
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)  [I used 1/2 of this.]
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, halved

Directions

Sprinkle the chicken with 1 teaspoon salt on each side. Combine the olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary, and 2 teaspoons pepper in a small measuring cup. Place the chicken in a ceramic or glass dish just large enough to hold it flat. Pour the lemon marinade over the chicken, turning it in the dish. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Turn the chicken 2 or 3 times while marinating.

When ready to grill, prepare a hot charcoal fire on 1 side of a grill (or turn a gas grill on low heat). Spread 1/4 of the coals across the other side of the grill. Place the chicken on the cooler side, skin side up, and weigh it down with the dish you used for marinating. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes, until the underside is golden brown. Turn the chicken skin side down, weight again with the dish, and cook for another 12 to 15 minutes, until the skin is golden brown and the chicken is cooked through. Place the lemon halves on the cool side of the grill, cut side down for the last 10 minutes of cooking. Remove the chicken to a plate or cutting board, cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Cut in quarters, or individual pieces, sprinkle with salt, and serve with the grilled lemon halves.

Garage Work Bench

The clean and purge continues.  I think I use that sentence a lot when talking about what I have been doing the last few months.  But I just seem to do better with a simpler life around the house.  And as I grow older, I seem to want a place for everything and everything in it's place.

I am not a horder or 'acquirer' by any means, but it sure creeps up on you that all of a sudden you have all this stuff, and so I keep cleaning out.  For instance,  I kept all of the kids bulletin boards from when they were underclassmen in college.  Why?  They were so worn out and used up, so now they are gone.

The work bench in the garage collects things over the months and year.  We tend to 'set' them on there with the intention of putting them away 'later'.  Later doesn't come.  Haha!  Look how nice and clean and organized it is now.

 This drawer was a tangled mess of extension cords.  All colors, kinds, lengths.  Now they are separated, coordinated, and we know what we have and where they are.  What is your guess for how many I have accumulated over the years????

 In another lifetime, I painted that cute sunflower box!  Now I'm using it for small tools and such.  It brightens the space.

 Everything is grouped with like products and we know what we have and what we don't.  I'm embarrassed to say how many expired things I had to toss.

 Some of my hand tools for gardening.  These were dirty, grimy, gross, and kind of rusty in some places.  I washed them and then used a fine steel wool on them.  It took every bit of garden gunk away.  Then I sharpened them and added new loops to hang them with.  Overtime, the originals somehow broke and came off.  I used an old leather shoelace for one and the wire from a broken pair of ipod headphones for the other.  Abracadabra!  New loops.

This is one of my very most favorite tools now.  It is a Garden Plus.  I got it at Lowes for $5.  You put a little drop of 3 in 1 oil on the screws of your garden tools and it lubricates them like they are new.  Then a dot on the blade and with the handy-dandy sharpener at a 20* angle you draw it across about 5-6 times and your tools are SHARP.  I wanted a Speedy Sharp (which is basically the same thing), but they didn't carry that brand and I find that this works just as well.  I sharpened all my garden cutting tools, a shovel, and even Duff's fishing knife!

Saturday of a Lazy Nature

Duff was up before the sun it seemed to go to the Trabuco building to help relandscape it.  He got home around noon and said it went really well.  They got all the old plants ripped out, the ground amended and conditioned and the new plant materials in.  He is tired and sore.  We pretty much just puttered around the house and enjoyed a Saturday with no big things to do or places to be.

Josh and Meredith went to one of his co-worker's wedding in the valley.  We were on Gidget babysitting duty.  Sammy was here working on the LAST of the AP Euro projects for the year with Christine and Gidgie-Girl loved napping between them on their laptops.

When she is asleep, she is OUT.  Limp as a rag. And she likes to cross her hind legs.

Funny girl.

Last Day of Seminary

At long last.  The end of seminary for the year.  It's been a good class with good teachers, Brother Hrabik and Brother Mullin.  They studied the Doctrine and Covenants and church history.

Brother Hrabik owns an entertainment business.  They do proms, school dances, he has a wedding/event center, limos, etc.  He bought this short bus, took some of the bench seats out and had it painted lime green.  He plans to sell shave ice out of it.  The last week of seminary the class loaded up and toilet papered the cars of the senior students, then went to get donuts.

(l-r: back:  Max, Kyler,  Wyatt, Brandon, Emily, Sarah, Maddy, Jenna, Travis

l-r: front:  Christine, Samantha, Raquel, Leslie, Addy, Valerie, Macy)

Under Brother Mullin's mentoring, their class won the stake Scripture Mastery Showcase!

WooHoo!  Congrats guys.  That's a years worth of studying and knowing the scriptures.

Thanks for all your time and dedication in making early morning seminary the best way to start her school day.

Impact

Christine applied for a leadership group at school earlier this year.  It was quite a process of application and interviews.  And,

SHE MADE IT!

The group is called Impact.  It is a peer assistance leadership program.  The program includes and is known for peer to peer support, community service, cross-age tutorial and teaching, new student transitions, conflict management and mediation, mentoring, alcohol, tobacco, drug, and violence prevention, and environmental awareness. Students discuss, plan, and work to find the best ways to support and assist in all of these areas. Impact students also participate in a number of community service projects.

The Impact Program is known for the development of youth leaders who outreach on their school campuses. mentoring.  The goal of the student peer leaders is to reach out to other students on their campuses to help create a positive culture, improve attendance, increase school connectedness, and promote alcohol, tobacco, other drug, and violence free lifestyles.

Orange County Superintendent of Schools, William M. Habermehl, stated, "The leadership and communication skills students learn in PAL programs provide lifelong benefits. We are proud to honor the dedicated student leaders and advisors who promote positive lifestyles and provide peer support on school campuses throughout Orange County."

CONGRATULATIONS, CHRISTINE!

She has planning and training this summer and then the first big event is freshman orientation the week school starts.

Activity Day Scavenger Hunt

These girls are so cute.  They crack me up and help keep me young.

We worked on Articles of Faith and then went on a scavenger hunt.  I had no idea how competitive 8 year old girls can be! And clever!

 Team Duffy.

We ROCK.

Team Ranck, minus someone not in the picture....

They ROCK too.

Lacrosse Banquet 2011

Tonight we went to Christine's lacrosse banquet.

It was at BJ's Restaurant again this year.

Good food and good company.

The program was nice.  I can't believe another year is done.

Christine with the two JV coaches, Flaherty and Bis.

Chris and Alex Potts.

Potts is graduating.  She was the varsity goalie and has mentored Christine the last two years.  They are good friends and teammates.  We will miss Potts, but she is staying local for college and will be back from time to time to cheer us on.

I Love This Stuff!

I have a beautiful Mexican Lace tablecloth.

I got it in Mexico when we went to pick Josh up from his mission in McAllen, Texas.

The Lobato's (the senior couple there) took us all across the border one day.  Wow.  I don't need to say too much about that, other than what a blessing it is to live in America.  Duff got some hurache sandals and I got some mexican vanilla and the tablecloth.

We used it on our table for my birthday dinner and it's been on ever since.

I took it off today to wash and discovered:  gravy, avocados, salsa, ketchup, and a host of other stains from the last two weeks menus.

Enter:  OXI-CLEAN.

I discovered this stuff last fall while visiting my mom and dad.

It is amazing.  I had seen all the commercials/infomercials about it and just thought, yeah right.  But I have to say, it does what they say it does.

Not only do I use the powder for my laundry needs and various other cleanng things, but I like the spray and stick versions too.

I keep an old ice cream bucket in the sink in my laundry room filled with some cold water and a scoop of the powdered Oxi-Clean dissolved together.  I toss my dishcloths, towels, shirts, socks, etc. into it inbetween laundry days.  When it's time to do laundry, I wash as usual.

Brilliantly white, clean, no stains left.  Colors intact.  (I do not use it on dark colored anything.)

My Mexican Lace tablecloth is gorgeous again.

Fast Sunday Dinner and Family Home Evening

Today the kids came over for our fast Sunday dinner and monthly FHE.  We had a good old fashioned roast beef spread.  Why is it that there is just nothing like it on a Sunday after church?  It just seems to make everything 'rose-colored', even the weather.

Duff gave a lesson on the Priesthood and tied it in scripturally with things that we learn about while we visit the temple.  It was very uplifting and good.

Gidget is worming her way into all of our hearts.  It's not very hard though--she's so blasted cute!

Gidget

Meet Gidget!

 Josh and Meredith got a cute little puppy today!

She is a Cockapoo.

They got her from a rescue shelter in Van Nuys this morning.

Her original name was 'Darla'. 

It was a sign!  

Meredith loves all things Gidget.

The movies, the tv series.  In some ways she is a Gidget herself--growing up surfing at the beaches. 

Gidgi-Girl already responds to her name and is in love with Mere.

They stopped here on their way home and Christine and I went with her to Petsmart to get all the necessary doggie things.  Bed, treats, collar (with bling, of course.  Duffy dogs have to have bling), leash, toys, food, dish, kennel/crate, tags, and training rewards. The gal who walked us through the store really knew her stuff and I even learned some new things.

I wonder if I'm ready for a new dog yet.  I could call it 'Moondoggie'.

You know.  Gidget's boyfried.  Hahaha!

I think this little one has stolen all of our hearts already.

Cruisin' On A Friday Night

Family IQ had a harbor cruise tonight.

We were celebrating and thanking everyone involved in with the Parent Coaching.

We left around 6pm.  It was still sunny and things looked so pretty in a different way than when we go during the holidays to see all the lights.  There was delicious mexican food, beverages, and company.  Adrianne and I took care of the galley and food while Diane made sure everyone was taken care of.  Mark took us all around the harbor during dinner and then left the bay and took us out to the open waters during the sunset..

What a difference.  You can really tell.

The seals on the buoys were adorable.

It was a pretty evening and the sunset was stunning.

Summer is almost here!