Sprinklers

Bad news.

We've been having some brown areas in the back yard grass.  I've been having to do more hand watering than usual.  Today I found out that because the grass is denser/thicker now after 17 years that I either need to put in new sod, or get new sprinkler heads that are taller.  The 2nd option is the less expensive one for now so that is the decision I went with.  The gardner was here all afternoon working on them. 

I hardly got anything else done all day.

Christine in Court

Christine got a ticket in March on her way to lacrosse practice.  She was getting off the toll road and still on the ramp was pulled over.  She was in Duff's car.  He is so good.  He always lets her drive his bmer.  She was pulled over for a toll violation because the transponder wasn't mounted on the front windshield.  They have changed the law on that and it is required to be mounted.  In fact, it has been 'lost' for several months and Duff just figured we were getting charged anyway because of 'pay by plate'.  I even told her it was okay because of my misunderstanding of 'pay by plate.' A lot of people don't like it in their windshield because of the way it looks.  But there are so many who cheat the toll road and violate the tolls so now it is a law to be mounted. 

You can 'pay by plate'.  That means the booth will read your front license plate (I thought it was the rear license plate), and charge you by your plate numbers.  But it is only for like when your transponder isn't functioning properly.  You guessed it.  No front license plate on either.  It has been explained to me that sports car owners don't like how that looks..... 

Then the tags were expired.  It needed to be smogged in order for the registration to be complete and he hadn't done that yet.

Oh and the insurance card in the glove box wasn't the current one either.

Poor Girl!  She hadn't done anything wrong, and now has this big fat ticket with a toll fine ($334) and lots to fix,and because of all of that, a court date!

We had to find a police officer to come over at 9pm last night to sign off all the 'fix-its'.  All done except for the license plate.  It is at the cabin on the wall in the game room.  For decoration.  Haha!  Duff considered not going this morning until Todd C. explained to him that she would be cited with a 'failure to appear' and have a bench warrant out for her arrest!

They were there by 7am this morning.  It all got explained and the judge was nice to her.  He granted them an extension in order to get the license plate back to California, nothing will be on her record.  No traffic school.  But Duff does have to pay the toll violation.  Ouch.

Oh, and the bummer is, Duff found the missing transponder.  It was tangled in the wires under the drivers seat!  That explains why sometimes we got charged and could hear it beep and sometimes we didn't.  The irony is that if it had beeped, Chris would have never been pulled over to begin with.  Haha!

What a day!
(today is Darla's birthday.  I am missing her.  I didn't realize how many cues during the day I took from her.  She was such a good dog.)

Hot Baked Bread

My mom has gone to making all their bread for the last several months.  She'll bake 10 loaves at a time once a week.  They use what they need and then give the rest away to neighbors and people in their ward who might need some.  That's just like them--thinking of others and doing something however small to help.

Mom has been using two new recipes that she really likes and wanted to show me.  I like the one for the white loaf bread because it is more simple than any other bread recipe I have used and you just pat it out and roll it with your hands.

 I'm always going to be glad I took this picture of her hands making bread.

They also make this Artisan bread now too.  Kristin taught them how.  See her step by step instructions here.

 It looks like this and is incredibly delicious.  The crust is crusty and the inside is dense and chewy.  I don't even have words to describe how tasty it is.  You can make this dough in 5 minutes.  YES!  I said 5 minutes.  Then you just shape it into a ball and let it rise and put it in the oven.  No tricks.  It's that easy.

I'm in trouble now!

Johnny-boy had to be helping Papa Duff on the computer.  He sat there with him dor the longest time helping him do his 'work'.

We left about 2 o'clock for the drive home.  That is a good time because you miss all the traffic on each end.  When John woke up from his nap he was confused that we weren't there.

We got home in plenty of time for Duff to help Christine get ready to go to court tomorrow morning for her ticket!  Oh, that is a whole other story!

Natalie Sworn In

Natalie was sworn in today as a lawyer.

We had to be there at 9am.  Downtown Phoenix.

Fortunately, Robert is down there quite a bit and knew how to avoid a lot of the morning traffic.

Downtown Phoenix is very beautiful.  The buildings are a combination of old and new and whoever designed the city made sure the transitions between them are smooth and compliment each other.  To my surprise, it was pretty lushly green.  The landscaping is quite smart.

This is a really big building with a large bank of stairs and railings leading up to the gold doors.

 Natalie was upstairs checking in and making sure all her paperwork was in order.

Robert and John were waiting downstairs in the lobby for us.

We had to go through very tight security.  Scanners, metal detectors, etc.

 The official program with her name.

 Entrance to the Supreme Court room.

 The courtroom is very old school and ornate.

Today the judges were 'en banc'.  That means that all of them would be sitting in today.

 The gal on Natalie's left finished law school and studied for and took the bar with a baby too.

They had a lot in common.

 Good Job, Nats!

Quite an accomplishment.

Almost done!

 The center judge was the only woman and she was in charge.  The candidates were presented to her, she congratulated them, and gave really good remarks.  If she had them written down, I would love to have them.  She charged them to be people of character and do right by others to preserve the things our founding fathers stood for and fought for and that our military continues to fight for. 

It was very moving.

 Natalie, Robert, and John.

"Yay!  My Mommy did it!"

(actually we asked him, "How big is John?  Sooo big!  It made for a good picture....)

 With Grandma and Grandpa.

They took care of John for months so she could study.

 We went to lunch after to celebrate.  Natalie wanted to go to Mimi's.

John wanted his Papa Duff to sit by his high chair.  He monitored the apple juice.

He has mastered drinking from a straw and loves it.

Target was nearby and Natalie and I popped in so she could get him some new swim suits and rash guards.  His swimming lessons start next week on Tuesday.  I picked up some flip flops, swim shoes, and navy crocs for him.  He had to sleep with them for his nap.  Haha!

Fast Trip To Arizona

Natalie gets sworn in tomorrow.  She will be a full fledged attorney, ready to practice!

I was going to drive out by myself.  I can do it.  I've done it lots before.  At the last minute, Duff was able to arrange some work things around and called me at noon and told me to be ready in an hour!  I threw in the last load of laundry and got in the shower.

No traffic at all at that time of the day.

We called them when we were at the 101 and Cave Creek and when we turned the corner Robert, Opa, and John were sitting on the seat wall around the big front yard tree waiting for us.

John started waving at our car and when we pulled in the driveway, he was a little puzzled.  I waved at him and opened the door and he was so excited.

Oma and Natalie came out to greet us and we all sat outside under the tree and visited while John went crazy entertaining all of us.  He was so funny.  His hand motions are very animated and he truly thinks we understand all of his 18 month old jibberish!

 John was very much a Papa Duff boy this trip.  Couldn't get enough of his grandpa.

They played with his toys and read his favorite books.  Walked all around and rolled on the floor.

Tomorrow is a big day and we are all excited.  Natalie is a little nervous.

Fruit Tart/Pizza

Isn't this beautiful?  And it tastes even better than it looks!

The recipe is from my friend, Victoria.  She is a very good cook and also has a catering business.  I asked if I could share this recipe and she agreed I could.

ENJOY!

Crust:
1 (18 oz.) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough [or 1/4 batch of your own homemade sugar cookie dough)

Filling:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla

Assorted Fresh Fruit:  I used raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, kiwi, and bananas.  You could also add peaches, nectarines, what ever you like!

Glaze:
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
3/4 cup orange juice
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon orange zest (optional)

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350*.  Press dough into 12 inch pizza pan, or double the recipe and press into a cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes for pizza pan, or around 18 minutes for cookie sheet.  It should just be beginning to get golden around the edges.  Allow to cool.
2.  In a large bowl, soften cream cheese, then cream together with sugar and extract.  Spread over cooled crust.  You can chill it for awhile at this point, or continue by arranging the fruit.
3.  Arrange fruit over pizza.  If you are using a pizza pan,  arrange the easier to slice fruit toward the outside.  If you use bananas, dip them in some lemon juice to prevent darkening.  Then make the glaze to spoon over the fruit. 
4.  In a saucepan,combine sugar, cornstarch, orange juice, lemon juice, and water.  Cook and stir over medium heat.  Bring to a boil and cook for 1 or 2 minutes until thickened.  Remove from heat and add grated orange zest if using.  Remove from heat and allow to cool but not set up.  Spoon over fruit.  Chill for two hours and then slice and serve.

Tips from me:
I used Pillsbury refrigerated dough.
I doubled the recipe and put it in a 12X17 cookie sheet.
Instead of either all almond or vanilla extracts, I did half of each and really liked the flavor.
I used the fruit in this order:  2 baskets of raspberries, 1 basket of bluberries, 1 1/2 bananas sliced kind of thin, 2 kiwis peeled, sliced and then sliced in half again, 1 1/2 baskets of strawberries sliced thin-ish.  Try and make all the slices of each fruit equal to the others.
I did use all of the glaze.  Just keep putting it on!  You'll be glad you did.  It adds so much!

Very Berry Strawberry Homemade Ice Cream

This was soooo very good!

(this isn't my picture--it is from google--but it is exactly what it looks like)

(from the foodnetwork.com  courtesy of Mary Ellen Hoybook)

Ingredients:
3 pounds frest strawberries
1 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
4 eggs, or 1 cup Egg Beaters
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1 quart heavy whipping cream
1 quart half-and-half
4 Tablespoons vanilla extract

Directions:
Wash, core and slice strawberries.  Gently mix with sugar and lemon juice.  Let strawberries sit for at least 1 hour.  While the berries are waiting, mix remaining ingredients and refrigerate.  Heat berries on stove in heavy saucepan until boiling.  Turn heat down and let simmer for 5 minutes.  Cool strawberries.  Put cooled strawberries in food processor and process until you have small bits or puree.  Mix berries and mild mixture together and freeze according to ice cream freezer instructions.

Tips from me:
After simmering the berries, cool them in a sink with some ice water if you want to speed up the process.
We don't care for large bits of frozen fruit in our ice cream, so I processed them just about to the complete puree stage.
We have a 4 quart (1 gallon) White Mountain electric ice cream freezer (that is our favorite).  This made enough for that and 1/3 of another batch that we did in our Rival ice cream freezer.
Remember to use a lot of rock salt in the proper ratio to the ice.  Your ice cream will be creamier and freeze better.  (You know how sometimes homemade ice cream can get icy?)  It took us a lot of years to figure that out!  Use more salt than you think you need.  You should use just about or all of the box of salt.

Memorial Day 2011

 Our Memorial Day was low key and good.

It was cold.  Brrr.  May Gray you know.

We bbq'd hamburgers and hot dogs.  Had Seafood Pasta Salad, Watermelon, and amazing corn on the cobb.  Mike grilled it in their husks.  I'm usually a purist when it comes to corn on the cobb, but am slowly becoming converted to the grilled taste.

I departed from the traditional flag cake.  Wanted something a little lighter and more simple.

I made a fruit tart.  Some call it a fruit pizza...

I used my friend Victoria's recipe.  It is the best I've had.

The kids wanted something other than the traditional vanilla homemade ice-cream too.  So we did a strawberry version and it was amazing.

Recipes to follow.

THANK YOU to all those who have fought and continue to fight for our freedoms.  I have really been into all the Memorial Day movies and programs the last few days.  The Battle of Midway.  Tora! Tora! Tora!, The Patriot, Patton, tv version of Band of Brothers.  I have thought a lot about my Dad in the Korean war.  Some of my uncles who were enlisted and fought in Vietnam.  Grandpa-Great, Richard, who fought in WW2 and parachuted into Normandy.  His experiences were crazy.  The guns, the hand-to-hand combat.  Being left for dead and thrown in a pile of dead servicemen only to be discovered alive as they went to put him in a body-bag!  THANK YOU to everyone I know who has helped to maintain our liberties and to those I don't know as well.  I am so grateful.

'Darla' Is Home

We picked up "Darla" from the vet the other day.

 She is 'home' now.  It is a tiny cedar box.  It freaked me out a little bit at first.  When Lucy died, we had the vet take care of her.  When I picked the box up the insides 'thumped' to the other corner and caught me off guard.  I think we are going to take her to the cabin and plant her under a new tree.

Some of the Activity Day girls made sympathy cards for me when they learned she had passed away.  Isn't that just the sweetest?

left to right:

~~Dear Sister Duffy,  You are the best girl in the world.  I love you.  You ROCK.  Love, McKenna

~~I'm sorry about your dog.  I hope you feel better in the future.  Love, Ainsley

~~Sister Duffy, I hope your heart will be better soon.  I love you!  Your Friend, Allison

~~To Sister Duffy:  Sorry about your d o g.  P.S.  You are soooooooooo Nice.  From Dani.

~~Dear Sister Duffy, Hope your dog goes to heaven.  Sorry about your dog.  Hope you feel better.  You are really nice.  --Gabbi

The cards made my day.  I'm happy to know they think I'm 'nice' and a 'girl' (not an old gal...haha!)

Garden and Garage.

We worked on the garden and the garages again today.
We couldn't find pole/climbing beans anywhere here for our new bean tower, so I had to order them online.  Can you believe that???  I soaked them overnight and we planted them today.  Pulled some weeds too.  Things are looking really good.  I think we amended the soil really well this year.  Hope we can remember it for next year.  Hahaha.

The guys moved the crib from above the cabinets to the shelving racks above the garage door tracks.  Now there is more room for the Christmas boxes to all be in the same area.  It was very annoying to Duff and the boys, but it made sense to me to have like things together so they obliged (with many manly complaints about it, but at least they did it, right?!)  Duff and I went through all the boxes on those shelves too and got rid of things we didn't need anymore.  Boy, those things sneak up on you.  Lots of old stuff from when the kids first started going to college.  But, among them was a computer printer/scanner that is still good.  Bingo!  Josh and Meredith took the Sears white and gold dresser and nightstand that we inherited from Mamo Minnie when she married Richard and they got their own bedroom furniture.  It will work well in their spare bedroom.

I moved on to the other garage.  My box of Christmas wrapping paper and stuff was still laying out all over when I stuffed it in there to get it out of the way of company on Christmas Eve.  Geez.  It's been 5 months!  I got all the paper, ribbon, tissue paper, tags, cleaned up and organized.  There was just a lot of things like that that needed to be done.  Natalie had packed up her Nativity in many small plastic totes, and I went and got a pretty big one at Target and it all fit in together.  Now it will all be in one place when they get it to Arizona.  Rotated some food storage around.  Then the best part of all--sweeping and vacuuming all the acculated junk on the floor.  Spic and Span.

I am tired and sore and dirty and finally headed for the shower!

Chimes--Ward Talent Show

The 8 and 9 year old Activity Day Group learned how to play the chimes.  Sister Hoopes has a set and taught them to play Families Can Be Together Forever so they could perform it at the ward Talent Show tonight.

Concentrating so hard on the song.  We practiced at Diana's, and then they stood on the front stage stairs at the church.  They were front and center!

I played the piano at the beginning and they sang the song through first.  Then they played the chimes for the second verse.

They did a GREAT job!  They received a lot of compliments and were really proud of themselves.

We practiced that at the end of their number they would 'ding, ding, ding' their chimes while the audience applauded.  It was a perfect ending.

Otter Pop Cozies

On May 11th, we made Otter Pop Cozies for Activity Day.

You use a piece of fleece or felt.

Place an Otter Pop or frozen Gogurt, etc. on it and fold over.

Cut off excess remembering to leave enough for a seam allowance.

Stitch along the bottom and the long side that is not folded.

There you go.  It's that easy!

The drips stay inside the 'cozy'.  It sure helps with sticky hands and when they get too cold from the frozen treats.

They are washable too!  So make several to have on hand.