Happy Birthday Nora

Five years ago I got a phone call letting me know that this little angel had arrived. This precious girl allowed me to become a grandmother for the first time. She is my #1 grandchild!
Here she is on her blessing day. I guess I should have edited the photo first...oh well.

Somehow, she's always known that I love her, even though we live states apart.

It's wonderful when we get to meet in the middle, in St. George.

But sometimes I just have to get on a plane and go see her. This was her first time bowling. Had to be there for THAT!

Nora loves cooking and baking. This is at our St. George house again.

Another thing Nora has enjoyed is golfing. This was at Caleb's birthday party (St. George). Sometimes the best part of golfing isn't golfing!

Happy Birthday Nora! I'll see you next Friday! I love you so much!

Roses

While we were in San Jose for Bud's swim meet, we were staying with some friends who live a block away from the Municipal Rose Garden. Bud and I spent a wonderful morning looking at Nature's beauty.






Those were just a few of the hundred or so photos I took. Then on the way home, I thought this house was really nice. If I were "forced" to live in San Jose, I'd pick a house like this one.

But I don't think I could afford it. We saw one house for sale that was very unimpressive (at least from the outside. Asking price? $6 million and change. Gasp.

Looks Bad, Tastes Good

After naming this post, I have Ludo's voice in my head from Labrynth. Can't you just hear him? "Smell baaadddd!" Well, these didn't smell bad, they just looked bad because I didn't tuck the point under the rest of the roll (I didn't know I needed to!)
Here they are starting to look like some kind of creature.

What would you call that? A snail? Ew. Perhaps it's a swan? Looking back over it's "shoulder?" Better. Maybe.

I polished them with a little butter (um, Parkay squeeze, actually), tucked them into the basket hiding the deformities as best I could, and served them. They were inhaled.

You can find the recipe as originally posted, here. Just don't look too closely at how beautiful her rolls turned out, please.

Grandma’s Dinner Rolls

2 rounded Tbsp yeast

1 ½ cups warm water

1 cup warm milk

½ cup sugar (2/3 c for sweet rolls)

6 Tbsp shortening

2 tsp salt

4 eggs

7-8 cups flour

Beat first 7 ingredients until smooth. I put all the ingredients in my Blendtec mixing bowl and let it do all the work for me, including the kneading. If you don't have one sitting in your cupboard doing nothing (like some people I know who shall remain nameless...eh-hem!), then you can use an electric mixer with a dough hook, add flour one cup at a time until dough forms a ball, cleaning off edge of bowl. Knead 5 minutes (or 10 minutes by hand).

Let rise until double covered with a damp towel. Punch down dough and let rise until double again, still covering with the damp towel. When it has doubled in size gently punch down the dough. Cover again with the towel and allow to rise again. Punch down again and divide into 3 parts.

Roll out each segment of dough into a circle. With a pizza cutter, cut into fourths, then each fourth into thirds (or think of an analog clock and make cuts at each "hour mark" making 12 pie shapes. Roll each one up starting at the wide end. Place on cookie sheet and let rise briefly. Watch carefully as rolls will rise very quickly now (about 10 minutes).

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 17-20 minutes, until lightly browned.

And stop laughing at my strange-looking rolls. I can hear you from here!

The 90 Second Rule

Yesterday while looking for something else, I came across this. It made so much sense to me. Please take a few minutes to watch the video which will explain it far better than I can.

In essence, what it is suggesting is that after you've been away from a person you care about (your spouse, your kids, etc) for a couple of hours or more, when reunited with that person, the first 90 seconds with them are the most important. Even if you give them undivided attention later, it won't have the same impact as those first 90 seconds.

Another concept in the 90 second rule is mirroring. When you ask them about their day, if they're happy, you be happy too (even if you're miserable inside), or if they're sad, empathize with their sadness. Mirror their feelings.

Take a look at the video (I'd have posted it here, but I'm not that smart to know how to post someone else's video). Then apply it today... see what happens!

Now, for me, I can't really work this principal with my spouse because we're never apart for more than a few minutes at a time!

Her First Day At School

Nearly five years ago, I became a grandmother. It was the introduction to the most wonderful "club" on Earth.
Nora has always loved learning things, and has especially loved books.

Maybe that's why she already knows how to read! Today is her very first day at school. Luckily, she gets to go to the same school as where her daddy works.

I know she will love school, if she doesn't get too bored because the teacher has to teach everyone else stuff she already knows.

Have a wonderful day, Nora! Nana loves you!

A Timesaving Tip

Today I needed to buy the ingredients to make a salad for Empty Nesters. Instead of taking the time to write down a list of the things I needed to buy, and because I don't dare rely on my memory (it's nearly non-existent), I used my purse camera to snap off a shot of the recipe in the cookbook before leaving home.
When I got to the store, I just double checked the image on the camera to see what I needed to get. Perfect. Hey, I guess it's also going green since I didn't have to waste a tree to jot down my note. Cool.

Huh???

I went to the United States Post Office today. As I entered, I saw this sign.

Can ANYONE tell me HOW a dog is going to assist a deaf person? Are there talking dogs out there that I don't know about that isn't a cartoon dog? Because we all know they can talk, except Snoopy. Never heard him talk.
That's got to be the craziest sign I've seen in a long time.

Just Wondering

Do Relief Society Presidents have time to blog? Will my counselors or secretary have time to blog (I really like reading theirs). I guess time will tell.

Thing One and Thing Two

I finally learned enough about the Cricut to make something. Two somethings. Here's the first one. My nephew's daughter turned one on 8/8, so I made her a card. Nothing elaborate...
so then why did it take me about 3 hours to make it??? The learning curve in my head is steep.
At least two years ago, Bud bought gift cards from Hale Centre Theatre. They came in a very nice, sturdy envelope which I saved to use for safe keeping of lots of gift cards in my purse so I could find them easily. But after two years it was looking a little worse for wear, after having been taped back together a few times, and with one side completely torn off.
This new envelope is much cuter. And it only took me about 10 minutes to make that project!
I should hope so, since it was just a matter of peeling it off the mat and putting some tape along two sides. Now what shall I make next?

A Great Day

Yesterday was great. We celebrated our seventh anniversary by working on three patients, then going to a funeral. But after that it got better. We went to the apple store and got a new computer. So, now that I'm cool enough (Samuel) I need to get smart enough. So far, I'm smart enough to set it up and type up this post! 

After buying the computer, we went to dinner at Market Street Grill on 13th East in SLC. We had a very nice dinner and on our way back to the car, my husband saw one of his very good friends. It was this guy. 

Orrin jumped out of the car and gave Bud a big hug and then gave me a big hug (well, two hugs, actually) and said we should "get together." Yeah, I'll let you know when that happens. My husband knows more big-wigs than you can imagine.
It was a wonderful anniversary. Yes, a very nice day. And I think I'm going to love my new toy.

Seven Years of Bliss

This picture was taken seven years ago, today. I don't think my kids have changed much in the last seven years, although their lives certainly have (none of them had kids yet, now they all do).
And this picture was taken on August 12, 2003.

Happy Anniversary dear husband of mine.

What Age Would That Be?

We all have a few friends that have been in our lives for a long time. I think I have about three that fall in that category. Those are the ones with whom you can catch back up with in a matter of moments (and then talk for hours and hours) after not having seen each other for sometimes years. I had that moment a couple weeks ago with Wendy, and once again on Wednesday evening with Vickie. I haven't seen her for seven years.

We both found our guys within a couple of months of each other (I married Bud in August and she married Owen in October, 2002) and we have been blissfully happy since then.
Vickie's house is almost as good as Disneyland as far as fun stuff to do. A play area for the little ones...

A volleyball court...

An archery area...

A swimming pool...

A sno-cone machine...

A great outdoor entertaining area...

A soft-serve ice cream machine...
which makes for big smiles on her grandkids' faces,
and last of all, a zip-line.
I really should act my age occasionally, but Robert (Vickie's son) practically dared me to do it. Check out the very end of this clip...


I took away from that little ride a realization that just because something "looks" fun, doesn't mean you should do it. I should act my age. Shouldn't I?
Happy first birthday to Kaydence!

Wins By A Nose, Or A Shoulder

, Bud ended up having two really close races. The first one was lost by a second and the second was won by less than a second!
Here's the win, if you're interested in seeing it. Sorry I didn't get the very start of the race recorded. My camera was in photo mode instead of video mode. Oops.



Bud is in the lane just above the empty lane and his competitor is just above Bud. At the turn they're pretty much even-steven. Dale goes ahead of Bud and then Bud catches a look and sees where Dale is and turns on the juice, but misses the clean touch and ends up hitting the touch-pad with his shoulder instead. Whatever works! I should have run the video a bit longer so you could hear the announcer say that Bud set a new National Senior Games record with that swim. Don't tell Bud I showed you this! Seriously, don't tell him!
P.S. Happy Birthday to Amy! And also to Cindy (our hostess in San Jose)!

The Meet Is Finished

I don't have my camera cord so I can't post a picture to go with this post. Bud is finished with all his races now. On the really close race, he took second place to the guy who always wins, but Bud only lost by one second! One second! He was happy with his performance, however, and that's what really counts. As far as the other two races, he won them both, setting a new National Senior Games record for both of them. I'm not bragging, I'm just sharing information.
One guy (he took second place to Bud's first in several races) said, "That Knowlton, he's greased lightening!" Yeah, that's how these guys talk. They say things like "that was a swell race." Okay, not really on that. We've had a good time. The next meet will be in October when we'll do it all over again.
5 Gold, 1 Silver. But don't tell anyone. Bud's very shy about all this.

Update on the Medal Count

We're in Stanford, CA. Bud has had three races so far.
Gold,
gold,
and gold.
Tomorrow he says will be his hardest race with his toughest competition. I'd thought I'd report now while he's 3 for 3. We'll see what color he gets tomorrow. Cross your fingers! Three down, three to go.
Hey Bekah, come on over and see us!

Sometimes I Just Don't Think

I needed a hostess gift for the family we're staying with in CA for the swim meet. I thought I'd go to Kneaders and have them put a nice basket together for me.
A couple loaves of bread, a breadboard, some honey roasted peanuts, lemon-blueberry bread, a couple jars of jam and a bottle of Mexican vanilla. I was so pleased with how it turned out.

Then Bud saw it.

He said, "How are you going to take that on the plane?"
I said "I'll hold it on my lap."
Him- "They probably won't let you do that during take-off and landing."
Me- "Oh. (pause) You're probably right."
Him- "Besides, the vanilla is liquid, and they'll probably have issues with the jam as well."
Me- "Oh. (another pause) I didn't think of that."
Him- "That means we'll have to check a bag."
Me- "Ugh."
So much for my great choices. Maybe I should have bought them a book instead.