Sleeping Beauty

Isn't she pretty?

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Adding a Picture

Samuel showed me how to add a picture.

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Blogging Via Droid

I've never tried it this way and don't really know what I'm doing or what to expect, so this is really a test, for my sake.
My birthday son blogs this way a lot, and he knows how to add pictures to his posts, but if I can't figure out the photo additions, there's no point in continuing this test. So forgive me for putting you through the guinea pig process!

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Once Upon A Time

A long time ago there was a tiny little baby boy born early in the morning. He was a special boy because he was the very first child born to this particular family. His mommy loved him very much and even though he was tiny (for he only weighed 5 lb. 1 oz.), he was very strong, because he could wrap his mommy right around his little finger!
This little boy didn't waste any time and started to grow and learn and experience new things. He was such a cute boy, and often people would be amazed at his ability to speak at such a young age, for he was speaking in full sentences at 18 months old, and when he learned to read at age 3, they were even more amazed, but his mommy wasn't, because she knew this little boy was a special gift from Heaven.
Now he is all grown up, and has three beautiful children of his own (who are some of the most amazing grandchildren ever given to a grandmother).
Happy Birthday to my firstborn child. Thank you for choosing me to be your mom. I love you.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

I'm on my way to Ohio. I'll be there for a brief 2 1/2 weeks. Could someone peek in on my husband from time to time to make sure he's surviving? Thanks. I don't promise to post anything while away due to the fact that my arms will be busy holding a new baby girl. I'm sure she's going to be beeeauuuutiiiiful.

Another Ugly Yummy

I am still working on getting my oddball recipes organized. In the process of doing that, I stopped long enough to get my binder recipes organized within their respective categories. This red binder is desserts. No surprise, right Jenny? Except there are no cookie recipes in this binder, because cookies have a binder all to themselves. Yes, I have that many cookie recipes.
It's funny (not ha-ha funny) that I have oodles of recipes and yet I almost never use them. I have a husband who is content with some type of pan-fried meat, a frozen veggie heated in the microwave and a potato (he'd prefer it genuinely baked, but he never gets it that way) also cooked in the microwave. He thought this dinner was gourmet. Yes, it's ugly. Well, maybe not as ugly as yesterday's recipe, but still ugly.
Especially if you look at it up close. But it has all the yummy flavors I like.
It's on page 160 if you have the family cookbook, Lattice-topped Chicken. If you don't have the family cookbook, that's really so sad! We love this book! Don't we, family?

Lattice-topped Chicken

1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cream of potato soup (didn't have any- used mushroom)

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp seasoned salt

2 cups cooked chicken, cubed

1 (16 oz) pkg. frozen broccoli, carrots and cauliflower mixture, thawed (and drained, if necessary)

1 cup grated cheddar cheese, divided (too lazy- I had some Monterrey Jack already grated)

1 (2.8 oz) can French Fried onions, divided

1 pkg. crescent rolls

Combine soup, milk, chicken, vegetables, 1/2 cup cheese and 1/2 can onions. Pour into baking dish (something just a little smaller than a 9x13 if you have it). Cover with foil, and bake at 375° for 20 minutes. Separate crescent rolls into 2 rectangles. Press perforations to seal. Cut each lengthwise (or whatever fits your size pan) into strips. You can't really form a lattice top because as soon as the dough hits the warm stuff, it becomes too goopy to lift. Therefore, instead of making a lattice top, just twist the crescent roll dough and place it in one direction and then do the same for the opposite direction. Bake uncovered for 12-15 minutes. Top with remaining cheese and onions. Bake 3-5 minutes longer.

That's two french fried onion recipes in a row. I think it might be my favorite food, those onions.

Loving The Ugly

I was craving a little Mexican food. Okay, so this doesn't exactly qualify for real Mexican food, but it's as much spice as my husband can handle, and it satisfied my craving. Yes, I know it's ugly.
I didn't even follow a recipe. Here's what I did...

I put a few boneless chicken pieces in a crock-pot and covered it with a small can of green enchilada sauce. Then I went to church for three hours. When I came home and it was time to think about dinner, I shredded the chicken (still in the crock-pot, but with the heat turned off) and stirred in a can of cream of mushroom soup. You could use any "cream of" soup if you don't want to use mushroom. From a second small can of green enchilada sauce, I poured just enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. I cooked up some tortillas (I only buy the uncooked kind now- you can get them from Costco) and scooped up some filling, added some grated (do you say shredded? I say grated) Monterrey Jack cheese, rolled it up and placed it in the pan. When the pan was full, I poured the remaining sauce over the tortillas, sprinkled some french fried onions on top, along with a little more cheese. I popped it in the oven until it was bubbly. It took about 20 minutes. We had rice and corn with it, and I thought of my son, Danny. I love you, Danny!

Won't You?

My father always spoke in the negative. He would say something like "Let's see if we can't do this." I always wondered why he did that. I'd much rather say "let's see if we can do this." I wonder if it was a generational thing. Remember Mr. Roger's Neighborhood where he sang "Won't you be my neighbor?"

We made this in Relief Society. I think my frame is a little too distressed, but then, so was I at the time of painting it. Lesson learned? Always make sure the nozzle on the spray can is pointing away from you, even if it is so dark you can't see which way it is pointing. Unless, of course, you like having your face and glasses a nice shade of white.

So, will you "be mine?"

Either way, Happy Valentine's Day!

Turn This Into That

Do you have any leftover candy canes? I did. Lots of them.
So what shall we do with them?
Why, look at that! It makes a heart. But how shall I "glue" them together?
Here's my glue!
I just snipped off a tiny corner of the baggie and filled up the heart.
I smoothed the chocolate a bit with my finger, and then I licked my finger. Then I sprinkled some crushed candy canes into the center.
I added a little red and white sugar too, but it's not really visible, so you don't have to add that.
Besides, it kind of makes a mess.
You know what these are good for? First let me tell you what they are NOT good for. They're not good for just chomping into.
But if you add a little popsicle stick to the back, they ARE good for a stirring stick for your hot chocolate! Yes, very good for that!

God's Best Invention

The other day I got an email from Caleb. Karen explained that Caleb was typing away on the computer while he was speaking. She'd grab the keyboard away from him and write what he had just said. This is how it turned out.

qxvzzffxfzvve55gtt
GXrqtewtdaaszerrhv

"Nana I love you with all my heart. Thanks for saying a loggy time. And I know you love someone who loves you best. Love nana."

dggscsfsdadfxdgfef zdd

"Love Nana means you love someone the best who never gives you a loggy clout."

ndjfdhscsj

"Everyone knows you don't give a loggy clout sometimes. A loggy clout means you love someone the best. Like moms."

gdfdefudeyuhuFSGGVD

44yfe

caleb

I loved that email! Good job, Caleb.

Caleb is not the only grandchild who sends me email. Here is one from Agnes. Laura types while Agnes talks. It's funny, because Agnes doesn't talk this way when you're just talking to her, only when she's dictating. This is in response to an email I had sent to her. And just so you know, Agnes' sister is not here yet even though at first it sounds like she is.

Grandma, that was very great. I hope you will be nice to Grandpa Bud. Please enjoy the Wizard of Oz Party of Agnes. And Eliot and Olive Read. The Read Family. It's very fun to have a new sister. Please make everyone feel happy. If you don't get this email, please send me a letter. And hope that my birthday will be really real. And hope that my real one will be real, real, real, real real, real, real. I love you Grandma. Thanks for sending me this email. Enjoy your dinner. When will you eat dinner? Please respond back to me if you don't get this message. I am watching my favorite movie, which is the Wizard of Oz. This is Agnes' favorite movie that is written right beside. And this one is very good. Do you remember when your daughter watched it, Laura? And do you remember Karen? And Caleb? I hope they will be very good to Harley. I wonder why Karen has a dog. Doo. Do you know? Oooo. No. If you come to my party, Olive might be born. If you celebrate my party, it will be lots of fun. You know, probably when do you think I should get my hair cut? Do you think I could be 7 when I get it? Or 8? Is it true that I'll get it in these ages or no? Is it possible to get it in these ages or do you think I should get it in these ages for 10? Do you think I should get it when I'm 10. Why do you think Laura writes it very small? Is it true that she writes in this language or no? That is all.
Love
Agnes

Grandchildren are God's best invention. Ooh, that sounds like a good quote for Julie to make into a plaque! Hey, Julie?

She's So Pretty

Last week I went to a funeral. My aunt's husband passed away. My aunt is my mom's younger sister, by three years (oops, four years. Thanks for the correction, Cheryl). This picture shows my mom (in the blue), and my aunt sitting next to my mom. My mom's much younger brother is in the back row, standing next to my other uncle's two daughters. The lady holding the book is the author of that book, called Too Many Pickles.
My brother came in from California for the funeral, so we took the opportunity to have lunch at Pei Wei's. It was my first time there! That's my other brother wearing the hat.
Here's my point of this whole post. Look at my mom. She's sitting here with my gorgeous sister.
My mom will be 80 years old in June. Doesn't she look fabulous? She's been quite ill for several weeks, so I'm glad she's finally feeling better! I hope I can look as beautiful as she does when I'm her age, if I get to live that long. I love you, Mom! You look mah-vel-ous! Simply mah-vel-ous!

Lesson Enhancements

My Relief Society lesson last Sunday was about being happy. Do you remember that in the temple we are specifically told to "be happy?" Listen for it next time. And, count how many times they say "joy." I'm pretty positive I counted eight. I saw this on a blog somewhere. I don't remember where, but she was selling this as a print and charging $20 for it.
I didn't feel right about using it, since it was her design, so I enlisted my own designer and she came up with this, and used the space theme so it would go well in Caleb's bedroom. I love the green squiddy guy's expression! What a ride! Thank you, Karen. It was perfect.
Then I enlisted my friend's help to make a little handout with the saying on it. Thank you, Julie!
See? Here are a bunch of them, ready to go.
See the little squiggly do-hicky? My other friend showed me how to do that part and I practiced until I perfected it. Nice-looking do-hicky. Thanks, Michele!
Then I roped Julie in again to make this plaque for me. Remember when she made this one for me? I found this saying on the sidebar of my sister's friend's blog. I had never seen the saying before and I fell in love with it. I asked LynnEl to ask her friend if I could use it. She said yes.
Just before going to church, I decided to google the saying and it came up with a page-full of hits. So...it wasn't exactly an original, but it still added a lot to my lesson! The original quote is attributed to Dr. Heartsill Wilson (no, I've never heard of him either), and the plaque is almost word for word to what Dr. Wilson said. I gave Dr. Wilson the credit, and I placed the plaque in the most prime location in my house so I would see it several times a day.

Thanks, Julie! You should sell these things! You'd be rich in about 20 minutes if you did. Well, you would if more people read my blog, but they don't. Sorry.

Does anyone want to commission Julie for a plaque? I'll be the go-between (and I won't charge any extra for it). She can make any saying, any color, any size. Isn't that right, Julie? So who wants a plaque, and what do you want it to say?

In Memoriam

Just the other day, this was in the newspaper. It made me so sad.
She wasn't born with the name, she married into the name. That must have taken some real courage, and I was sad that I never knew this woman.

Valentine Treat

The other day I chose to mix up some Rice Krispies Treats. I figured the recipe would be on the box, as it always has been in the past. I looked all over the box. Nada. I finally looked inside the box, voilà (I'm so multilingual in that last sentence)! There was an English recipe and a Spanish recipe. Despite my multiligual-ness (or lack thereof), I chose to follow the English recipe. Because it's getting close to a certain holiday related to hearts and such, I chose to deviate from the normal Treat. I added some red food coloring to the melting butter/marshmallow mixture. I lined a 9x13 pan with waxed paper so I could lift the Treats out of the pan after letting it cool slightly.
Then I used my heart cookie cutter to cut out some shapes. Either I'm super buff, OR I used the back of the 9x13 pan as a pressing tool to push the cutter into the Treats.
Don't throw your scraps away. They're still tasty, just not presentable.
Did you know that when you line five hearts up together they make a star in the center?
I melted some white chocolate chips (it wasn't behaving nicely so I added a teaspoon of shortening to it), and spread half of the heart with the chocolate and then used a few sprinkles to make it pretty.
And then I got rid of it so I wouldn't eat them all. As for the scraps? I ate them all. by. myself.

One Day- Two Failures

I was all set to make a delicious dessert for our game night. This was the beginning of a very long baking day.
Here we have a cookie crust, pressed into the baking sheet and poked with a fork for ventilation.
Coconut mixed with melted butter, because the THREE sticks of butter in the crust evidently wasn't enough calories by itself.
Here's your best tip of the day. This is how I store my leftover coconut. When I open the bag, I use scissors to cut off the top of the bag, and then I use that cut strip to tie the bag back up. I do that with my frozen veggies too.
The recipe said bake until golden brown. If you look closely, you can see the butter still bubbling up from the crust. Evidently I over-baked it, because it was a brick.
A pineapple cream cheese filling...
topped with the coconut.
Looks pretty yummy, right? No. It was this nice filling sitting on a brick. It was break-your-teeth hard. But a couple of the people wanted to try it anyway. They liked the top a lot. Perhaps I'll try this again but either change the base or cook it less, and maybe rethink the butter quantities.
So I tried new-recipe #2. What was reported on a credible blog as really delicious, all the candy bar pieces sunk to the bottom of the cake making it a mass of sugar, hard and unedible.
My oldest has always said you don't try new recipes when people are coming over. You try them beforehand so you know what to expect. When will I learn?

I went with tried and true. We had Skookies, but even that nearly failed! I pulled the first three out of the oven only to see that the next three weren't quite done, so I left them in there and then they were practically burned. My nice guests swore they were still edible and they managed to choke them down after slathering them with ice cream and hot fudge sauce. At least my hot fudge sauce was perfect.

And we had a really fun night after we got past the dessert phase of the evening.