Going on a Walkabout

Some of the things I got to see while walking around in St. George and Santa Clara last October. We've been spending large chunks of time down there because we've been trying to restore our home there to some level of order and cleanliness after having rented the home out for the last three years. That was a mistake!

Hello Again!

I didn't actually fall off the face of the earth, but it was a close call. I thought I'd start back with what's been happening since I last blogged nearly six months ago! 

In October we went to the Huntsman World Senior Games, as usual. Bud was surprised he did so well, but he always says that, so I'm not sure when to start believing him.  

He received one silver and four golds. His arch nemesis, Frank Piemme, beat him in the 50 meter backstroke by less than a half second. What comes around goes around and on the next race, Bud beat Frank by a little more than a half second! From then on, Bud increased his lead in every race, and finally won the last race by more than 20 seconds. 

Here's the hardware. 

This is our good friend, Don Baker. 

This is our dear friend, Biff Lowry, posing with the Wong sisters and Mama Wong. 

That's it for now- I need to ease back into the blogging world and not just jump into the deep end! 

The Book is Done!

I have been majorly preoccupied with typing, setting, editing, rearranging, fixing, and finishing Bud's life history to be self-published. I finished it today and sent it to the publisher, ordering one copy so we can preview it to make sure it's perfect before we order multiple copies. The last time I ordered multiple copies without viewing it first, my mother ended up being named Eerie, and my stepfather, Waltz. So, I've learned my lesson and I will check the book while it is in my hand before I stock up. At almost $90 a book, I don't want any mistakes!
Speaking of which, as soon as I uploaded it and ordered it, and it was a done deal, I noticed that the picture on the front cover needed to be repositioned because it chops off part of Bud's hair (that was back when he had some). Drat. Too late to fix that now. If there are no other mistakes, I might let that go rather than uploading the book again, but if you know me...well, I might not be able to live with that and will have to upload anyway.
The whole point of this post is to let you know I have a life again, and might just get back to blogging one of these days.

It's Twins (edited- Triplets)!

You all know that my daughter, Laura, is pregnant and due in November, right? Okay, I thought you'd be interested to know that this post has nothing to do with that, and no, she is not having twins.
Last night I was sitting on my porch swing which used to be Karen's swing. Anyway, I was looking at our tree thinking how much I didn't like it. Then I started really looking at the tree and noticed some grassy-like stuff in the middle of the branches. I thought it looked like it could be a nest. Upon further investigation (like when a robin flew in and sat on it) I realized it was a nest. I wondered how many eggs might be in the nest. The answer to that was- none.
Instead of eggs, we have two (edited- three) tiny little babies in the nest. I saw them get their dinner and get tucked in for the night. I think I'll watch their progress and see how they grow over the next little while.

What could this be? 

Two little babies, waiting for dinner! 

Yummy worms for dinner!

Good night little robin family

Sleep tight! 

It's Not Even My Birthday

Last night we went to dinner at the Outlets at Traverse Mountain to celebrate a major achievement for my son-in-law. After dinner and a detour at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, we stopped in the kitchen store to see if they had a beater-blade to replace the one that broke some time ago. They had it, but it cost $30. I was not willing to fork over that kind of dough.
Bud and I had seen a couple days earlier, some Kitchen Aid machines at Costco. They were on sale for $279. The price at the kitchen store was $399 for the same machine. Nothing like realizing you had a bargain up your sleeve to make you want to cash in on it.

Today while we were at Costco for a totally unrelated reason, my sweet husband asked me if I wanted to buy the little...and then he used his hand to make a circle in the air...at which time I guess that his pantomime was asking if I wanted a new mixer. I told him that if they still had a red one, then it was a sign and if they didn't, that was a sign as well. At first glance, all we could see were silver ones (which would mean I didn't get a new machine!), but after looking past the ones stacked on the outside, we (I) delved deeper and after moving about five boxes of mixers, I found a red one! THAT was the sign I was hoping for! So now when my silver one dies (which it will probably do soon), I'll pull out this ruby-beauty and keep on going. Bonus- it includes the beater-blade that I didn't want to spend $30 on at the kitchen store. Bonus-bonus- it comes with a free offer for a pasta attachment ($149 value).

I have such a nice husband.

My Mom Knows Stuff

 I was in Target a few minutes ago and was talking to my mom on the phone while I looked for the things I needed wanted. New throw pillows at $25 wasn't going to happen, so I moved on to the next item on my list. My lunch group ladies had been talking about stainless steel wipes and I knew my appliances were difficult to clean so I thought I'd try out the wipes. The only problem was that I couldn't find them in the store. I mentioned it to my mom and when she found out why I wanted them she gave me brilliant advice.

Dirty refrigerator. 

Half clean, half still dirty. 

All clean (and so is the oven and dishwasher and microwave) and I've never seen it so amazingly streak-free! What did my mom tell me to use? 

Yep. She said when she was the custodian for our church building (back in the day when that was a paid position, not volunteer duty like today) she'd use WD-40 to shine the drinking fountains. 

Thanks, Mom! You sure know a lot about a lot! I love you! 

Grandkids Nearby

My sister found these little mailboxes at Target and kindly bought them for me. I jazzed them up a little bit by putting names on them. I can't wait to give them to my babies tomorrow. 

In other news, here's something I found in my refrigerator yesterday. It made me laugh! 

I'm going with Eliot on this one. I could be wrong, but that's my guess. It's a blast having grandchildren living close by now! I'm loving it!

National Whatever Day

My niece posted on Facebook that every single day is some kind of national "holiday." For instance, today is National Irish Coffee Day. Bleh. But tomorrow is National Peanut Brittle Day! Now I could get behind that kind of celebration. Some other noteworthy days coming up are National Popcorn Day, National Blueberry Pancake day, National Baked Alaska Day, National Carrot Cake Day, National Homemade Soup Day and National Chocolate Cake Day. If you're ever in need of giving something to someone and you don't know what to do, just look up this chart and see what National Day it is and go with that! I looked up what day it was on my birthday. At first I was not so thrilled with National Spicy Hermit Cookie Day because I had never heard of a hermit cookie. Now I've heard of it and if you'd like to try it, here's a recipe. I think because I don't like nuts so much, I'd have to do something about that, but I'm guessing it would be a great experience for my husband. Maybe I should make some for his birthday instead of mine.

I knew what Karen's birthday item was because she and I have actually celebrated it! Her favorite restaurant makes sure we all know when it is National Cheesecake Day! What is your birthday's National food celebration?
Thanks for the link, Bekah!

Tags That Took Too Much Time

So you know that card group I've been in this past year? This month's "card" was Christmas tags. 36 of them. Three per person. Doesn't seem like a big deal. Shouldn't have been a big deal. It was a big deal.

This was the tag that inspired me. So Cute. Doesn't look too hard. 

This is one of my tags. Notice the board underneath it and all the poke holes from setting the eyelet. 

I couldn't have done it without Laura's phone-a-friend help. She spent over an hour talking me through the Silhouette process. From there, it took all day yesterday and half of today to get them done. I've given my notice to the card group that I'm DONE after one more month. Done, done, done. 

Done, except for cleaning up the mess. 

Mercy River

I know I've been "gone" for a long time. Stomach flu had a big part to play in my absence. Finally feeling better, and just in time for Time Out For Women, I recorded Mercy River singing their version of Bye, Bye, Bye. Please forgive the terrible camera shake! The actual song starts just after the two minute mark.

It was worth the price of the ticket just to get this on film.

Temptation!

I'm going to post something here and let you all decide for yourselves whether you will be tempted or not. I will admit to you all...with my husband by my side, we did watch.

http://simplyjunehaskell.blogspot.com/2012/09/downton-abbey-first-full-episode-of.html

Laura, don't be mad. We can still have the party when you get here!

Where's Waldo?

No, you're not really looking for Waldo.

Just because I'm at the ERC and can't post something real, and because I found this thumb drive in my purse, and because I thought it would be fun, can you find anyone you know in this photo?

Going To Gygi's

Last week we had a Stake barbecue. No, they did not barbecue steaks at the stake barbecue. I had signed up to bring a dessert. No surprise there. I wanted to use up what I had on hand, so this is what I made. Both cupcakes are basically the same, but one is topped with sprinkles and the other with a boysenberry.

The frosting is Pastry Pride which was whipped up a week or so ago. It stayed fresh in the refrigerator very nicely. 

Inside the cupcake I squirted in some raspberry filling. I've been trying to use that up for a while. The random lady we sat across from at the barbecue bit into the cupcake (she took one with the berry) and proclaimed, "Mmm, this is gooood!" She didn't know me, nor did she know I'd brought those cupcakes. I smiled. 

The Pastry Pride and raspberry filling were both bought from Gygi's. I'm on my way to Gygi's tomorrow to get some of these books signed by Sara and Kate! Might as well pick up some more Pastry Pride and raspberry filling. Now that I've used it up, I need to re-stock! And yes, Jenny, I'll probably buy some sprinkles. What's a trip to Gygi's without buying sprinkles? 

Bud's Best Buddy

The other night I posted one of these pictures on Facebook, but here are the other photos that finished the sequence.

Enjoying strawberry shakes while watching the Olympics

Eliot and Bud are the best of friends. They are always together. Three times this week we didn't know exactly where Eliot was, and every time we found him, he was always hanging out with his grandpa. I love it that these two boys are such good friends.

Five Guys

I've got two more cities to cover on our trip, but I thought I'd take a little break from that for a minute. Two weeks ago, we took Karen car shopping. It was lunchtime and we pulled into a shopping center that had several food choices. Karen was surprised when I parked in front of Five Guys Burgers and Fries. She asked if I picked it because it was what I wanted or because it was what I thought they wanted. I told her I wanted it. I'd been to Five Guys only once before and that was with Samuel's family in California. Bud and Karen had never been before. Because they'd never been, we broke out the camera (the purse camera. My Nikon is going to take $200 to fix and I haven't decided if it's worth fixing or if I should buy something new).

This guy saw us taking pictures and asked if we wanted him to take a picture of all of us together. This is what we got.

But he got a little better after a few more tries. 

We ordered one small fries. They filled up a cup and half the bag with fries.
We couldn't finish them all. 

Fabulous! 

Nicko, when you get here, we're going to have a taste test between In-N-Out and Five Guys. We'll see if Five Guys can win you over too.