Hey, I got shelves

Look, everybody, see my new shelves! Can't you just visualize the fabric stacked on them and the books neatly arrayed? Aren't they gorgeous? Thanks to Ron for his wonderful handy work and thanks to Alyssa for helping me post this picture.

Pretty in Yellow

Alison, I confess. Ron did it. But since I have a memory of what you described, I'm sure I played some minor role. I also remember the dandelion trick. You wore yellow well!

I just returned from a brief trip to Basking Ridge, New Jersey. We had meetings all day Monday and half of today. I am glad to be back. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if I had to wait another three years before my next business trip!

The flu bug is biting our family. Jared missed school on Monday. Amanda missed today. She may miss tomorrow. We hope the bug stops there!

I'll have to write my next post when I have more time. Maybe I'll follow Alison's lead and write a clever poem. Hope all is well.

Steve

Idaho here we come....!

I'm sure you've all heard by now that Jason has been offered a really good job as a pharmaceutical sales rep. He has been trying to get into this field for a while now but it's very hard and competitive. One of my good friends has a cousin who is the regional manager for a pharmaceutical company called Solvay. When she heard that Jason has been trying to get a job in that field, she passed his name with a good reference on to her cousin. Well after several interviews and tests, Jason was offered the job as a rep for Boise and the surrounding area. I am so proud of him for getting the job! It is such a good opportunity for our little family. I am really bummed to be moving so far away from family and friends but I know sometimes you have to make big sacrifices to do what's best for your family. He was told that if he does well, he will eventually be able to come back to Utah as soon as something opens up. So, that makes me happy! We will be moving up to Boise next weekend and Jason will be starting his new job on the 10th. We found a cute 3 bedroom house to rent for almost the same price as our tiny apartment. We hope to buy a house within a year. Here is a recent picture of our little princess. Love, Tyff

Not Me!

I'm sure that wasn't me Alison. I would never do anything like that. Steve?

I got a new calling in the ward. Teaching Gospel Essentials. Shouldn't be too bad I thought. New members and people who are coming back into activity. Imagine my surprise when the class room was filled with seasoned members including the Andersons who Mom and Dad know from working in the Temple with them. It makes for good discussion and good comments from the class. O well. This calling is for me and will be a great learning experience. I get to teach every other Sunday.
Alison, I just saw on the news that there was some flooding in your neighborhood. Were you affected? Well, bedtime. Love, Ron

Weekend

We had a great weekend. Saturday was our ward temple day--babysitting provided at the church. The only problem is that our church is nowhere near the temple. It was at least another 30-40 minute drive after we dropped the kids off and then again after our session. It was a long day for the kids and Tristan was asleep when we picked them up. It was really nice to go with my husband though. We have only done that a handful of times since we had Kennedy.
It was a beautiful day Saturday so I headed outside and started planting my garden. I planted some cool-weather things, onions, carrots, peas and cilantro. Hopefully we won't have a drought again this summer and I won't feel guilty watering all these things.
Hope all of you are well. It sure would be nice to hear from the brothers. . . .hint, hint.

Remember this, big brothers?

This is my latest attempt at poerty. Based on a true event, which you may or may not remember.

Polliwogged

Polliwogs,

Tiny Frogs to be,

Ziz zag non-stop,

Caught

In a bucket.

"In here," big brothers say.

"Put your feet.

It'll be fun."

I wonder.

Will this be like,

"Open your mouth,

Close your eyes,

Take a bite"?

Yuck!

Or

"Lift your chin.

Dandelions know

If you like butter."?

Hey!

I wonder.

But I try

Anyway.

Bare toes,

Brown from summer sun,

Take a dip.

I hold my breath,

Wait,

Then I smile.

Big Brothers were right.

Polliwogs tickle.

Tears in a Quilt Store

I looked up from my cutting table today and saw April Yardley's son, Korrey, enter the door. I asked him how he was doing and how his dad was doing. His dad was life-flighted to Salt Lake because of complications--blood clots in his lungs. He responded that he was fine, then asked if his baby blanket had been hem-stitched. I found it--a little boy blanket--and gave it to him. He said he had picked it out about three weeks ago with the intent of surprising his mother with an announcement that they were expecting their first baby. His mother loved to crochet blankets for her future grandchildren. He looked down at it and said, "I don't know how it will get done now because my wife doesn't know how to crochet". Then he brightened up and recounted that they had called his mother the night before she died and relayed the happy news. To this he added, "We just found out that we're having twins". I started to cry, mostly because April would have loved to spoil a set of twins.

Grandma Heaven

This was a good weekend! For the first time ever we hosted our granddaughter, Rachel, on a one-on-one basis with no interference from parents, friends or siblings. She was OURS for three whole days. We loved it. Rachel and I joined the Cedar City Lowes on Saturday and we toured the Parade of Homes in St. George. We enjoyed the day and were both visibly shaken by the extranvagances invested in the homes valued at five and six million dollars. But it was the two-lane bowling alley and 20+ pinball machines in the basement of a Snow Canyon home that blew the top off the kettle. We kept shaking our heads in disbelief. Are there really people in this world who would want a bowling alley in their basement? Yep, we saw it with our own eyes. Rachel and I had some good talks while she was here and she joined me at the Quilt Shop on Monday and we had lunch together. I was sad to see her leave. It makes me realize over and over how much I love my grandchildren, each and every one, and how I delight in having them visit our home, especially on a one-on-one basis. Who wants to be next?

The Moral of the Story is. . .

"I think I just ate a booger!"
Let me back up a few steps. It was Saturday morning. I usually make a special breakfast on the weekend but we were having someone over for lunch so I wanted us to be good and hungry when our guest arrived. Thus we had cold cereal for breakfast.
Tristan and I had Mini Wheats, Kennedy had Lucky Charms and Chris had Grapenuts Trailmix Crunch. We were all done eating by the time Chris started his breakfast. Tristan was crying and fussy for some reason so Chris offered him a bite of his cereal. Tristan happily agreed and climbed onto Chris's lap.
I started cleaning up and preparing for our lunch. In the meantime, something planted itself on Chris's shirt that could have been mistaken for either a morsel of Grapenuts Trailmix Crunch or, that's right, a booger! Assuming it was the former (not even thinking it could be the latter) Chris ate the unidentified object. As described by Chris, "it was a bit too salty and gooey to be a Grapenut morsel."
The moral of the story is: Don't by cereal that could be mistaken for a booger or vice versa!

Dessert Club

When Chris and I lived in Wymount and were in the BYU 1st ward, we participated in a monthly dessert club. Whoever was interested would sign up at church and someone would make the three-family assignments. One family would host, another family would bring the dessert and the third family just came along for the fun. We really enjoyed the system but we have never lived in another area where the dessert club would work.
However, I propose that we have a monthly dessert club on our blog. I have posted two yummy dessert recipes here as a start. If you are interested, please comment on this post and I will make a list of monthly assignments. Also indicate your preference as to how often you would like a recipe posted (monthly, weekly, bi-weekly, etc.) and what type of recipes you would want (desserts only, random, etc.).

Ed’s Carmelattas

32 Kraft caramels*
10 Tbls whipping cream
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats, quick cooking
1 cup flour
1 tsp soda
6-oz chocolate chips
1/2 - 1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350°. Melt caramels in cream in double boiler. Set aside. Mix melted butter, sugar, flour, oats and soda. Divide mixture in two parts. Pour half mixture in square pan. Bake 10 minutes.

Remove from oven. Put chocolate chips on top, along with nuts and
melted caramels. Top with the other half of the mixture. Bake another
15 - 20 minutes.

*I have successfully substituted caramel ice cream topping for the melted caramels and whipping cream. I have found that I am more likely to have topping on hand than caramels. Both taste good with this recipe.

Chocolate Cherry Cake

1 chocolate fudge cake mix
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
21 oz can cherry pie filling

Mix above ingredients. Pour into 9x13 pan. Bake @ 350 for 20-30 minutes.
Let cool completely. Frost with following recipe:

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
Heat until butter melts. Add 1 cup chocolate chips. Stir until melted. Pour over cake.

Walloped

We got a new car a few weeks ago. I had wanted something smaller that would get better gas mileage because my life seems to be running errands. However, Jeff said he would feel better about me having a four-wheel-drive. We ended up getting a 2005 Honda Pilot, which is an SUV, but not much bigger than our old van. And let me tell you, Jeff was right. If ever there was a winter where a four-wheel-drive was needed it's been this one.
Take, for example, last Wednesday.
We headed down to our old Lehi neighborhood for haircuts. It was snowing and blowing when we left, and we hadn't gone very far when it was almost total white-out. I should have turned around right then. But I kept going. We arrived at our old neighbor's, got our haircuts, and by the time we left, got word that highway 73 was closed at the crossroads.
We thought we would be smart and take some back roads. Only problem, the back roads were the only roads. With the combination of the storm and rush hour traffic, it took us three and a half hours to get home.
You could say that our new vehicle has been well broken in. I'm happy to report that it did well in the snow and we spent a comfortable three and a half hours as we traveled those five miles. The only improvement would have been a built-in bathroom.

Babysitting

I babysit these two little girls quite a lot. Their names are Taytum (right) and Dylan. They're adorable and so much fun. I sometimes trade babysitting, for getting my hair done. Their mom, Mel, cuts and colors my hair. I'm here right now while they just run around and play. Watching some odd cartoon. It's a lot of fun, but a lot of hard work. Dylan is 3 and Taytum is 1 and a half. It really helps prepare me to be a mom someday. I'm constantly running after one of them, cleaning up, cooking, changing diapers, or singing them to sleep.
Spending so much time with them makes me miss all my cousins. Its so hard to not see Kennedy and Tristan grow up. I miss Siennah too. I never imagined it would be so hard to be away from her all the time. She gets bigger, smarter, and stronger everyday. I'll have to post a picture of her when I'm at home. She's so adorable!
Anyways, I'm glad Christi started this blog. I need to keep up with it though, I have obviously struggled with my own blog but this should be more fun to keep updated. I just barely read Grandma's post about the cable, I was laughing out loud! I can just see Grandpa going insane without his precious Jazz game. But I'm glad to see they're stepping up in the world, a working remote and everything. Just kidding.
I'm babysitting until later tonight so hopefully I can get up early tomorrow morning. Parade of homes with the fam in St.George! I'm excited that Rachel is coming. It will be good to hang out for a while, seeing as we never get to.
Well that's it for my first post. Ttfn as Tigger would say, ta ta for now!

Goodbye Cable

The most dreadful of all dreadful things happened at our house. The TV stopped working, almost like somebody had stabbed it. No biggy for me, but for your dad it was the end of the world. He spent an emergency evening at Ann's watching the Jazz, then stewed about it all night. The next morning he called the cable company and they declared it wasn't their fault and furthermore, they didn't make house calls. The City Office could offer no solution either. The next day he called the only alternative, LeeR. Good old LeeR made a house call and figured out that a big hunk of melting snow and icecycles had slid from the roof and severed the connection. Guess what? Today we have a dish up on the roof and our reception is better than it has ever been and your dad is purring like a big old pussycat and the Cable Company is minus one customer. And, more important, we now have a remote that works. Whoopee!

I wonder how Brendon and Taylor are making out on their belated honeymoon. It's Taylor's birthday tomorrow. Guess I'll call and find out. Jared has a BD on Valentine's. Happy Birthday, Jared. Care is hoping her little girl will find her way here on Valentines day.

I am so excited that Christi has started this blog but I would never have known had I not checked my Junk mail. Why would they consider this Junk? I love all 26 of you. MOM (I hope I can figure out how to post this thing. I'm not too smart on these computer things.

Oneupsmanship

Jake - I think I will irritate Steve by getting up in the wee hours in the morning to go pee. Ha Ha, look at me. Bark Bark.
Steve - Ooh, Jake, you make me so mad sometimes. I'll show you. I'll close all the bedroom doors so you won't have a comfortable place to lay your head after you do your business. Ha Ha, look at me. Scoff Scoff.
Jake - What, Mandy's door is closed. Ha ha, look at me. Bark Bark. Wake up again, Steve.
Steve - Jake, settle down, you pathetic little creature. Look at me. Scold Scold.
Jake - OK, you forbid me to bark. You take away all my comfortable places to lay down. I'll plant myself on the second step on the stairs. Look at me. Quiet Quiet.
Steve - I'm ready for church. Time to go downstairs for some breakfast. Where is the miserable little creature. At least all is quiet. And dark. Ha ha, look at me. I step on the dog and down the stairs I go on my derriere . Half way down I realize I am actually having fun. Ha ha, look at me. Weeeee! I win.

Yeah!

I was so glad to check out the blog today and see two more posts! This will be fun. I forgot to mention that if any of your kids or spouses have e-mail addresses and want to sign on with a different account let me know. I sent out the invitation e-mail to everyone I had an address for.

Here is a picture of snow in NC. It happened while I was at the beach with my friends last month so I didn't actually see it but the kids had fun playing in it. It was Tristan's first experience in the snow. It has snowed maybe 4-5 times since we lived here.

Love you all! Thanks for joining me in this project.

Let's do it

I, too, have been thinking that I haven't heard much from my siblings lately. Of course, I'm guilty of not communicating well either. So I think this is a great idea.
I'll show this to my kids, too, and see if I can get them to write their own posts and comments.(Like Lyssy. You go girl.)
So here's a shoutout to everyone else to come join the fun. And here are some questions, too, for starters.
Taylor and Brendon: How are you? I was just thinking of you, Taylor, wondering if you're looking pregnant yet.
Tyff and Jason: Thanks for the email with pictures. Keep them coming, and let us know what your cute girl is doing.
Steve: I know some exciting things have been happening for your kids. I heard something about Jared, the champion speller, and a special Mavericks game for Derek. Give us some details.
Mom and Dad: You, too!
Rachel and Bretten: Keep us posted on your lives as the young singles of the family.

Family Blog

This sounds like a CAPITAL idea to me. I am all for it. We have some grandparent brag pictures that we could add. Good going little sis. Ron

I Love You!

Happy Valentine's Day. To show you that I love you I started a family blog. You too can post any time you want. Blogging is a good way for us to communicate. Even if you don't enjoy writing you can share pictures, recipes, links, videos, music, etc. The possibilities are endless. It's easy too. If I can do it, you can do it. I would love to hear from all of you more often than I do. I miss everyone and it makes me sad that my little ones grow up so much between visits with family.
Our ward theme this year is temple work and family history. This is my effort to share our history. Will you join me?