Hurricane Sandy

 

 

 

I seldom comment on the events of the day but we have all been disturbed by the heartbreaking devastation going on in New York, New Jersey and all along the Eastern coast.  Watching the news last night- Ground Zero looked like Niagara Falls.  Cars literally twisted and piled on top of each other.  A whole Jersey beach town...where families have gathered for generations absolutely gone.  50 plus people dead.  Ships wrecked.  Businesses destroyed.  The amazing rescue stories coming from one New York hospital where all the electricity (up to 6 million people w/o electricity) went out as well as the generators.  Lots of miracles.  How quickly we realize life can change.  Prayers for all those in wrenching and impossible situations. 

Crazy. Crazy.

Yesterday at our Visiting Teaching luncheon I got the giggles.  Really bad.  I felt like I was sitting at the Christmas table in "While You Were Sleeping."  You know-

Midge: So, Lucy, have you and Peter decided where you're gonna go on your honeymoon? Hm?
Saul: I went to Cuba.
Elsie: Ricky Ricardo was Cuban.
Midge: Didn't Peter look great today?
Ox: Aw, that kid. You know, he should've been an actor. He's tall.
Saul: All the great ones were tall.
Midge: Lucy? Do you think you can find me a nice girl for Jack?
Jack: Oh, Mom. come on.
Lucy: Well, I-I-I-I really don't know Jack's type, so I am not one to, um...
Jack: I like blondes. Chubby ones.
Ox: Alan Ladd wasn't tall.
Saul: Marshal Dillon was six foot five.
Lucy: Oh.
Midge: Well, we all know who Lucy's type is. Mmm. These mashed potatoes are so creamy.
Mary: You like brunettes.
Elsie: I could never make a good pot roast.
Ox: You need good beef.
Saul: Argentina has great beef.
Ox: Beef and Nazis.
Saul: John Wayne was tall.
Ox: Dustin Hoffman was five-six.
Saul: Would you wanna see Dustin Hoffman save the Alamo?
Midge: These mashed potatoes are so creamy.
Ox: Spain has good beef.
Midge: Mary mashed 'em.
Saul: Caesar romero was tall.
Elsie: Caesar Romero was not Spanish.
Saul: I didn't say Caesar Romero was Spanish.
Elsie: Well, what did you say?
Saul: I said Caesar Romero was tall.
Elsie: We all know he's tall.
Saul: Well, that's what I said. Caesar Romero is tall. That's all I said.


Back to the luncheon-  there were 7 of us and this was part of the conversation going up and down the long table...

Last month our  V.T. lesson was on service and I suggested that this month we serve a widow in our Ward and take her to lunch.  Kay's (the widow I take Monday meals to as well) birthday was this past week so we thought that we would treat her to lunch.  As we were being seated, that is when the conversation  went straight to pot.

I think we need one more seat.  Diane is bringing Nilda.

Oh, that will be fun.  I love Nilda.

I thought  Nilda worked in the temple today?

No, Nelda didn't come.  They are leaving for Hawaii tomorrow.

Who's Nilda going to Hawaii with?

Her husband.

I thought Nilda's husband died?   Oh, you mean Nelda.

Nelda's husband isn't dead.  They are going to Hawaii tomorrow.  They always go to Hawaii.

Barbara, you are going to Hawaii tomorrow.  What island are you staying on?

The Big Island.

Gail just got back from the Big Island. (Gail nods.)  Elsa just got back from the Big Island as well.  (Elsa nods.) 

Who is Nilda going to Hawaii with? 

Did someone say Nelda is coming today?


So, just for the record, neither Nelda or Nilda came yesterday.  And neither one of them is tall.  And no one had creamy mashed potatoes.  And Nilda is Chilean, not Spanish. And I wish I were going to Hawaii.

Whew!   (love these women!  Our lesson this month is on keeping covenants.  Maybe we will go to the temple next time instead of lunch.  Hopefully we'll see Nilda or Nelda there....)

Halloween GNO

Thursday night was our GNO at my house.  This group (although we are considerably smaller) has been together 28 years!  Amazing.  As you can imagine, we have much history together.

 

I always love hosting during a holiday since otherwise I wouldn't get up the energy to decorate.  I pulled myself together enough that it looked festive and also sent everyone home with a trick-or-treat bag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I served raclette -(a raclette cooker pictured below)

with a variety of small potatoes, two different kinds of cheese, shrimp, mushrooms, green onions and sausages. We grilled on top of the raclette and melted the cheese in the little cookers.  Yum!  Also a salad with pear and apple and greens and a raspberry poppyseed vinaigrette.  Good warm bread.  And I made Pioneer Woman's Apple dumplings for dessert.

But this was what I was most excited about-

I made Halloween deviled eggs.  Both pumpkins and spiders!  So easy and delish.

“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship."  William Blake

Cornbellies

It seems like we have so much going on that there isn't time to journal all the activities.  Last week, the day after we did Witchie Night, Brandi and Handy took Brandi's 4 kids and I took Annee and M and R's 4 kids to Cornbellies.  It is magical at Thanksgiving Point....acres and acres of fun fall activities for the kids and so many mazes that Handy finally said, "Wow, another maze?"  (I think he was amazed....)  

Each year I take all the kiddo's (that we have that year) picture in THE CHAIR.  Look how much they have grown.


2009 (maybe 2008?)

 

 

 

2010

 

 

2012

Love'm all!

Super Heros

One of relatives, Kristin  (1st cousin, once removed.  I think this means my cousin's daughter. )  posted this on Facebook.  I LOVE it.  It made me smile all day.

Tonight out of the blue, Charly asked if there really were such things as "bad guys". After a small, yet thorough discussion about these "bad guys" and how to keep ourselves safe, I reassured her that I would be here to do ALL I can to protect her and her brother and sister, with which she replied, "But MOM, you don't even know to do a front handspring and land it."...Apparently this is the new qualification to be able to take down a bad guy.

Bon Appetit dinner and the (ugh) debates

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went last week to the Cook's for our Bon Appetit dinner...and one of the recipes Valene (who I call my favorite chef) served was a soup from Bon Appetit. Yesterday Valene called to ask me what my favorite soups were...since she is hosting a Halloween dinner for her kids...and I immediately said, "the soup you just fed us for dinner at your house!" It really is a 5-star recipe. (as good as the soup at the Blue Lemon!)  It was my assignment to take dessert....and I finally broke down and took a "pin-sensation."  But I have to tell you, I was a titch disappointed, it was 4-star instead of 5...but I added an ingredient that gave it an extra umph!  Everyone loved it.  Check out the recipes on the cooking blog.

www.constantgrowingamazementcooks.blogspot.com

We had a great time with the Cooks.  We had a fabulous dinner (shrimp from that shrimp shack in Hawaii...I can't remember the name, delish salad, homemade artisan bread, butternut squash and apple soup. We watched the last of the presidential debate (which just made Valene and I cranky) then the guys beat us in Hand and Foot.  Dessert kind of cheered us up......

Little Miss John Wayne

The other day Brandi's Doug told me a tender (ha!) moment between he and Addi (age 6)

Addi wanted to talk to him, then pointed to Brandi off in the distance, and said (in a tough girl voice) something like,

"See her.  She's really nice.  If you don't treat her well, you won't see daylight tomorrow."



WOW!!!  Where does she come UP with these things? (a movie?)  (but of course, when he told me this, I said I agreed....)

More Witchie Love

All my girl kiddos!

 

 

 

Bree looks like she matches, doesn't she?

 

 

 

Almost sisters!

 

 

 

 

 

Cousin love!

 

 

What a wonderful time!

 

 

Witchie Love

Friday was our annual girlies Witchie Outing at Gardner Mill.  As always, was had a great time.  Everyone was there but Susie (and Mallorie and Kaitlin- boo-hoo!) ...and this was the first year (the first year of forever!) that Bree, Brandi's almost-to-be "bonus" daughter-age 17 came.  She was adorable and not opposed to jumping into the kiddo pictures or wearing the coordinating sweatshirt or squealing and carrying on like we do.  Since the little girl's sweatshirts only come in little girl sizes, I bought an extra one, cut out the picture and then attached it to a white zip-up hoodie with black and orange embroidery floss...and it worked!  Two different people asked her where she got her darling sweatshirt and she replied, "My grandma made it for me!"   sigh......

 

My girls are growing up....but still love this day we spend together.  Face painting. Dinner at Archibald's.  Treats at Afton's candy shop.  Memories, memories. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(we found the above witchie in pink wandering around and she agreed to photo with us!)

 

 

 

When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers,
‘tis near Halloween.
~Author Unknown

 

Out of the Mouths....

Daughter Brandi shared this today:


Every night and several times each day one of my girls tells me how much they love me, to which I always respond, I love you more. This inevitably begins a "who loves who more" debate that is only to be ended by my proclamation that until they are a mama they will never know how much they can love! Tonight my little eight year old melted my heart:

 Hallee Babe: I love you mama!

 Me: Oh, but I love you more!

 Hallee Babe: I love you as much as a child can love!





The other day I had Brandi's kiddos in the car.  I heard one of them chant in the backseat "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."  I then thought I had a teaching moment and said, "You know girls, that isn't right.  If someone hit you, you would get better, but oftentimes when people say mean things, you remember them the rest of your life so they actually hurt more."  After a few seconds of pondering then Gracie quietly replied, "Then I guess you just have to forgive them."


Wow!

The Witchies Are Coming!

So excited!  This is a day I look forward to every year.  Witchie Day at Gardner Village with my kiddos and girls!  This year's outfit is totally different.  Of course, I get so excited the day after our annual trip, that I buy skirts for the next year.  Then a few months later, I'll see some other skirts I like better.  And then I'll order some t-shirts to match.  And they won't be the right color.  Then I'll take some of the kiddos to the store and they pick out a sweatshirt and I really, really wanted a different shirt so I buy them both.  So now I have two different skirts and 2 tops.  And the girls love the sweatshirt...and they are wearing headbands instead of hats this year and the fishnet gloves aren't really the best fit but they LOVE THE GLOVES....

 

 

SO IT WORKS!

 

(can I say I wear myself out.)

 

 

 

I do love that this year's outfit looks totally different from all the previous years.  If anyone needs to borrow little girl witch costumes, you know where to come.....

Halloween is huge in my house and we really get into the "spirits" of things. ~Dee Snider

If Life Gives You Lemons....

 

 

 
Creative Cooking was so much fun today!  Our theme was When Life Gives You Lemons- the Possibilities are Endless!  And they are!

I started off reading a delightful essay I read on a cooking blog- that stated that the whole notion of life handing you lemons is such a crock!  Yeah, life can be acerbic.  Puckering even.  "But," as Cathy Sagon says,  "leave the poor lemon alone."  She reminds us that lemons can tart up a blah dish, fall into formation as a sunny centerpiece at a moment's notice, vanquish a hot, humid afternoon's thirst and glam up a homely cake, morphing it into something drop-dead sexy with nothing more than a drizzle of citrus-inflicted syrup.  "Try," she says, "doing that with an indolent cantaloupe or those prissy apricots!"    (see the whole essay here:  http://leitesculinaria.com/67555/recipes-best-lemon-recipes.html     )


These were today's delightful recipes-
Grilled Lemon Chicken with Kalamata Olives (Jillian Michael's Fat Burning recipe)
Jillian Michael's potato salad (you have got to try this!)
Creamy Lemon Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes
Pinenut Pasta Salad
Stuffed Pumpkin

Lemonade Cake with Lemon Curd
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars with Streusel Topping
Lemon Brownies
Easy Eyeball Cookies

and fresh lemonade

Whew!  Class was fun- so fun to visit with women I love- and then we all waddled home.

Recipes on the cooking blog:    www.constantgrowingamazementcooks.blogspot.com

So, let's rethink this whole notion that lemons are synonymous with worthless, nonworking clunkers-thank you, Lemon Law.  (Maybe they should rename that silly statue after something truly useless.  "Rutabaga Law" sort of has a ring to it.)  Lemons should be adored.  Venerated, even.  And the next time life hands them to you?  Be grateful.  Candy Sagon

Tidbits

 

This is Brandi's last year's family picture.  I'm so glad it is soon to be outdated.  We're still smiling.  Thanks for all the sweet messages about our and HER happiness!

 

 

 

I realized I haven't posted a picture of niece Mallorie and her fiancee Sam.  We like him so much (she wrote to him the entire two years of his mission to Texas) and they are planning on getting married the week after Christmas.  She's like one of my girls so this is a BIG happy.


Yesterday for dinner, I made friend Dawn's mushroom and cream cheese lasagna for Sunday dinner.  It's a double yum.  I don't know if it will pass the kiddos tastebuds but we loved it.  Recipe on the cooking blog.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was a cooking morning.  Once a month, the scouts/deacons have breakfast at one of the leaders homes.  Our turn was yesterday. David wanted me to make our favorite breakfast found at selected Marriotts- oatmeal with a layer of bananas and brown sugar, topped with creme brulee and broiled with sugar on top.  It's a winner.  I also made sausage strata which is a holiday favorite at our house.  Too much cookin'.  Too much consumin'.

 

 

 

I have Chubba and Annee today.  Just wanted to note that today for the first time, Chubba said "grandma" to me.  Hurray!!!!!!!!  (he's 19 months old.)

 
Happy.  Happy.  Happy.

A Walk to Remember

 

A few months ago, I was clicking through channels and watched the last part of an older movie, "A Walk to Remember."  I remembering liking it before and loving the music and thinking Mandy Moore was beyond beautiful.

 

It is like reading the scriptures.  As many times as I read them, over and over, each time I'm always surprised when something new jumps out at me.  A thought I've never thought before.  A different perspective.

 

What I noticed this time as I re-watched a portion of the movie was the moment when the father in the movie watches the boy....who is looking at his daughter with love.

 

I remember being so choked up about it...since about the same time, an over-the-top young man, Brandi's "friend-a-boy" came and asked permission to ask our daughter to marry him.

 

 

Sigh.

We did have Chinese take-out last weekend...and David's fortune cookie said, "Someone in your family will soon be married."  Niece Mallorie and her new fiancee Sam were here for the weekend...and of course it applied to them...

 

but I just smiled.

 

 

The engagement was Thursday.   Parker called me to have me check my texts.  They were out getting banana splits ...which is a tradition from my college days.  I always told Brandi and she carried it on with her roomies...that when you kissed a new boy, you owed everyone in the apartment ice cream.  When you got engaged, you owed everyone banana splits.

 

 

When David and I crawled into  bed after all the exciting phone calls, we just sighed.  I said, "Do you remember the nights we would lay in bed and just weep for the heartache our daughter and kiddos were going through?"  The agony of unfairness. The break up of a family.  Of betrayal. Of the loss of someone we loved and thought we knew.  Night after night of unspeakable sorrow.  Even though we knew this day would come, we just weren't able to visualize the wonderfulness of it, the how and when. We love Doug and the two darling kids he brings to our family.  Conner is a few months older than Parker and a grade ahead in school.  Bree is in her senior year.  Wow, my staircase will be full!

 

(I do have to record here that I call Doug not just friendaboy but  "Handy."  You know how I always nickname people.  The first time Brandi told me she was going out with him, she said Addi called him "the cat in the hat" boy.  Because I must be losing my hearing or with the muffling on the phone, I thought she said, "the handicapped boy" and I questioned,  "You're going out with a handicapped boy?" 

 

Brandi hates when I call him Handy...but he knows it is a term of endearment.  I rename people that I love....)

 

What do you do when your heart is so full of thanksgiving!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jamie: You know what I figured out today?
Landon:  What?
Jamie: Maybe God has a bigger plan for me than I had for myself.

(quote from A Walk to Remember)

To Voila!

From my friendie concerning "The Homecoming of Samuel Lake."

I'm so happy to read your posts! I've missed them while you've been on holiday. Can't wait to get this book and read it! I recently read 3 awesome, didn't want to end, fabulously written books. Two of them are oldies, but I had never heard of them: "Winter Wheat" and "Mrs. Mike". If you get a chance to read them let me know and we can go out for a book club lunch! Miss you xoxo

Of course you had me at "let's go out for lunch"....and also Mrs. Mike.  I'm answering here because it reminds me of a funny story.  As soon as you said Mrs. Mike, I immediately thought:

"It's not the big terrible things that make up a life but all the small wonderful ones." (loosely paraphrased from Mrs. Mike....but embedded in my memory.)

I thought, "I LOVED Mrs. Mike."

Pause.

Another flashback:

We were talking with friends about bad airplane experiences.  I interjected into the conversation, "But have you ever been on a plane hit by lightening?"  (everyone gasps.)  "It was horrible!  The plane shook like crazy, there was a big ka-boom and then this terrible, terrible smell!"  About this time David gently touches my arm and says, "Marilyn, you weren't on the plane, I was."


Oh!

So, when I'm thinking about how much I loved Mrs. Mike, I realized it was one of my best friends that loved Mrs. Mike.  We used to be in a writing group together and she wrote a poem about it.
And the phrase about big terrible things must have been the epigram.  It was a fabulous poem....I'll bring it to lunch.

and I'm going to order Winter Wheat and then go find my old copy of Mrs. Mike and dust it off and read it.  And then you read about Samuel Lake.  And we'll get together and...yes, I've missed you terribly.

Hugs. M.

p.s.  what was the third book?  I just finished
Sunset by S. Michael Wilcox, my favorite CES instructor that I've taken classes from forever- about the death of his wife.  Written very much like "A Grief Observed" by C.S. Lewis.  Very thought provoking and especially at this moment, when David and I just got home from a viewing of a girl who was once one of my Young Women.  They must have had a hundred pair of brightly colored tennis shoes all around the room, plus served popcorn (her favorite treat) and a million zany pictures.  It totally captured her personality.  A grieving family left behind trying to think of all the many happy things about her life, not the big terrible one....

Rest in Peace, sweet Tara Smith.  All whole and happy.  As her mom said, "Now she knows how much she was loved."

(the real quote)  “You'll see, you'll come to understand. These big things, these terrible things, are not the important ones. If they were, how could one go on living? No, it is the small, little things that make up a day, that bring fullness and happiness to a life.” ― Benedict Freedman    Mrs. Mike

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake

I'm always hard-pressed when it comes to choosing novels to read...since my spirit has a low threshold for offense with most current reading.  I am constantly buying books and yes, throwing them in the garbage after a chapter....and being so frustrated.  Good books are hard to come by.

That being said, I was going out on a limb at the airport to pick up and buy a book I haven't heard anything about.

Can I say you need to read it?
Can I say I didn't want it to end.

Can I say the characters were so engaging?  The emotions complex.

At the airport, I was going on a trip with my high school friends....from Moses Lake, WA.  This book is mainly about two families.....Willadee Moses who marries Samuel Lake...which makes her Willadee Moses Lake.
How funny is that?

Truly, it is a book to love.  It is a book about families and tradition and redemption and love and forgiveness.  I didn't want it to end...

Heart Be Still!

The annual Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert had just been announced.....

and my not-so-secret-crush, Alfie Boe will be the featured singer!!! (Tom Brokaw will be the narrator.)  You should see how I can dance on my head.

I'm needing to get lucky here.  80,000 seats and a million requests for the free tickets.

If you saw the 25th Les Miz PBS production from London, Alfie was Jean Valjean.  Google his Youtube of "Bring Him Home."  It truly brought the house down.  The standing ovation just kept standing.

Someday for a gigantic present to me, Ben's Susie is going to bring me Alfie in a big box.  He's a friend of her family. 

thumpa-thumpa-thumpa.  That's my heart.....

Potty Talk

Brandi's girls are off track so have spent a few days with me this week.  We were hoping to get all the cousins together that didn't have school on Columbus Day and go to Cornbellies at Thanksgiving Point (which has tons of fun interactive activities involving fall/mazes.)  Unfortunately when we got all organized to go, I realized that they didn't open until early evening.  Bummer, but we quickly re-grouped and hit the movies- Hotel Transylvania.  I thought it was going to be a ho-hum- sleep through movie but I was surprised I loved it and so did the kiddos.  Great fun!

 

After the movies, more fun was to be had.  I took the little girls into the restroom for a potty stop.  Washing hands is always fun with blower dryers.  These were loud and POWERFUL!  Watch Sadie Jo's reaction when she sees Addi's hair a flying!  I wish you could hear all the giggling in the bathroom.  (It doesn't take much to entertain us.  And look how cute Sadie Jo's pants are!  Stylin'!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kiddos!  What a joy!