Oh, Baby, Baby! He's Here!

Welcome to the world
Spencer Stephen

Cristin's baby is here and I am so excited because I get to see him tomorrow.
Check her blog for all of the particulars!

Sauerkraut

When preparing for Thanksgiving, you probably have the usual list:

Turkey
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Stuffing
Salads
Yams
Pie

But does your list include sauerkraut?

For all of our friends and family who have shared Thanksgiving Dinner with us you know that we always serve sauerkraut as a side dish - a little unusual I am aware! We have always shared the history of the tradition and talked about the Germans who settled the small town where 4-generations of Craig's family have lived (maybe more?). It was fun to see the following article in today's Deseret News. If you have a minute, take a look and know that you are all invited for sauerkraut and the rest of the traditional Thanksgiving fixings this Thanksgiving!

What makes Providence dinner special? Sauerkraut

also

Sauerkraut (by Wikipedia) for the uninitiated

Black and White

I've been working on a project that involves our family reunion photos - so those photos were the most accessible for this week's SPT. This photo is of Cristin (my sis) and me getting shirts ready for tie-dying. So here we are in black and white. Hope you don't mind Cristin!

Thanks to Alicia who was able to finally get the black and white photo to load.
Hmm, now that she has my name/password maybe she'll do all of my posts!

Comfort Food

Like Lelly, we are finally enjoying cooler weather, and like Lelly, cooler weather often means crock pot meals at our home. In fact, early Sunday morning I got out the crock pot and filled it with the ingredients for a what we call Welcome Stew. This is a recipe from Craig's mom that we often have on the counter when out-of-town company arrives - hence our name for it, Welcome Stew.

Unfortunately when I went to put the lid on the crockpot the handle popped off. I spent the rest of the day using a pair of pliers to take the lid off and on... I looked very chic! Since there isn't anyway to fix the handle I guess I'm in the market for a replacement lid?!

Welcome Stew
1 lb. stew meat
carrots, sliced
celery, sliced
potatoes, peeled, cubed
2 cans tomato soup
1 can water
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
Crock pot - high 4 hours

Amounts are variable - use what your family likes, in the proportions they like.
I just fix this one off the top of my head (scary, I know) amazingly it always turns out well!

Great served with homemade bread.

If I Find Another Roll of 37 Cent Stamps...

I just found another almost complete roll of 37 cent stamps!

As a former salesgirl in a gift shop known for its beautiful silver and turquoise jewelry, I truly do have an appreciation for Navajo jewelry, however I'm getting tired of their image in the form of make-up stamps. I finally made it through all of my stray 39 c stamps but now must add TWO to each envelope along with my 37 cent stamps.

Poor Cara, the other day she asked me for stamps for some college applications - she ended up with two 37c and four 2 c stamps on one envelope. I assured her that her application would not be rejected based upon the number of stamps on the envelope. She told me later that she hid them under other papers when she turned them in at the registrars office...

Did you know that during the late 1800's "U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase proposed to authorize postage stamps of some type as a new currency. Much of the public were using stamps as in lieu of change due to a severe shortage of coins. The post office did not like selling stamps for currency and they did not provide refunds for soiled stamps." (Wikipedia)

Who knew?

What is the study of stamps called?
Do you love Wikipedia?

The Other Book Group

My other book group is discussing this book tonight, "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" by Alexandra Fuller. Now that school and after-school activities are in full swing I knew that I would have a better chance of reading it if I listened to it on tape. I loved reading (listening) it. It is a memoir about a girl born in England but raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Malawi. The thing that was most interesting/amazing to me was the fact although we weren't born that far apart (in years) our lives couldn't have been more different.

This is a quote from an interview with Powell's.

"In her 2001 debut, Alexandra Fuller recalled in vivid, often excruciating detail coming of age in Rhodesia as a long civil war raged in neighboring Mozambique and her own country slid down the violent path toward an independent, African Nationalist regime. Dogs astounded readers with its candor, describing from a young girl's point of view a wild landscape of far-reaching beauty and a continent in the throes of a vicious political antagonism she could not yet comprehend.

Narrating from within her own family's constant struggle for survival, Fuller brilliantly assimilated the dangers of war (land mines planted on the road to the local store, guerillas camping in the nearby hills) into the relentless domestic tumult around her, so that readers could hardly distinguish between the two. The Boston Globe, echoing the opinion of critics and readers around the world, marveled, "The extremely personal and unguarded understatement of this memoir is far more powerful than any sociopolitical analysis or apologist interpretation could hope to be."

And to think at the same time/age I was worried about whether my mom would be late picking me up from piano lessons or if I would be able to find a seat on the bus for both me and my french horn. The language is a little "earthy"(?) perhaps more so because I was listening to it. The book was extremely engaging and exposed me to a time and place that I have very little knowledge of. Unfortunately I can't go to the book group discussion :(

Read any good memoirs lately?

Happy Birthday Wishes!

What was the best thing that happened in 1935?

Monopoly hit the stores
Year Elvis Presley was born

Date of first Penguin paperback publication
Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Pacific
Date of first Orange Bowl

WPA was created
Average new car price $625.00
Scrooge, the film opened in U.S.

Babe Ruth hit his 714th home run
Omaha was the Kentucky Derby champion
Radio program Fibber McGee and Molly debuted
Nylon was discovered

Hope your birthday is as wonderful as you are!
Love to you from all of us!

Falling into Autumn

Autumn is my favorite season and although the calendar unofficially says it is fall and the weather here has turned a little cooler - there aren't any other signs. This is the view from our deck - I guess I will label it "before" and in a few weeks I'll post the "after". The change is spectacular. The inside decorations are slowly making an appearance. I love this painted tin bucket - this time of year it resides next to the fireplace. I'll let e document the rest of the decorations as they appear!


The rug in our sunroom (which looks out on the same view as the deck) is a year-round expression of my love for autumn.

What time is it?

I'm not a morning person, and I'll be honest, 4:45 am is EARLY, but when the radio turns on I resist the urge to press the snooze button or pull the blanket over my head. Why, because I'm teaching seminary again! I began my third week this morning and I am truly grateful for the opportunity. A friend asked me how/why I do it and my response was - "If I have a group of high school students willing to meet me at 6 am to study the scriptures, how can I not be there to teach them?" My students are great, the lessons of the Old Testament are wonderful and sleep is overrated!


Because I was beginning several weeks into the new year, and I knew there would be a transition of sorts (taking the place of a super neat teacher) I made a little something for all of my students before my first day - letting them know that I couldn't wait to see them in seminary. "I can't wait to see you" on little paint cans filled with Hershey's kisses.

Book Group - This I Believe

Last night our book group discussed the book "This I Believe" - part of a radio program that airs on NPR. It originally began in the 1950's and has recently been revived. It is an opportunity for people of all walks of life to share a brief statement (300-500 words) about something that they believe. Check it out here: This I Believe. It was interesting to discuss the book (I had listened to the cd's - much better than the book in my opinion because they were recorded by the people that wrote them. It was neat to hear some of the older ones like Helen Keller, Thomas Mann, and Carl Sandburg.

Everyone in the group found it a little difficult to write about one core belief but it was fascinating to hear the ones that were shared at our book group. I challenge you to look at the website, read or listen to the book and try to write your own.

This I believe:

I believe in weaving. I have fond memories as a child of weaving potholders using yarn loops on a metal frame, later pounding nails into a wooden frame that my dad made and weaving with cast-off yarn using recycled Popsicle sticks as primitive shuttles. As an adult I taught myself how to weave on a real loom, that was delivered to our home in a very large box - but only as far as the front porch. I painstakingly and slowly maneuvered and muscled it into the house, much to the chagrin of my husband when he saw it in the family room later that day. "Why didn't you wait for me to come home?", he asked. "I just couldn't wait", was my nearly giddy reply.

The entire process of weaving transports me to another time and place as I engage physically and creatively in an experience that binds me to weavers throughout the ages. Ancient ones who discovered that cloth could be made as they interlocked threads - warp and weft together - making fabric that protected, warmed, clothed and beautified. The rhythmic sounds of the loom; harnesses being raised and lowered, the soft jangling of the metal heddles, the whir of the yarn unspooling from the shuttles, and the soft thud of the beater bar are pure music to my ears.

Much of what I weave becomes a gift for those I love. Baby blankets for anxiously anticipated little ones, scarves to keep my family warm, linens to brighten the family table and once a lap blanket for my grandfather who was dying. For his blanket I chose strong colors, striking grays and reds in a bold plaid pattern. With each throw of the shuttle and pull of the beater bar I thought of him, his life and impending death, and how our lives had been woven together.

This happens when one weaves for others as memories and recollections grow and form beneath ones hands as does the cloth. When I finished the blanket I wrapped and warmed myself in it - hoping that my love and affection would somehow become a part of the very fabric itself and that he would feel it and know that it was there - as much a part of the blanket as the threads that made it.

I saw one of my baby blankets wrapped around my niece this summer as we relaxed on the deck in the breath of coolness that accompanies a southern Utah sunset. She is almost ten and for a moment I didn't recognize the blanket as something that I had made. It looked well used and cherished - and because I believe in weaving, I believe she can still feel the love and affection that was woven into it.

Belated B'day Blog

This is a belated b'day post for my sweet husband who celebrated his 40-something birthday last week. Unfortunately, it was a crazy day (in other words, our new normal). I was at e's back-to-school night, e was at a High School Musical rehearsal (she is in the ensemble - performances in 1/08), c was performing at a high school football game and poor Craig came home to an empty house and a to-do list. (Pick-up e, help her get dinner and finish her homework). I got home about the same time that c did from the game which they had lost :( , we frosted the cake, lit many candles, sang, celebrated and then I promptly fell asleep (a future post will explain).

Craig is the love of my life, my best friend and sweetheart for the past 27 years (married for 24).

46 Things About Craig

1) He loves to learn
2) He know unbelievable details about:
3) Ancient world history
4) Geography
5) and Modern history
6) He enjoys sci-fi and fantasy
7) I've lost count of the times he has watched/read LofTR
8) He is a hard worker
9) He is a great father
10) He is a chef and grill master extraordinaire (fajitas, ribs, dirty rice, and cobbler are a few of his specialties.
11) He almost always loads/unloads the dishwasher
12) He loves to tease
13) He makes up the best nicknames for everyone he knows
14) He loves:
15) Disneyworld
16) Christmas
17) and Fireflies
18) He is the best gift giver - really - anytime someone asks me about something in our home, or that I'm wearing, carrying, reading etc - it is almost always a gift from Craig
19) He loves to attend auctions and almost always comes home with something fun
20) He is intrigued by antiques (see #19)
21) He is kind
22) He drives a '94 Merc Tracer while a, c and I are driving new cars
23) He can survive on less sleep than anyone I know
24) He is a great provider
25) He is generous
26) He can still help the girl's with their math
27) He is a great teacher (youth, adults, college and graduate students)
28) I'm always surprised at the number of people that work with him who call him their mentor
29) He has both an intellectual and spiritual understanding of the gospel
30) He always has time for me
31) He enjoys Sunday evening walks and hikes in Zion
32) He stays up until the girls are all home (see #23)
33) He supports me in whatever I choose or am asked to do
34) He loves old movies
35) He does all of our grocery shopping
36) He knows how to spoil me
37) He is loyal
38) He gives practical advice
39) He wasn't too disappointed when I changed my major from accounting to social work
40) He sends flowers
41) He enjoys traveling (for pleasure - although he travels frequently for work)
42) He is an avid reader
43) He has an appreciation for classical music and art
44) He doesn't hesitate to be of help to others
45) He has a wry sense of humor
46) He thinks outside the box



This is what the cake looked like by the next day (hmm, who is feeding their children cake for breakfast. Note the four forks?!

SPT

I really need try and meet this challenge every day (perhaps several times a day). One of our biggest clutter issues is paper (mail, stuff from school, flyers, newspapers, magazines and catalogs). My zeal to recycle often means that "things" pile-up and then everything appears overwhelming. With Lelly's challenge in mind I gathered the pile(s), tried to quickly sort through everything(what's that rule about only handling an item of paper once) , recycled and took care of everything. Granted, daughter #2 has a significant amount of college brochures to look through now - but my pile is quite manageable. Thanks, Lelly.

SPT

SPT - Childhood Memories

I didn't have access to a back-to-school picture of my own and so I've posted a back-to-school picture of my sweetheart. It is dated '72 on the back which would make him 10 at the beginning of the school year (I'm thinking he must have been mighty warm, if this really was the first day of school - or maybe there was a freak cold spell?!). Isn't he cute!

I have great memories of going back to school. There was always the excitement of a new outfit and new school supplies. I especially remember one year going to ZCMI with my mom and we picked out an entire outfit just like the one on a mannequin. I'm dating myself here but there were pants, a vest, and a sweater top - mmm in a beautiful dark burgundy/wine color! Think late 70's! To this day I enjoy shopping with my girls for back-to-school outfits and school supplies. In fact we usually make a day of it and include a special one-on-one lunch. I love this time of year and really see it as a new beginning (sometimes even more than in January).

One memory that my girls laugh about is the fact that when I was in elementary school we could only wear pants during the winter months (in freezing cold no. Utah where winter begins in Oct. and ends in Apr.) and if we wore pants they had to be part of a pant suit - of course this changed as I got older but it is pretty hard for my girls to imagine. In fact, the year before I went to high school was the first year that girls were allowed to wear jeans...

Back-To-School

School actually began on the 27th of Aug. but I'm just getting around to posting. Here are C and E as they head off for 12th and 7th grades respectively. Yes, Cara graduates in '08. Note that Emily no longer wears glasses - she now has contacts and is managing them quite well! There have only been a few minor problems ("Mom, help, I can't get it out..."). Everyone is back into their busy schedules, college classes, homework, chorus rehearsals, pom practices, dance class, etc. etc. and I've settled back into my lunch making rut/routine. (Why is that so hard for me? - So far wraps have been the biggest hit.) Ideas anyone?

Summer Reading

The girls both had summer reading to finish before school started. Cara read The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy and How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas Foster. Emily got to choose her books and read Lily B. on the Brink of Cool by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel and something else that I can't remember.

Although I didn't have any assigned reading, I thought I would take a minute to compile my summer reading list as well:

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell

I meant to read this on the cruise but made the mistake of picking it up and reading it before the cruise even started. Highly recommended.

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris

Cruise reading material - great book (I could especially relate to the very descriptive passages about the smell of the oranges - since that smell makes me nauseas.)

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Bought in Amsterdam (english version) - interesting book set in the Sabarthes Moutains in SW France. Moves back and forth from the present to 13th centuryLanguedoc. Another look at the idea of the Holy Grail.

At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks

Borrowed from Alicia. Quick read - good. Don't read if you are pregnant...

Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult

Borrowed from Elaine. Quick read - quite disturbing, on a number of fronts. A nightmare (a man is falsely accused of commiting a crime. Based on Arthur Miller's, The Crucible.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Yes, that is a lot of Harry Potter - We read books 1-4 out loud as a family, as soon as they came out. However, I couldn't get into #5 and didn't even try #6 - but when the final one came out I read 5, 6, and 7 back-to-back-to-back. I was sad to see the series end :(

The Tainted Relic by The Medieval Murderers

Borrowed from Craig -- I had run out of reading material (see above). Interesting book written/edited by 6 different authors who books are set during medieval times. The book centers around a cursed relic believed to be a piece of the True Cross.

Since coming home I have read What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (mystery, quick read, r-rated language) and am now reading the memoir Family Romance: A Love Story by John Lanchester, for my book group.

I'm happy that none of my reading required annotating, journaling, or the writing of any essays!

The Summer of Our Complete Content

This post is not an homage to Steinbeck and his The Winter of Our Discontent it is a rather belated post that will attempt to capture our summer (post cruise)- truly one of complete content. I've tried to capture the summer by keeping track of the places we went, some of the people we saw and some of the things we did. Each item on the list could be accompanied by a lengthy summary with more detail, inside jokes, side-stories, etc. etc. etc (I"ll spare you that). And can you believe not a single photo of my own?? - I really thought I had taken at least a few pictures but my digital camera went straight from our arrival from Amsterdam to 1st day of school photos of the girls. What was I thinking....

Anyway, here goes:

Zion National Park:
Canyon Overlook
Emerald Pools
Too numerous to count drive-thrus
Angels Landing (A and E)


Bryce Canyon NP (twice)

Grand Canyon NP - North Rim (twice)
Bright Angel Point
Imperial Point
Cape Royal (the most amazing and best view of the canyon - north or south)
Jacob Lake (best place to regale the girls with stories of my youth)

Kanab:
Honey's Jubilee (our favorite grocery store)
Nedra's Too (best tex-mex in Kanab?!)
Gunsmoke Western Town Set

St. George
Little Black Canyon Petroglyph Site (AZ)
Zion Ponderosa: Pool, Climbing Wall, Zip-Line, ATV's, Horses
Coral Cliffs Cinema 8 (Hurricane)
BYU - The Creamery on 9th - lunch and laughs with MD friends
Temple Square & Conference Center
Haacke Motors - Hyundai Sante Fe and the Garmin (affectionately referred to as Gremlin)

Ray Reunion (photos via Elisa/Darin)
family - fun - food
family flags
gps
swimming
hiking
talent show
tie-dye
photo shoot
family shirts

Company: Janes, Killpacks, Elaine
Utah Shakespearean Festival: Twelfth Night and Candida
Cedar City - Alicia's apt. move-in
Sonic - as often as we could
Freaks and Geeks Marathon
High School Musical II
Thunderbird Restaurant
Orderville: Church, Terry's Groceries
Wal-Mart
(It's true we only go to Wal-Mart while on vacation, weird?!)

I have had the hardest time adjusting to "real life" - post Zions. When can we retire??

Tagged...

Belated answers after having been tagged by Elisa:

Four Jobs
I Have Had:

Medical Social Worker
Soils Lab Secretary
(I also learned how to test alfalfa for
protein content if I can be of help to anyone)
Jacob Lake Gift Shop Salesclerk
Cheese Plant Packager (pre-pre OSHA days)

Four Movies
I Can Watch Over and Over:
Citizen Kane
Casablanca
Lawrence of Arabia
Monte Walsh or was it The Outlaw Josie Wales
(Just kidding, I'm not much of a movie watcher - I always fall asleep before they are over.
I have however seen the beginning of all of the above movies. Craig and I watched them once when we came across a list of top ten movies of all time. I really don't have any favorites. Strange, but true.
The westerns aren't necessarily classics :)
they just made the list in case DMM is reading.)

Four Places
I Have Lived:

Utah
Oregon
Texas
California

Four Guilty Pleasures:

Sunday Afternoon Naps
Reading When I Should be Doing Something Else
Crossword Puzzles
Buying Yarn

TV Shows I Watch:

The Office
HGTV
Top Chef/Project Runway
Local News

Four Favorite Places
I've Been on Vacation:

The Mediterranean (Italy especially)
The Baltic
Classic Family Trip to Arches and Mesa Verde as a child
Disneyland/World
(it is after all the "Happiest Place on Earth")

Four Websites
I Visit

aol.com
hjnews.com
blogs (family/friends)
pizzahut.com

Four Places
I Would Rather Be Right Now:

The Cabin
Anywhere With The McNeils
A Bookstore
Any Museum

Four Favorite Foods:

Guacamole
Cheesecake
Ice Cream
Caesar Salad

Four Books I Love:

Gift From the Sea
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Remembering Wholeness
Anything by Chaim Potok

Four Things
I Would Like to Learn How To Do:

Digital Scrapbooking
Furniture Refinishing
Spin Wool on my antique Great Wheel
Keep the Kitchen Desk Cleared Off

Four Things I Worry About:

My Girls
How Far Can I Drive on Empty
Things I'm Not Doing but Should Be Doing
Whether I Locked the Doors and Put Down the Garage

Four Things I Want to Accomplish this Year:

Organize Our Photos
Put Up the Decorative Stained Glass Windows
??
??

Wow - possibly more than you ever wanted to know - blame Elisa!

Happy Birthday!

"I could eat a hamburger THIS big"!
You know who you are and we hope you have a
Wonderful Birthday!

Thanks for the memories:
Reunions (old and new)
DC
NYC - Blackout of '03
California (especially the pool & Alcatraz)
Temple Square
and more...


Sorry about the time we starved you!
Just remember we fell in love with you before Darin knew he had!