Proud of me!

Winter Semester 2008
ENGL 315 011 Writing in the Social Sciences 3.0 A
FAMLF 100 016 Strengthening Marr & Family 3.0 A
HFL 260 002 Family Finance 3.0 A
I SYS 100 001 Spreadsheet Skills 0.5 P
I SYS 101 002 Computer Presentation Skills 0.5 P
REL C 324 024 The Doctrine & Covenants 2.0 A
GPA 4.00

AEbleskivers

When our daughter Cheryl lived in Utah while her husband Jon was on his mission, she became friends with a great guy named Rob. Long story short, Rob broke up with his girlfriend Mindy and she moved to San Diego. Rob was heartbroken and couldn't believe she actually left and moved on with her life. He whined at Cheryl long enough that she told him that if he loved her that he needed to go after her. Rob told Cheryl that he couldn't do that because he had no where to live and no job in San Diego. Cheryl told him that her parents would take him in - and we did! He spent a few months with us and we fell in love with him. Rob served his mission in the Santa Barbara area of California which is near Solvang, a little Danish community. Kent and I were taking a trip up there and Rob told us that we had to try the AEbleskivers there. We did and we fell in love with them. They are little ball-like pancakes that you cook in a special AEbleskiver pan. We bought a couple of the pans and brought them home with us and it became our Sunday nght tradition to have friends and family over for AEbleskivers while Rob lived with us. While Cheryl was here visiting recently, we had dinner with Rob and Mindy (yes, he won her heart back and they got married!) We surprised them with an AEbleskiver pan and made them for dessert. What a great reunion for all of us!

Cheryl and Brady come to see the "buddies"

Cheryl and Brady were here for a few days and Brady was beside himself with all the "buddies" up here. All animals with four legs and a tail are a "buddy" to him and he was delighted to chase them all. Abby has several four-legged friends in the neighborhood and they all play in our backyard. Then we have horses across the street just outside my front door. Brady loved to feed them grass that we would pull up for him. And we took him to the farm at Thanksgiving Point to see all the animals there. Add to that all the parks and walks, a trip down to Price to meet Grandma Zauss for the first time ... we had a ball!

Green Smoothies

I know it sounds weird, but they are GREAT! Best way to get down a boatload of veggies in a day that I've found. My friend Laura from my Doctrine & Covenants class last semester introduced them to me and there is a website where you can watch one being made (http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/) Anyway, I drink one at least a few times a week and feel so much healthier! Really cuts down on the sugar cravings, too. Here is the recipe for those who have asked for it and the rest of you brave souls! I know you are all dying to try one! Just put everything in the blender and turn it on.

Green Smoothies

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 avocado

1/2 cucumber

1 cup spinach leaves

1 large collard green leaf

1-2 kale leaves

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 apple

Tulip Festival???

Lisa Cooley and I met at Thanksgiving Point last Saturday for their annual Tulip Festival. Notice how many tulips are blooming - NOT! Thanks to our long winter, they aren't quite up yet, but we found some daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths and pansies that are letting us know that Spring is on its way! The tulips, for us, would have been a bonus - but we were thrilled just to walk and talk for hours in an otherwise beautiful setting. We used to walk our children to school every morning years ago and then continue walking the neighborhoods of Santee while trying to solve all the problems of the world. This time in our life is different: now we talk of our gratitude for life and the wonder that we have survived it all!

My New Tortoise

I can finally stop grieving for my turtle that was left behind in San Diego when I moved. Actually, I guess it is officially a tortoise. He was one of my very favorite gifts that Kent bought me, mostly because we had seen it together, then I had forgotten about it, and then he surprised me with it a couple years later. Several years ago Kent and I were shopping at Simpson's Nursery for fruit trees and we saw these life-sized concrete tortoises - the kind we used to see at the zoo as kids - big slow-moving terrestrial (land) ones that we could sit on! Anyway, these concrete tortoises looked so real and I fell in love with them and thought it would be fun to have one in the backyard garden. We didn't buy one that day, but a couple of years later on my birthday I opened the mini-blinds to let in the morning sun through the kitchen window which looked out over the garden, and there it was - a tortoise! It actually startled me because for a split second I thought it was real and then I remembered the ones we had seen a couple years earlier. Anyway, my tortoise was the only thing that didn't make it in the moving van when I moved to Utah and I have never quite gotten over that. I had the perfect spot for it indoors in my new place. And when my friends, Kathy and Linda were here helping me unpack, I noticed that a good portion of my DI pile had somehow been loaded on the truck along with several other things I had not intended to bring. Everytime we unearthed one of those things, it became the joke to say: "This came?! But the turtle didn't?" Well, today while driving home from school, I passed a garden shop that had a sign out front advertising newly arrived rock turtles. I just had to stop and see them. I actually passed up the driveway and ended up in the parking lot of a used book store so I pretended to be interested in their books for a few minutes and then scurried next door to the garden shop where I found these fun rock tortoises in all sizes. Because I read an article last night in LDS Living Magazine on getting rid of clutter, I chose the smallest one. And this way, it will never be left behind again! He sits on the end table next to Kent's picture and it is the first thing I see when I walk in the door. What a sweet reminder he will be of a special gift from an amazing husband. And now I can finally "let go" of my other tortoise and allow him to get used to his new home in Kent's mother's backyard where he was taken. What can I say - I'm more sentimental than I want to admit.