Gardening adventures

So far our garden is doing great. We have to eat about 4 tomatoes a day to keep up with it. We've picked one delicata squash and endless chard. We've eaten about 6 green beans total and lots of yummy beats. Red onions didn't do well - too small - but the carrots have been perfect.
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Goodbye beloved couches

Well not for good. They are being taken away today to get recovered. I believe my parents purchased then in 1991. Back then they were sea foam green. Then in 1994 or 5 she got them covered in this pretty blue floral stripe. I'm not a huge fan of change and I worry I will miss this pattern. The new one is floral and blue and yellow (greenish yellow). Very pretty. I hope nothing goes wrong. They should be gone a week.
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School

Not sure I mentioned this before but I'm back in school. Taking some math and economics this time in case I want a business degree somewhere down the line. Mostly I just needed classes to get credit to keep my teaching license current. Anyway, so far so good, but it just so happens I discovered an old student in my math class. Seriously. He was in my reading class. English is his second language so he struggled with reading it. Luckily he was one of my favorites. Now I have a friend at school!
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Weeding

While the family plays volleyball lizzy weeds. She takes after her grandma.
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Bret and I spent last week in Orem with his parents.  We were attending Education Week.  Can I just say I LOVED IT.  Yep, I did.  I also celebrated my bday about a week ago.  We celebrated by walking around Silver Lake and having a picnic then driving to Orem and having dinner at IHOP and then playing bocce in the park and then going to see "The Drowsy Chaperone"  at the Hale Theater in Orem. I loved that play.  I loved the lake and bocce.  The rest was so so.  :)  It was a grand day, though.

Here's a pic taken at my mother's on my bday.  My sister made the cake.  The numbers Mom had on hand weren't quite accurate, but we made do.

Fancified tuna helper

Bret came to our marriage with an amazing food storage. One thing I wasn't thrilled about, though, was his small collection of tuna helper. Tonight I took one and fancified it up. First step was to hold the tuna. Then I added fresh basil and used butter instead of margarine. Pretty yummy! I plan to chop some garden tomatoes and throw them on before serving.
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Friday night fun

We're just chillin' in our basement on our new reclining couches sporting our matching Snuggies I got us for Vday back when we were dating. We are going through the Education Week schedule trying to pick classes we want to attend. It's rather difficult since there are so many good ones!
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Grilled Pizza

This is today's cooking adventure. Delicious! Maybe it's just in my head but I think it has a slight burger flavor. Yummy! I'm also learning that Bret is the Glen Beck of pizza. He has a very rigid definition - tomato sauce and lots of cheese that gets golden on top. Grilling pizza does not make for a golden top. I don't care. It's good!
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St. Charles

Apparently the sculptor of Mt Rushmore was from the small town of St Charles right by Bear Lake. I love this miniature version.
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Mt Rushmore

Look what else I visited on my Pioneer Day holiday!
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Bear Lake

This is how I spent my Pioneer Day holiday. Very nice!
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Holiday in Cali

It's been way too long.  I hate it when I let my blog go so neglected - it makes me feel behind in my life in general.  Or maybe being behind in life makes me neglect my blog.  Well either way, I finally transferred photos from my camera to my computer and now you get to see some of them!

First, about a month before our trip, we participated in a yard sale.  I made just about 100 dollars.  The best sellers were my scarves I've collected since college.  You can see them in a blue basket right in front of me.  They went for a buck each.  Luckily the ones I loved the most went to women I felt would really appreciate them.

Then I went to Girls Camp.  Our theme was "Guardians of Virtue" - you can see the big "V" on my t-shirt.  I let my girls take my camera around to document what they saw.  I guess they saw me.  You can tell we were in nice digs.  Heber Valley Camp, to be precise.  They call it the temple without a roof - very nice.  It was a great time and a great experience, and as everyone tells me, it only goes downhill from there.  Meaning, every camp I go to in the future will never compare.  Probably true.

This is one of my girls doing what I called the "Bug Spray Dance."  There were tons of mosquitoes and so the girls were constantly spraying themselves with repellant.  I think we went through three or four cans.  In the other shots of her you can see the spray actually coming out - you know how action shots are, you get what you get.

One last shot of camp - so you can see just how beautiful the area was.  This is from our "long hike" which took longer since we were constantly waiting for each other.  I like hiking in big groups where you keep track of everyone - it allows for more breathing time.

This is the main reason we went to California - to spend time with these folks - family!  We're sitting on a patch of Astroturf on an island that was built out of a landfill.  It was really rather beautiful, and we were grateful for the Astroturf since the natural vegetation was dry and dead looking.

Here we are again, hanging out at a playground nearby.  We pretty much all congregated and hung out on this disc watching the little girls play and just chatting it up.

We had a pretty good view of this spiral thing and one by one some of us took turns climbing up.  I couldn't do it by myself.  Stephen tried to help, and finally Marshall just push from the rear.  I made it up - but will spare you that picture.  Bret preferred this action shot anyway.

In San Fran we went to the Legion of Honor Museum.  It's free the first Tuesday of the month so we took advantage.  We LOVED all the Rodin.  I highly recommend visiting there.  We spent a lot of time posing for cheesy pictures in the courtyard, though, before going in.  Don't worry, we didn't have strangers take the pictures, the brother and family came along and did their own cheesy posing.  This is our favorite.  Notice Bret's cuffed jeans.  He felt silly when at the end of the day he noticed he hadn't uncuffed them.  He does that in the morning when he's walking around the house barefooted, so the jeans don't drag on the ground.  Then when he puts his shoes on he's supposed to uncuff them - but unfortunately he doesn't always remember. 

Nearby the Legion of Honor Museum was a really great park. Here's Stephen's family having a great time.  Later he wore the pink hat.  I think he was the only father who could get away with playing on the equipment with his girls while wearing a pink hat.

 

 On our way back to Sacramento we stopped by the Oakland Temple and did a session.  Loved it!  This time we did bug a stranger to help us out.

 

 One of outings in Sacramento was to go to Old Town where you see and learn all about the original city and its history.  I'm posing by the school house.  I think people were really short back then.

I'm afraid I didn't take very many interesting photos after that.  We did more visiting - going back to the bay and then back to Sacramento.  We have great family!  The Sun Oven I wrote about in earlier posts was one of my best souvenirs!  I made more bread in it, different recipe, that has more rise to it and it also came out great.  Loving it!  Plus the proceeds from the sale of it go to helping people in less developed countries have them.  I remember from my Sub-Saharan Africa Geography class in college that having enough fuel is a major issue.

Okay, well I need to get to bed now.  Hope Mom enjoys all the photos!

Success!

Here's the finished product. Just like out of the oven. Even used my own sour dough starter.
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Cookit at Work

Last week my good sister gave me an early birthday present. It's a Cookit Solar Oven. It is amazing! I baked bread in it today.
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Holiday in CA

I haven't posted much, but I'm just wrapping up a holiday in california. I'm on highway 580 heading to Sacramento and there's a bit of traffic. That allows time for checking out the neighbors. On my right I noticed a red Subaru with a bumper sticker pleading to keep Lake Tahoe blue. Very typical Cali car. Then I saw the driver, Jack Sparrow - you know - the guy from Pirates of the Caribbean. Wish I had snapped a picture.
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Young Women

Here are a few of my yw as we went to the temple for the first time. Very exciting!
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Father's Day Dinner

Bret made it himself. It's cheesy!
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Quadrants

Finally they are together again after 14 years. Sure miss the good old days.
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BYUtv - The Generations Project: Rachel

Some of you may have heard of my good friend Rachel. She helped me cut down a few Aspen trees last year. She appeared on BYUTV last night - pretty exciting. It was actually at the cutting down of my Aspens when she was in the middle of recording this project. I think you should watch it - pretty interesting!


BYUtv - The Generations Project: Rachel

couches

there has been plenty of exciting stories from my life lately, but for some reason blogging about them has been more of a chore than a pleasure so i haven't made much of an effort.  today, though, it's rainy and i don't feel like filing (which is what i should be doing) so i'll share some recent good news.

last weekend my mother gave us her old reclining couches.  if there is anything in this world my husband loves it's a recliner.  this is the next best thing.  we managed to find space in our basement and are rather pleased with the new set up.  it did require, though, hauling out our old one.  i did that by myself one morning.  i was surprised by how light it was, especially once all the cushions were removed.  unfortunately reclining couches are NOT light.  i think poor bret may have strained his back moving them in.  anyway, the exciting thing that happened today was getting the old couch removed from my property.  i advertised on ksl and freecycle and i had quite a few interested parties, but none with trucks at their ready disposal until today.  yep, today, in the rain, a little family showed up and took it off my porch.  now i'm ready to do some grilling!  maybe i'll go sit out there and read a book while listening to the gentle rain.  that sounds nice.  or maybe i should look at my long neglected chore list and see about organizing some odd closet.


Anyway, here's a bit of nostalgia regarding my old couch.  it was a sectional.  i love sectionals.

so long old couch.  i loved you for many years.  this couch came with my old apartment, left by a previous tenant.  dona and i recovered it using bed sheets - now that was a fun project, dying them pinkish.  she did all the work.  this is where my group of closest friends was first formed - evenings after working on a tree for the "festival of trees" as well as after swing dance class.  we planned quite a few camp outs and hikes while reclining on this couch.  it was on this couch that i first became a "buffy the vampire slayer fan."  we had cats cover it in fur that gave my good friend ed an allergy attack that lasted months.  in fact i was sitting on this couch the first time i "met" ed, while watching "dante's peak." over the years, when it was less valued, it got makeup on it from the various halloween party goers.  and who knows what else was spilled on it.  and i can't forget all the many many many naps taken on it.  really it may have been one of the most comfortable couches ever.  so long.  may you get a new covering and bring your new family joy.