Cleaning Out the Camera Roll

Here are a few pics and vids I've overlooked in the last crazy month or so.

At Elannah's high school graduation, she sang a duet with her bestie, Chloe. I couldn't manage to upload the video of the actual performance, but I did have them practice in the car on the way to the ceremony.



Graduation day was rainy, so we had to take pictures in the stadium hallway, which was absolutely packed.

Elannah loves her sister.

I just love these two. 

Husband, Elannah, and I pose for the obligatory parent shot.

Elannah with my parents and my two youngest brothers, Aaron and Thomas (the bearded one)

Elannah and my in-laws

An experiment: I found two ugly vinyl-covered storage cubes and decided to paint them with chalk paint to see what would happen.

Behr chalk paint is about half the price of Annie Sloan chalk paint. The helpful Home Depot paint department employee recommended that I use a natural brush to apply the finishing wax and a good synthetic brush to apply the paint. 

After two good coats of paint, the storage cubes look a lot better. The vinyl is still perfectly supple. The finishing wax keeps the paint soft and cloth-like.

We ended up giving the painted storage cubes to Gabrielle and Raine, who needed more seating options in their sparsely furnished condo and who loved these.

Me and Tyler at Gabrielle's and Raine's condo. While everyone else was hauling stuff, I hung out with this dumpling.

Tyler with his great-grandma (my mom) during our Father's Day family get-together.

Thinking I would simply make a few flowers for Gabrielle's reception, I started watching YouTube videos and experimenting with coffee filter flowers. 

I tried dyeing some of the coffee filters red and making both large and small roses. I never actually used any of my finished products except the white flower balls at the reception, but now I am a pro at coffee filter flowers!

Gabrielle and Husband at the second reception. Gabrielle bought a lovely second-hand wedding dress from a thrift store for $80, but it was sleeveless and had a plunging neck- and backline. She was going to have it altered, but because she came down with such a terrible case of pneumonia, she never had time. She had to use a white tank top under the bodice and cover it with a white jacket, which was a shame because the dress fit so well and was so cute.

Little Gary with Raine's family's Newfie, Clem. Clem drools. A lot. But he's a big old teddy bear.

Sophia putting on the crown as Miss [Our City] one last time.

She's ready to do final interviews with the new contestants before the pageant tonight.

Sophia needed two formal gowns for the pageant. I insisted  she try this one on, and she ended up going with it, but we chose a crinoline underskirt instead of hoops, which poofed the skirt way out and made her look like a Southern belle of the 1800s. Even with platform shoes and the crinoline, the skirt is so long that she had to practice walking in it without looking like she was goose-stepping the hem out of the way with each step.

One of our summer projects has been removing the carpeting on the second floor in our house, laying down new laminate flooring, and repainting the walls. Husband has finished the hallway and Sophia's room, and this is Little Gary's room. We had to paint the subfloor with an odor-blocking paint (Kilz) because past cats had decided to use this room as a litter box on occasion. The walls will be washed and painted next week. Little Gary has decided to go with a rich blue on the walls.

I had to help Sophia with her costume changes for the pageant dress rehearsal and grabbed a few seconds of the evening gown bit. Sorry I didn't film sideways. I always forget.

My MIL and Her Welsh Cake Recipe

I just want to clear something up from my last post--not that anyone's said anything. I just want to make things perfectly understood.

I love and admire my MIL very, very much. You will not meet another woman who does more quiet, publicly unheralded service for others than she. She is the epitome of a woman of God: she bases all of her actions on her faith in God and what it means to be a tool in His hands. She is exactly what she seems: compassionate, action-based, and full of integrity. There is no duplicity or hypocrisy in her soul. And while she has very strong opinions about things, she is not a tyrant about forcing anyone to take her advice or believe like she does. She has a great sense of humor, and I can often make her laugh so hard she has to wipe away tears. I have to love someone who thinks I'm that funny! Plus, she can laugh at herself, which narcissistic, controlling people can't do.

In the context of the reception: while it didn't matter to me or Gabrielle about reception decorations, it did matter to her. Plus, when we asked if we could have the reception in their yard, my MIL and FIL were incredibly gracious in allowing us to do so. While my FIL loves to work in his garden, he had to work extra hard to make it be what he wanted it to be in time for the reception. He said he enjoyed it because it forced him to get some things done that he had been telling himself to do, but it was still gracious. And if MIL wants yards and yards of organza hung on the fence, then I am going to make her happy. I think she stressed herself too much about decorations, but she just wanted everything to be lovely, and British weddings are a big deal. I did talk her out of changing the reception from an open-house format into a massive dinner party (the very thought of a massive dinner party makes me want to sleep for a week), so decorations were a good compromise.

My MIL and FIL lent us some Welsh objects we could use for a culture presentation on Wales that Husband and I were asked to do this past Tuesday. As I am not Welsh, I mainly held and displayed the objects while Husband talked about them, including teaching the audience some words in Welsh. He was very entertaining, and the presentation was a hit.

One of the things we shared were Welsh cakes. This was my first time making them, as MIL usually whips up a batch every few weeks and has FIL bring them around when he takes the dogs for a walk. They turned out well, and MIL gave them her enthusiastic stamp of approval. Now that I have her recipe and know what I'm doing with it, I thought I'd share.

Welsh Cakes (American measurements, MIL's method)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 sticks butter (1 cup), softened
1/4 cup raisins or dried currants
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 eggs, beaten

Mix all dry ingredients together in a food processor or mixing bowl.
Slice butter into chunks and cut them into the flour mixture (a few pulses on the food processor is all it takes) until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
Pour mixture into mixing bowl if you've used a food processor.
Add raisins or currants and stir until thoroughly mixed and raisins are coated in flour mixture. 
Make a well in the center of the mixture and add beaten eggs. Mix with hands until all the flour mixture is incorporated and a firm dough forms. If the dough is too dry, add a touch of milk.
Heat griddle to 350 deg. F. and grease with butter.
Break off walnut-sized pieces of dough and roll them into a ball. Gently flatten the ball between your fingers until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Lay the cake on the griddle and cook for three or four minutes on the first side, or until golden-brown on the bottom. Flip the cake and cook for another one to two minutes, until golden brown. 
Sprinkle a serving plate with granulated sugar and lay warm cakes on top (optional). Cakes will firm a bit as they cool. Best when warm, but also awesome when cold. 
Makes about three dozen Welsh cakes.

Welsh Cakes (British measurements, traditional method)

8 oz self-rising flour
3 oz lard
1 egg
3 oz currants
3 oz sugar
pinch of salt

Sieve flour and salt into the mixing bowl. Cut up lard and rub in well with fingertips. Add sugar and currants and mix with lightly beaten egg to a firm dough. Roll out on a floured board to a quarter inch thickness and cut with fluted two and a half inch cutter. Place on a pre-heated, lightly greased griddle or solid plate. The first side will take about 4 mins., turn heat off and cook second side for 3 mins. Makes 16-20 cakes. Serve fresh, even slightly warm.

Gabrielle and Raine Got Sealed

This is my second attempt at this post. Something went wrong last time, and my post failed to save--and then disappeared entirely. Completely gone. I couldn't find it in my history, and not one bit of it got saved in draft form. I spent a lot of time on it, and it was really late at night when I realized that all my efforts had disappeared into the mystical digital void. I believe that the only reason I did not pitch a very hefty fit and throw my laptop across the room was because I was listening to this newest ear addiction.



Listen to it with good headphones on.

Now buckle up, buttercup. Here we go again.

Last weekend, Gabrielle and Raine got sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. They are a very happy couple, and I am thrilled that my kind, intelligent, gentle daughter, who is the Queen of Witty Puns, chose a kind, intelligent, gentle young man who happens to think that her puns are very witty indeed.

The happy couple. They are well suited to each other, and I am very happy Raine is part of our family.

A marriage and sealing calls for a reception, and in our case, there were two: one here in our little burg, and one in Utah Valley, where Raine's family lives.

We held the first reception in my in-laws' back garden on Friday evening (the couple were sealed in the morning). It was so much better than trying to make a large church gym look like a wooded glen, or a tent, or the inside of a barn, or whatever crazy theme the bride has concocted in her matrimonially addled head. When they were handing out party-planning abilities in heaven, I accidentally stood in the pizza-and-a-movie-at-home line. Twice. I'd almost rather get sucker-punched in the mouth than plan and execute another reception, which is probably a bad thing when you end up giving birth to four daughters, am I right? The back garden just seemed more intimate. No basketball hoops, for one thing. Plus, nature can do the decorating when you're outside on a lovely day.

Or so I naively thought.

One does not simply tell my mother-in-law, "I'm not bothering with decorations for the reception, and we'll just serve root beer floats." Nor does one mention that same sentiment to one of the neighborhood friends who recently married off a daughter, who then mentions it to several other neighborhood friends who have also recently married off daughters. And my MIL just encouraged them.

Gabrielle herself did not care about decorations. She literally said to me, "I don't care about decorations. I don't know why you would worry about decorations. The important thing is that we're married and sealed." I wholeheartedly agree. But tell that to a British woman who has definite ideas about tradition--wedding tradition in particular. And I say this with all the love I have in my heart for her: she is a stubborn determined woman, bless her cotton socks.

Before I could say "my reception nightmare has begun," these well-meaning friends brought over yards and yards (and yards) of navy blue and red swathes of organza, battery-operated candles and lanterns by the dozen, extra tables, chair covers and sashes, boxes and bags of silk flowers and greenery, planter hooks, and more. I looked at the mountain of decorations these good women had lent me and sat down for a very long time to get over my sense of overwhelm.

One friend, Sam, who has two storage units full to the brim with wedding and party decor just because she absolutely loves decorating for parties, swept through the backyard to give me some suggestions. "I would put a really big flower arrangement here under the trees," she said, casually gesturing. "Just get a box and start shoving flowers and greenery in. It will look great!"She seemed so confident that it could be done that I hated to correct her assumption that I was the one who could do it.

We all find what we are made of when our backs are against the wall, er, fence. Dear reader, I am happy to inform you that after a sweaty mental hour or so, I attempted the flower arrangement. I was alone at the time. I was afraid. But I did it.

This is not a great picture of the final product, but I did manage to get it moved to the right spot and dress up the base before guests arrived the next day. It looked amazing. I also insisted that my family members, on an individual basis, tell me how amazing it looked. I think some of them actually did think it looked amazing--at least, that's what I'm going to tell myself.

To slightly shorten this long story, I'll just tell you that MIL and I managed to attach sixty-seven yards of blue organza to the fence and dress it up with big red bows. The chairs got covered and sashed, the food tent got more organza swags, clusters of flickering candles were nestled into the mulch around the tree trunks, and a set of incredibly generous women made and donated a slew of treats. Linnea, my friend and health coach, insisted on putting together some deliciously colorful fruit and vegetable platters. Others brought brownies, cupcakes, cookies, and more brownies. We had bought boxes of vanilla ice-cream, though we didn't even get through one box. The food tables groaned under their mouth-watering burden.

These are my pictures. They are amateur. There are no achingly beautiful close-ups of particular decorations, and I used no filters (mainly because the idea of using filters never occurs to me). These are not Insta-worthy in any way. Between you and me, I think that all the time and worry spent on the decorations was mostly a wasted effort. Who needs organza swags when you have that view?

Gabrielle and Raine got a bench at the end of the garden so they could sit down in between greeting the guests. 

Ladies and gentlemen, that's sixty-seven yards of organza right there. Imagine how fun it was to wrestle that wad all the way down the fence on a windy day. 

Treats my health coach does not approve of.

Treats my health coach put together. These fruit and vegetable platters thrilled everyone, including me. I ate a lot of orange bell pepper slices and snow peas. Yum.

Bonnie, one of my my in-laws' dogs, was Little Gary's best friend as long as he had a plate of goodies on his lap.

Nathan, Sian, and my grandson Tyler (who just learned how to crawl!). 

We accidentally ended up in casual dress for the reception. We all fully meant to set up and then run home and change, but it didn't happen in time. Who cares? We didn't. We were comfortable. Most of our guests also came in casual clothing.

The second reception was on Saturday afternoon at Raine's parents home. They were smart and didn't bother with any decorations, and they bought Costco sheet cakes and used the leftover food from Friday. I enjoyed not having to stress about anything other than showing up. It was a great party, and I made new friends amongst their friends and neighbors. Raine's parents adore Gabrielle, and my daughter is very lucky to have married into such a good family.

That's my report. It was better the first time, but I guess you'll never know now. Stupid computers. Anyway, I was so glad when it was all over, though I absolutely loved escorting my darling daughter through the temple. Right after they got married in Las Vegas, she developed an upper respiratory infection that took a sharp turn into serious pneumonia. It took her a few weeks to recover (and I spent a few days with her so Raine could go to work), but she got well enough in time that she could get sealed to her eternal companion. That's the important part. That's what I truly loved seeing.

And now, good night. I stayed up way too late again.

Wherein Gabrielle and Raine (Sort Of) Elope

A thing happened three weeks ago--the event that I alluded to a couple posts ago. I'm ready to talk about it.

On the morning that Husband and I were scheduled to help Sian and Nathan move, I got a call, early. It was Gabrielle.

"Mom," she said, "I'm sorry to wake you up, but I have some news. Raine and I have talked about it, and we've decided to get married today. I'm just calling to get your take on this."

She caught me completely off-guard, both sleepy and flabbergasted. It seemed sudden, of course, because it was sudden. They hadn't even been dating all that long when they got engaged, and now they were running off to Las Vegas to get married?

After I got my brain caught up on the situation, she told me how they'd arrived at this stunning decision to (sort of) elope.

They'd been going through the process of trying to land a lease on an apartment or condo and figuring out how to blend their lives together. They did get the condo they wanted, and then they were wishing they were already married so they could just move in together and set up house, since there was no doubt that their relationship was going to last. Why prolong the engagement? Why wait? And that's when Gabrielle told Raine that they should get married that day. Gabrielle, my daughter who used to spend a good twenty minutes agonizing in front of the candy products trying to make a decision; Gabrielle, who has never enjoyed having to make impulse decisions even about smaller things. Gabrielle was the one who suggested it, and she meant it.

So, being the spiritual kids they are, they decided to pray about it, and both of them felt very strongly that this was what they were supposed to do. Gabrielle even felt an urgency about it that she's never felt about any other decision before.

So at the point she called me, she was driving alone to her house to pack while Raine sorted out the marriage license and scheduled a marriage ceremony at a little wedding chapel near The Strip. She wanted to know what my impressions were, and she also wanted to know if running off to get a civil wedding in Las Vegas would negatively affect their ability to get sealed in the Salt Lake temple in June.

And just to clarify: no, they are not "in trouble." There has been no violation of the law of chastity.

We talked for a while as she drove (she had me on speaker and was not holding her phone, just so you know), and I asked her all kinds of questions so I could gauge if she was being coerced or if she was being totally and crazily impulsive and would regret this later on. I liked the fact that she was alone so I could get a more honest reaction from her.

Weirdly, as we talked, I felt very strongly that this was what they were supposed to do. Gabrielle's never been rebellious, and we've always had a very close relationship where she has always been able to talk to me about anything. For some reason, these kids were not supposed to wait. And when the Lord tells you to do a thing, you do it, even if you sometimes don't know exactly why.

We want to raise our kids to be able to make good decisions on their own, and we want our kids to know when they are being guided by the Holy Spirit, no? But we often try and thwart them when we don't agree completely with their decisions, which can undermine their confidence in their ability to receive personal revelation. Kids need both the victories and the defeats so that they can hone their decision-making capabilities. I've tried to be careful not to impose my own ideas on my older children as they try to make important decisions or burden them with the stress of conventional expectations (which are generally based only on culture or tradition and not on gospel principles) so that they could gain confidence in their abilities to pray for and hear the guidance of the Spirit. This was a big test for me, however, to stay true to that parenting philosophy. Marriage is not on the same par as choosing a treat from the store. This is serious, serious stuff.

But yes, I did feel the Spirit telling me it was okay--more than okay, even. Necessary. And thanks to the recently changed Church policy, Gabrielle and Raine don't have to wait an entire year to get sealed if they chose to have a civil wedding first. So, armed with spiritual peace and the knowledge that they can quickly be sealed together for time and all eternity, I gave Gabrielle my blessing.

Husband was a slightly harder sell, though we are on the same page about helping our kids gain spiritual confidence. He also eventually felt spiritual confirmation. And I'm not saying that I immediately gained emotional equilibrium about the whole thing, despite the fact that I was comforted by the Spirit. I was still off-balance all day. I spent quite a bit of time crying as we drove down to help Nathan and Sian move, images of little Gabrielle as a baby and a toddler and a tween running through my head.

For there was no putting that move off. Nathan and Sian had to be moved that weekend or they would face serious financial repercussions. I spent the day alternating between taking care of my darling grandson and texting and calling Gabrielle about what was going on in their bid to get everything set up for a wedding in under twenty-four hours.

In the end, Nathan and Sian got moved and Gabrielle and Raine got married. We couldn't be in Las Vegas, but I wasn't angry about it. I was sad, yes, but that sadness has turned only to joy as I watch my second daughter and her loving, attentive, righteous man of a husband set up house and meld as a couple. Husband and I weren't conventional in our love story, either, and I've never regretted that. When you do what the Lord tells you, you never regret it, even if others don't understand.

And I must mention how fun it is to hang out with my two married daughters and their wonderful husbands, which we've done as we've all rallied to get Gabrielle's and Raine's third-floor walk-up condo furnished (oy! the carrying of heavy things!). All a mother wants is for her kids to be truly happy, and both of my oldest daughters have chosen wisely and well in their marriage partners. I'm a happy mama.

Facebook Posts That Weren't

I made beef samosas on Friday. I just got the urge. It took me five hours and I made everything from scratch, including the dough,  but they were delicious. Sometimes I just have to prove to myself that I can still cook.

I'm increasingly craving dirt. I find myself wanting to lick rocks covered in dried mud. The smell of wet cement makes me a little crazy. I find myself daydreaming about enjoying a mouthful of mud before I realize how wrong that thought is. Time to get a good iron supplement, as I must be getting pica again.

I ran into one of my preschoolers today at the library and he was shocked. Most of the preschoolers think I live on the bus.

Husband bought a dryer for $20. After he took it apart, cleaned out all the lint, and replaced the drum rollers, it works like new. I'm always impressed by how much Husband can do. After twenty-five years of marriage, he still astonishes me with his ability to figure things out.