Ten Things Thankful

My friend, Kristi, and her mom make a gratitude post every week. I was inspired to join in the fun, even though I might not join in the blog hop. Here's my ten things thankful and one not:

1. I am thankful for the ever-changing seasons in our new location. The South had mostly summer with milder shoulder seasons and a few really cold weeks. Now, we get to experience all four seasons -- and sometimes almost all in one week. My little great-niece and great-nephew asked me to hang a "Snowflakes 4 Sale" sign up on my red berry wreath about a month ago. It is still there because the snow is still falling & I would like it to go away sometimes.



2. Ryan broke his foot on his birthday, a few months ago. I am thankful that we didn't get a phone call after his x-ray last week. No news is good news? His foot is healing slowly. I am thankful that the MP's wife posts pictures on Instagram and that Ryan is frequently in them.

3. I am thankful to make progress in the garage. It's still a big project, but many of the boxes in this shot are now sorted into categories (mainly food storage, books, and craft supplies).

4. I am thankful that the architect finally brought our completed plans. Our home has many doorways, an extra staircase, and light switches behind the doors on the left-hand side. He was able to take our explanations and craft a beautiful plan for some awkward spaces.

5. I am thankful for the wonders of the Instant Pot. I purchased a digital pressure cooker many years ago from QVC and loved it to death. The new version cleans easily and has plenty of adjustable settings to create yummy goodness. This week I used it to make beef stew, sweet potatoes, and chicken breasts.

6. I am thankful for at least one room in the house that feels like a little bit of us. We seek refuge in this room at the end of the day to feast on the scriptures and to pray together as a family. I spend extra time picking up daily so that it stays this way.

7. I am thankful for the wonders of Internet education. I have been studying genetic genealogy to help my dad discover his birth father. Although I wanted to attend the i4gg conference in San Diego in December, I realized that I could stay home and watch the videos later. This year's offerings seem especially appropriate as the presenters are talking about how to apply DNA results and how to use the tools available in this relatively new field. 

Also, I am thankful that my 88-year-old Grandma Peggy agreed to DNA testing. She has many segments that my mom and I did not inherit. Last month, someone lopped off a branch of my tree at FamilySearch, and they were right! Now, I am trying to break through a brick wall to discover my grandma's great-grandparents' names. With DNA, I am making progress.

8. I am thankful for family. We were able to spend time with some great-nieces on Thursday night. They are so cute and I just love them! At the same time Scott refereed the region championship basketball game with his dad at the scorer's table. His dad presented him with his grandfather's Sweet Sixteen whistle from the olden days.

8. I am thankful for good neighborhood friends and for pickle ball. It makes me happy - so much fun to play and easy for anyone to learn. We had a great group on Friday. The church is right around the corner and I have paddles and keys to the closet where the pickle ball nets are stored.

9. I am thankful for the beautiful views out my kitchen window. The coloring of the landscape is ever-changing. I didn't know that the desert could be this beautiful.

10. I am thankful that my boys can have fun together. Papa Elf and the boys went skiing at Grand Targhee today. They had a grand adventure and I am thankful that I could stay home and let them play this time. (A broken toe is not on my gratitude list!)

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

• Pork butt roast or pork shoulder roast
• 1 bottle cheap, runny BBQ sauce
• 1 bottle Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce or your favorite
• Buns
• Homemade coleslaw

Put meat in crock pot with 1 cup water and the cheap BBQ sauce. Cook on low overnight. In the morning, drain meat and sauce through metal strainer. Return to crock pot. Shred with forks and layer with yummy BBQ sauce. Serve on buns with homemade coleslaw.

How to Make a Basic Chalkboard Sign

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   Become a subscriber at Fonts Café – download the free chalkboard fonts and the chalkboard backgrounds.

o  Chalk Hand Lettering Shaded Font

o  Handwriting Draft Font (doesn’t look chalkboard)

o  Free Chalkboard Textures Pack 04

·      Open PhotoShop Elements

o  Create a new thingy (CANVAS?) with dimensions of 24x36 or less. Whatever the right size is though! It is the easiest to make the canvas the same size as your final product.

o  In the photo bin, open the chalkboard background (hunt and search high and low to find where it downloaded…). You could try different backgrounds – the set includes 10 backgrounds. I picked #4 and just stretched and moved the chalkiest parts off the board.

o  Open the canvas and drag the chalkboard background onto the canvas.

o  Resize the chalkboard background (Image>resize>24x36 or whatever the size of your frame). Clip to the background layer.

o  Create a text box for each word or phrase. Change the font to whatever you choose & the color to white. Before finalizing the box, shrink the handles closer to the size of the writing. Even if the font is the same for every single item, individual text boxes make it much easier to manipulate the words.

o  Move and rearrange and resize to make everything fit nicely together.

·      Save the image – flatten it to make everything go together?

·      Export to USB drive. Save with a 00thingy or whatever so the file is at the top of the list.

·      Take USB drive to Staples. Be nice to the guy. If he doesn’t like you, you’re in trouble.  Ask for an engineering print. You can have 24x36 or gigantic 32x48.

·      Spray mount to a background – I used a 20x30 piece of black foam core but I have also done something on a thin wooden box frame. If you are crazy, modge podge over the top. Be warned that it will buckle and warp and wrinkle and you might cry or curse!!! (See my March 2013 blog post for more information about the finishing/modge podge process.)

I I am obviously not a Photoshop whiz although I did manage to do this in just a few hours. I just wanted to get the basic process down before I forget.

Trip Teaser

We were able to spend two weeks in Idaho & Utah last week. I am going to tell you why I fell in love again with Idaho & Utah & then some things I appreciate about SC.

Hiking Entertainment

We have family less than two hours away!! My nephew & his wife live not too far away from us for the summer & we were able to spend Memorial Day weekend with them. We ate lots of food & went hiking at Whitewater Falls. While they waited for me to come around the bend, they thought up creative poses. The hike was beautiful, shady most of the time, but seriously uphill for the last half mile. I think I was voted off the island as the weakest link.

IMG_4354

 

Special K and the Smoke Alarm

We try to feed the missionaries about once a month. We appreciate the fact that they've left home & taken two years away from school & life to share the gospel. Also, with three sons we can foresee the day when our three boys will be able to serve as missionaries & hopefully be fed occasionally.

Chris served for a while as a ward missionary and worked with Elder Mauer.

Ryan perfecting his double Windsor knot.

When we were living in Maple Valley, Washington, we invited the missionaries over & I cooked something that sounded wonderful from Cooking Light magazine. I wasn't paying attention (hello, two little boys running all over!) and the kitchen filled up with smoke. Our smoke detector was connected to the whole house alarm system so when it went off, the entire neighborhood knew that I was having a rough day in the kitchen!! The alarm started sounding just as the missionaries arrived. We opened the front door & the back sliding glass door for some cross-ventilation & then I looked for something to fan the smoke away from the smoke detector in the hallway. I spied a box of Special K cereal & started fanning the box to clear the smoke. The top of the box was closed, but soon opened with the weight of the entire box of cereal pounding against it. Special K flew down the hallway & back into the kitchen.

A few weeks ago I was trying to fill out a survey for Relief Society when I read the question, "What is your funniest story?" My kids told me that I'm just not that funny. :) I was happy to remember this story & tell them that I can do some pretty ridiculous things.

I like the following video about young men preparing for missions. If you have 5:08, it's worth a watch.

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/why-missionaries-must-be-morally-clean?cid=HP000064&lang=eng

Settled

I have been working on my degree since 1984. That's a lot of years even without the math. I started as a junior in high school, took AP courses & exams, attended the U before chasing my boyfriend to the Y after two full years. I became very sick & had to transfer yet again to the UW and still didn't finish before I had Chris. Chris had to submit a semester by semester graduation plan during the first month of his first semester of college. I think I might have attacked college differently with a graduation plan!!

Clayton children, SLC

Now, and for the past five years, I am working on completing my degree through the Y's independent study program. I started in Family Life - I love my family, right? How hard could it be? Well, it turned out to be very difficult for me. My brain is wired for problem-solving - follow a certain pattern & find a solution. Math & physics are not well-suited for independent study so I have landed at genealogy. I take the given information, known formulas for finding solutions (census records, obituaries, cemeteries, birth records, etc.), and arrive at a conclusion. I check and recheck my work and hopefully it all works out.

And here's the point...

I love my coursework! I am happy & look forward to working on the classes that I am taking. Last semester I wrote my autobiography (seventy-pages or so). This semester I am writing a narrative biography (think "Who Do You Think You Are?") about one of my ancestral lines. I get excited when I start explaining the coursework to people. Excited!!! Usually their eyes glaze over and I think one of two things. First, I have landed in the right spot for me. I like researching families and history and trying to put stories together. Second, if the stories were about their people and their past, they would probably be fascinated. In each of us is a desire to know. Who am I? Where did we come from?

Lawrence & Ella Madoche family

Including my current class I have about twenty-two credits to go until graduation. The best part? I only have to take one non-genealogy class - persuasive writing.

Also, I have another blog. I have only written two entries. My plan is to share family stories and genealogy tidbits. The website is: http://justthewaythingswere.blogspot.com