Sisters Trip '09

My sisters and I have never ALL lived in one place at the same time since we started getting married. Two years ago my youngest sister, Ems, had a business trip to NYC and we all decided to tag along. This was in January. NYC in January. Needless to say, it was COLD! We had such a great time and hoofed it all over the city for good food, cup cakes and sites (about the only way we stayed warm!). My oldest sister, Sarah was pregnant at the time but still kept up with us! We decided to make this a yearly tradition (we love traditions in our fam). 

The next "trip" was actually to visit my younger sister, Laura during her 77 (!) day hospital stay while pregnant with her first baby in Pasadena, CA. Although she couldn't leave her bed, we brought cup cakes and food to her and had a party in the room. 

This year we all needed some warmth and sun so we headed to Pheonix, AZ.  This time Ems had just had surgery on her foot and come down with a nasty virus but she kept up with us too! I guess that wasn't hard since we sat by the pool the whole time except for going across the street for food. 

I can't wait for next year!! I love you guys! 

(Although, after reading through this . . . it seems like next year sounds like my lucky year to have some health issue!)

Instructions I can follow!

The other day Collin woke up with a red egg sized bump on his back. I was sure it was a bite, but I thought, "this will be the time I think it's no big deal and it will turn out to be Leukemia or something", so I called good ol' Dr. Jung. Collin couldn't even sit back against the seat on the way! I was very relieved that when he saw Collins back even HE was impressed with the size! He said he wasn't worried since it didn't look infected but left and came back with a marker. . . You know how they say, "if it gets redder or bigger, come back"? I don't know about you, but I get home and worry, does it look bigger? redder? How do I tell? WELL, Dr. Jung pulls up Collins shirt, uncorks his marker and outlines the bite. Then he draws a dotted line around it and says, "If the redness gets out to the dotted line, come back." !!! THIS is why we love Dr. Jung (OK, one of many!)! No need to wonder, no need to measure or fret. Just check if it's going out of the solid line! He even marked the time for us. . . although that part I'm not sure why . . . 

I wish you could see how swollen it really is! UnbeLIEVable!!

P.S. It never did get bigger and was gone it about 2 days!

Finger Lickin' Yummy

                                           

I could just write the recipe for this, but you KNOW I have a story to tell about it. :) Last night we had the missionaries over. I was going to fix fish since I knew they wouldn't appreciate a veg meal. I had a nagging feeling that it wasn't going to go over well, so we called to see if that would be ok. In the background one of them said, "I DON'T LIKE FISH". That's ok. I want them to eat what they like, and hey, when they came to dinner we found out the same guy had never had Italian dressing for salad. Never? He has a long mission ahead of him! I found a recipe for a rotisserie style roast chicken that got rave reviews so I decided to do that. Even though I almost threw up "dressing" it, it smelled so good and looked JUST like the picture that I tried it and it was soooooo good! Anyway, I always like a good new recipe so I thought I'd share. This recipe makes 2 chickens, but you can halve it too. 

4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. paprika

2 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. dried thyme

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 heaping tsp. garlic powder

2 onions quartered

2 (4 pound) whole chickens

In a small bowl, mix all the spices. Remove giblets from chicken. Rinse chicken (and cavity) and pat dry with paper towel. Rub with Olive Oil. Rub inside and out with spice mixture. Place one onion into the cavity of each chicken. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight or at least 4-6 hours. (SHA! I read this recipe about 7 hours before we were eating, so my birds got no such treatment.)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place chickens in roasting pan. (I added about a cup of broth to the bottom). Bake uncovered for 5 hours or till the temp. reaches 180. The drippings from this made a marvelous, delicious, tasty gravy.  

UPDATE!! I made this for the second pair of missionaries in our ward and added the zest of one lemon to the rub and substituted a lemon for one of the onions for inside the bird. SO GOOD!

NOT heavily dependent on electronic devices . . .

This week was our "spring break". We have had some unseasonably warm weather and I was looking forward to getting out and exploring some new places. Our plans got washed out by 45 degree weather and the first good rain (4 days and counting) we've had all year. In Collin's Art class at Co-Op one of his friends showed him how to make animals out of pipe cleaners and he's been begging for some ever since. I figured this would be a good time to get some. Because of the weather I wanted to light a fire and watch movies, but the kids were perfectly content making a plethora of animals. They didn't even ask to watch a movie! 

Number of Pipe Cleaners in the Jumbo size bag: 350

Number of animals made to date: Too many to count 

Size of mess 2 kids have made ALL over house: Ginormous

Number of kids it LOOKS like made the ginormous mess all over the house: 17 or 18

Hours of fun: Endless

Parents joy of such inexpensive entertainment: Priceless

(these were made in the first hour)

P.S. In reference to the title, I went to a Ward Welfare meeting right after Ike. One of the men there was irATE because the youth activities had been cancelled for a couple of weeks and his boys were home lighting bon fires in the street etc. He said that they were bored and didn't know what to do without electricity because, and I quote, "they were heavily dependent on electronic devices." This is now one of our favorite phrases. 

Stand Back!! He's MINE!!

Oh yeah . . . Disco King!

Totally RAD!!

(In case you couldn't tell, Jon is the one on the right in the middle with his 'board)

That is one HOT hubby I got!!

Texas Pride

We've had a very Texan couple of weeks. For our homeschool group, Collin and I went on a field trip to a local restaurant, Taste of Texas for some Texas history. The owner is a huge Texas history buff so after leading us through the restaurant she sat us down and told us a very lively version of Texas gaining her independence from the evil Santa Ana. The restaurant is also basically a small museum too. It was very interesting 

Collin entertaining the ladies and hanging with the homies. They served us some lunch after the Texas history. 

I had to get a picture of this while filling up my tank. The good ol' Texas Lotto. 

We have our homeschool Co-Op on Fridays. This Friday the group of riders riding the Spanish Trail stopped to have lunch at a parking lot right by where we meet on their way to open the Houston Rodeo. We decided to skip class and go see the horses etc. This is Grace telling the man all about how she loves horses (news to me) and how she wants her very own. 

This is Precious, with her owner wearing a Texas Flag shirt. About half the riders were wearing them. 

The kids were getting little rides on some of the horses and this guys says to me, "We need to see some adults on these horses!"and tells me to get on. Out of the 3 pictures Collin took of me, this is the best. Can you even tell I'm on a horse? :) Later I asked what her name was . . . Jenny! It was fate! 

Our favorite part though was this cowboy who had the best named horse there . . . Homer Jones.  The kids want to get a horse and name it EITHER Homer Jones or Grace.