I had to get this

It has been so cold recently, I woke up Thursday with a plan. I had
to have a warmer bed. Once we are both tucked in we can stay warm but
that first crawl inbetween the sheets is a true chiller. So I bit the
bullet and bought this little number on payday Friday. I didn't tell
Dave about it till he got in the prewarmed bed. He was happy with my
big move to buy this. It will especially come in handy when he is
traveling for work. Trinidad and Houston before the year is over. I'm
really trying not to be a whiner about it.

The two in the middle

Here are the cake decorators. Just had to include this picture

Cupcakes by 16 year old guys

This past week was the halloween party a the church. Josephs group was
asked to provide cupcakes. I baked them for him while he was at
school. When he got home, he and a buddy agreed to frost them. They
used 1/2 of a canister of store bought frosting for the whole batch of
cupcakes. Here's how they looked. I dint know... Hummmm what was
missing? I'd just guess it was a tiny bit of a womans touch. I
doctored them up and sent a dozen beauties off to the cake walk. Those
boys made me laugh.

it's got to be done

As much as I generally dislike Halloween, there are a few things about it, I so love & I just have to do. One year we refinished our wood floors over Halloween and stayed at my sisters house for a week. It was so great to have Halloween with the little nieces and nephews, And my own kids loved trick or treating ith cousins, but I missed seeing my own neighborhood kids, and even carving a pumpkin. It threw me not to do those yearly things. It's like when there is a holiday on a Monday and it throws the whole week. The rest of the week you never really know what day it is. So this year, I just did stuff my self since no one else is really interested. I bought enough candy for the too tall to tricker treat ers as well as for the neighborhood kids. Ill love the cool night air, and the smell of the candle burning the top of the Jack-o-lantern. I'll love seeing the little kids and some of the parents come to the door. It's great just to see everyone. I will miss my own kids coming in and out- grabbing the traditional Halloween pizza in between trick or treating adventures.

A very serious post

Well, anyone that knows me, knows that I am a big fan of Hot Chocolate. It is one of the ways I cope with the cold weather. I fell for the deal at Costco, 4 cans for $10
So heres what it came down to, The most deluxe and best hot cocoa, is definitely the dark chocolate one. Second is the pumpkins spice. When in a blind taste test, by Kim, she couldn't really identify the pumpkin part of the flavor, but I still find it tasty. The milk chocolate comes in third, and the others... well ummmmm, I hope someone else will drink them.

So now you are adequately educated as to my opinions on these Stephens flavors. If you want the french vanilla or the peanut butter one, give me a text, and you can at least try them.

Now you know why this was a serious post

Just what I thought

This morning Jacob reported waking up during the night with some a
pain. I figured that was pretty suspicious of a break- we got into our
doctor, dr Weipert, at 11:10. He assessed the whole situation,
thinking it might just be a bruised bone, but sent us for an xray
anyway. I went into the xray with Jacob and could see a little
abnormality about where he reported having pain. I was really
surprised to see a break but the technician poo poo ed my guess.
After a cafe rio lunch we got a call reporting he did have a true
fracture. Hummmmm what now xray lady? We went back to the dr and got
a soft splint. Dr Weipert was awesome about the midsummers nights
dream coming up. Jacob has a big part, Oberon in that play. It opens
in 1 1/2 weeks. The dr also prescribed calcium rich foods as well, so
we stopped off at A&W and got him a rootbeer float. So that was my
Monday.

We'll wrap it up with v t ing and home evening. For fhe we are
watching a Dave Ramsey DVD. Do you know Dave Ramsey? He is awesome!
He's a cross between an financial planner and a preacher man. So now
you're up to date with the fall/xray/soft splint/ Jr high play goings
on :)

Another broken bone?

Jacob got into a little foot tangle with cosmo the dog tonight. He has
a scrape on his forehead, and lower arm. He has also been favoring his
lower right arm. The after hours clinic is closed for the night so
we're going to have to wait for morning to see what the damage is. We
wrapped it and iced it and gave him 1600mg ibuprofen. On the way home
from Provo Jacob started perking up. I'll report more later.

Connie

Macaroni grill bread

I have a friend named Edee. She really doesn't live far from me but I
usually keep up with her via her blog- or at weddig receptions we seem
to visit for awhile. It really is odd. Non the less, she teaches me
things through her blog. Recently she had about The Macaroni Grill.
Yum! David and I love that place, mostly for the chocolate cake. Ah
man who am I kidding? It's mostly for the chocolate ganache on the
chocolate cake, with a tiny bit of icecream. (Last time I had my
annual "x-ray" I comforted myself with that ganache.) David and I
usually split a Tuscan ribeye steak and the ganache, I mean the cake.

Anyway Edee shared a link to a recipe for the bread they serve there.
I whipped out a batch tonight to go with the potato soup I made.
Totally cheater potato soup, but my boys like it.
When the king of the castle comes home, he will love that bread. I
even have some balsamic vinegar and olive oil or dipping

How it looks now

And so it begins

Today we leave for a little get away. We are headed to Disneyland-
sadly Kim can't come with us though. Steve Laura and Jack will meet
us there so we are traveling with just three of our kids. Kind of
weird and quiet. It will be great to spend the time with the big
family that is also going to be there. More pictures to come.

Activity Day

I was in charge of activity day today. My co leader and I meet with the 8 and 9 yr olds and it is a lot of fun. Today we talked about friendship. We had to meet outside, since our key didn't work for the church building, but it was OK- a little cold, but OK. I asked the girls to close their eyes. I asked them to raise their hand if they had a very best friend that they could depend on. It was very sad that not all the girls rose their hand. I asked if they wanted a friend that was a best friend. They all did raise their hand on that one. I asked them to think about the things a best friend does and think if they need to be more like a best Friend to people in their lives. Then I read the girls this story. It is a very good book, with a cute message on the importance of having friends. Then we wrote compliments to each other on little 3X5 cards. I planned on making friendship bracelets, but we ran out of time, and sunshine, so we'll do that net time. I was worried we wouldn't have enough to do and was really stressed out about it, but it worked out really well.

Wednesdays at El Azteca

For awhile my sibs that lived near by were meeting each week with our brother Steve for lunch. He works out of town, but once a week he has a break for lunch right in Provo. We stopped doing it, but recently started up again. Because it always starts a family fight to decide where we'll have lunch we have a standing place we go. El Azteca, It is right by Provo High so Brig gets to join us which is very fun. Wish all the nieces and nephews could come... Steve and Ray have a funny relationship, which really, does this surprise anyone?

I love these lunch dates, Mom and Dad usually show up and Louis too. The carne asada taco is great, but if you get the platter, there is plenty to share.. and the babies like me more ;)

Why does this seem familiar?

Tomorrow is my oldest childs birthday. As always, I'm a little
sentimental. 25 years ago tonight we were thinking maybe our baby would come soon. I had been to the dr that day and he told me I'd prob go into labor within 24 hours. We got through the night pretty well and decided to go to the hospital that morning. By 3:30 our little girl was here. It was such an amazing experience, and I finally became a mommy-- A MOMMY!! The only thing I wanted more than being a wife was to be a mommy. Its been a great 25 years with my Laur. I'm so happy with the woman she has become- smart, beautiful and so fun. She is truely a great friend to me. We've had so much fun together. I'm glad she is my daughter forever.