September 30

Just chillin'. These two sat at the table and just talked and talked tonight. No video games, no guitars or drums, no Ipods on. Just real conversation with lots of laughing. One of my favorite things.

September 28

So this is Becca's choir dress. We have to hem it. I think it was made for an Amazon! (You know, those really tall people.) It will definitely have a deep hem, and she stands on the front row. Wish me luck. Oh, and by the way, the black t-shirt is not part of the dress.

September 27

Tonight was the annual General Women's Broadcast. We had some really neat displays from each ward about things they have done for enrichment nights. The talks were so powerful. I enjoyed this time with the sisters in my ward and stake.

September 26

It's football season! Nick is really enjoying his drum line involvement this year. He is the section leader. The football team has actually made some improvement over the last three years. They are scoring now, and have even won a couple of games! The band is playing selections from 4 Broadway shows - really great music!

September 25

Happy Birthday to Katie! This is the only shot I have of her by herself from this summer. She is even beautiful and photogenic when she is laying sod... I love you, Katie!

September 24

Ahhhhhh, yes! This was so good...it's been a while since I had a cream filled donut like this - I absolutely enjoyed every single bite! (no guilt, either!)

September 23

FIVE Stars! Rock on!

September 22

Becca wanted to make Miriam some cookies and decided to make her a giant snowman cooking instead. It turned out so cute! You should have seen Miriam's face when Becca took it over. (They have been obsessed with snowmen as of late.)

September 17

Nick found this little visitor in the bathroom. It was so small that it was nearly transparent. We have these little geckos from time to time. We try to remove them to the outside without hurting them. They are very cool to look at.

September 13

Ethan had his first birthday today! Just look at that brilliant smile. We enjoyed going to his little party and watching him get his first sugar rush!

September 12

We had a ward pie social. We also played Wii bowling. It was fun to visit and play with the adults in our ward. We have many amazing people who are so wonderful to associate with. I really love our ward.

September 10

Becca was sick with the flu. I stayed home from my planned meetings and made here these cute little jammies. They have colored hearts all over them. I'm glad she is feeling better. She was sick yesterday and today. I had meetings from 6:30 - 9:00 last night and had to leave her. Tonight I cancelled my meetings to stay home with her because I did not want to leave her again, but she felt good enough to go to Mutual. So I had some time with my sewing machine. It was quite enjoyable.

September 7

This is totally one of my favorite salads to make and eat. We had the McLean's over for dinner tonight and this is one of the things I made. I also made chicken cacciatore over brown rice and roasted cauliflower. (I learned all of these wonderful dishes from Katie.) Julie asked me how I had been losing weight and expressed interest in the weight watcher program when I explained it to her, so we had them over for a weight watcher's dinner. We had so much fun with them! Brother McLean played rock band with Nick and sister McLean hung out with Becca and me.

Here is the recipe for this salad:

Santa Fe Salad with Chili-Lime Dressing (Mix and Match Recipe)

light meals
POINTS® Value: 2 Servings: 8 Preparation Time: 25 min Cooking Time: 0 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients
6 Tbsp reduced-calorie mayonnaise
3 Tbsp cilantro, fresh, finely chopped (I use more because it is so good!)
3 Tbsp water
1 medium scallion(s), minced
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lime juice (I use more because I like it.)
2 tsp sugar (I use a sugar substitute)
1/2 tsp chili powder
15 oz canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cup cooked corn kernels, fresh or frozen
2 cup grape tomatoes
1 medium sweet red pepper(s), cut into thin strips (about 1 1/2 cups) (You can also used any colored sweet peppers. It makes the salad so pretty!)
8 cup romaine lettuce, cut into thick shreds (about 2 hearts)

Instructions:

To make dressing, whisk together mayonnaise, cilantro, water, scallion, lime juice, sugar and chili powder in a small bowl until smooth. Transfer to a jar or a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate until ready to use.
In a large bowl or food storage container, layer remaining ingredients in order listed. Cover and refrigerate.
To serve, spoon salad ingredients into a bowl. Shake dressing and then drizzle dressing over salad; toss well to coat. Yields about 2 cups of salad and 1 1/2 tablespoons of dressing per serving.

September 6

6:20 am - we canned 22 cans of dry storage (flour and sugar) at the bishop's home this morning. We then stayed and helped some others do some of their canning, too.
9:00 am - using our "food saver" to prepare spaghetti for storage. It sucks out all of the air, then seals the bag. The finished product is hard as a rock. We now have 16 lbs. of spaghetti to add to our storage, along with several "bricks" of rice we did at the beginning of the summer.
7:00 pm - we were given some tickets for the ASU/Stanford game. We had a blast! It was so hot, thought, I could not believe it. It was 108 when we got out of the car walk into the stadium at 5:30. We sat there for 5 hours and literally melted, along with every other person in the stadium. Add in grocery shopping, cleaning, changing sheets, laundry, yard work, and a nice nap, it was a busy Saturday!

September 5

THIS was the best batch of biscuits I have ever made! Nice and crusty on the outside, and fluffy, tender and tasty on the inside! It has been a long time since I made batch of these babies.

September 4

Alfredo

Chicken Salad

Lasagne, alfredo and spaghetti.

Tonight I was making a batch of biscuits and some tomato soup for dinner because Becca has not felt good today. She requested this menu thinking it would feel good on her poor stomach. I got all of the dry ingredients for the biscuits in the mixing bowl and started it up. Then the mixer died. The power was OUT in the whole neighborhood, due to a traffic accident (we found out later). So I waited. I wondered if I should get out the Coleman stove to make the soup, and thought no way, fool! It's way too hot to try making dinner on the patio. So I settled down on to the couch with my book to wait for Rod. When he got home, we decided to go to Fazoli's. As we pulled into the parking lot at our friendly Peoria Fazoli's, we notice there were no cars. This location was closed for business and had a note on the door directing us to other locations. So we hopped on the 101 and headed a little bit north to find one. It was great and worth the drive! And when we got home, the power was back on. Yea! So I covered up the biscuit stuff to make tomorrow. The power was actually out for a couple of hours, the longest we have ever been without power since we moved here.

September 1

We are looking down the length of a saguaro cactus here that had fallen across the trail we hiked today in the White Tanks. We went with our friend, John Hardy. John measured the thing, and it was 36 feet long! He said that with a maximum growth of 6" per year, it was at least 72 years old. I had never seen the roots of a cactus like this before. Very interesting. They cut the piece over the trail out, just like the do fallen trees in the forest, so we did not have to try to step over it. It was a beautiful day for a hike - stayed in the 80s and was overcast part of the time. However, it was very humid and my shirt was soaking wet with sweat at the end of the 6 mile hike. Needless to say, we drank a lot of water on the trail!