Quilt teaser

I got my quilt back from the quilter today.  All I have to do now is trim the edges and sew on the binding.  The binding will take a couple of weeks because I'll do it by hand.  More pictures in a couple of weeks. ;-)

I am pleased with this quilter because she did a beautiful job and has good prices.  This is the second quilt she's done for me and how's this for trust--I didn't know how much she was going to charge for the quilt because I had some additions, so I just sent the top to her and asked her to let me know the total.  Today I received an email giving me the tracking information, telling me it would arrive today, and telling me the total!  I got a check right out to the mailbox, and was very pleased she trusted me.

Lots of tidbits about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons)

March Book Club

My niece Carolyn suggested this month's book club read and it's a lively one!  I was interested from the first page and it only got more exciting in the next few.  That's just the way I like to start a book.  A few of the book club selections in the past year have been difficult or impossible for me to get into (ahem, Kelly M, I think they were both your picks), so I appreciated being able to jump right into this one.  And to redeem Kelly M, I will say she is the one who had this one on her shelf and lent it to me before the library could come up with it.

I hadn't ever heard of Clive Cussler, but since this is the 12th book with this hero, I'd say Cussler's been busy and successful over the years.  Have you read anything by him?

Some quick statistics about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday:  Sloppy Joe Casserole

Tuesday:  Root beer pulled pork from the freezer, fresh veggies, dip

Wedensday:  Chicken Divan, fresh bread

Thursday:  Root beer pulled pork leftovers, fresh veggies, dip

Friday:  Pizza

Look what we found when we took an unfamiliar route to the orthodontist!

From the border where we park the car to the orthodontist's office, it's about 7 or 8 blocks and we usually go the same route.  However, it was chilly and Caroline didn't have her sweater, so we took a different route so we could stay in the sunhine longer.  AND . . . it happened to take us by this bakery I hadn't noticed before. 

Those $8 prices translate to about 65 cents US, so we stopped after her appointment.  I had exactly $1.26 on me, but that bought 2 pastries.  Caroline chose the front left chocolate-iced donut in the middle and I chose an empanada from the top left.  Bavarian cream and so fresh I thought it was going to fall apart and land on the sidewalk as we walked.

We will definitely be back on our next trip which is in March.

Does anyone remember when this wasn't such an old penny?  It's from only about 20 years before I was born, but you should have seen Caroline jump and down when she found it in Bill's coin jar.  On the other hand, it's now old enough to have its statistics released by the US gonvernment--hehe--like how census records are released after 72 years.

I recently came across some rolls of coins that I put away in about 1975.  One of the nickels was from 1939 and I realized in 1975 that was closer in time than 1975 is to now.  ~sigh~

An orthdontic trip to Mexico

Doesn't this tell you something?  This is exactly how easy it is to walk into Mexico:

Just push the potato masher gate open and walk through.  It's a tad harder to come back through the border . . . .

And everything was fine with her braces.

What do you do when the kids spend the night at a friends?

You go to out to dinner, of course!

Our needs are simple, so Sweet Tomatoes is was.  I like the Won Ton Happiness salad and always have some of that, although it didn't have much dressing on it and didn't bring the "Happiness" it usually brings me.  However, they did have broccoli cheese soup, which I adore, and I also had small bowls of split pea with ham and classic minestrone as well.  The key here was "small bowls."  I had several pieces of the four cheese bread (YUM), then two servings of apple crisp with frozen yogurt on it.  Since I had two servings, obviously it was good.  I realized with the second bowl that I should put caramel sauce on the ice cream and noticed the little sign said it was now house-made.  It tasted like and had the same texture as my homemade caramel sauce.  Really good.

We had David and my mom along and it was a very pleasant adult evening out.

Snow!

. . . and it's the most I've seen here in our Arizona city!

These were taken over about a half hour.  I had to take them quickly because as soon as it stops snowing, it'll melt away!

Finger Crocheting

Last November when we left Idaho after my father-in-law's funeral, my mother-in-law gave me some balls of yarn from her supply.  Those balls of yard provided literally hours of quiet pleasure for my girls as they finger crocheted the miles away in the back seat of the Honda.

Guess what's back?

Elizabeth managed to work finger crocheting into her Family Home Evening lesson last night.  With each stitch/loop we made, we were to think of of something we were grateful for.  Good, huh?  I'm thinking it might be time to introduce crochet hooks so they can get a little more of the 2-D effect of crocheting.

Oh, after I took this picture I sent Elizabeth in to remove the leftover nail polish from her fingernails. :-)

A vist from Pingo too

Our second set of visitor arrived on Saturday and departed Sunday.  Here was the highlight, as far as the girls were concerned:

A first for my girls

My girls are ten years old and had never been to a slumber party but that changed this weekend.

I didn't know if they would be home at 11 pm or if they'd make it all night, but it was the latter.  They went to sleep about 2 am and not surprisingly fell asleep on the way to the Saturday rodeo.  During the rodeo, too.  How can you fall asleep during a rodeo??

Anyway, they had an excellent time and I'm glad they went.

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday:  Potato Cheese Leek Soup

Tuesday:   leftovers

Wednesday:Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Tofu [actually, this links you to slow cooker Mongolian been--oops!]

Thursday:  Sloppy Joe Casserole

Friday:  Pizza

Pressure cooker

This is one of the many pictures Kevin sent me recently.  I'm guessing this is the chapel of their church building.  Other than seeing Kevin, what interested me was the purple box in the picture.

My former sister-in-law had a pressure cooker just like that one and when I complimented her on it, she told me she could get me one when she went to Brazil the next time, and she did.  It was a real favorite of mine because it was much easier to use than American ones.  Eventually the seal failed and I had no way of replacing the seal, so I finally threw the whole thing out.  I hated to do that!

Now I'm trying to think how I could get one back with me if I go to Brazil this year . . . .

Weekend guests have started to arrive

I think we're going to have two families visit this weekend.  Aren't I lucky?  The first has arrived and it is Bill's aunt and uncle.  I met them at my father-in-law's funeral in November, although I've known of them for years.

The second family is not absolutely certain, so watch this space . . . .

Momentuous day!! (I love my husband)

Bill and I have now been married to each other longer than we were ever married to anyone else.  I have waited for this event for a long time.  We couldn't be happier!

Bill "gets me" better than anyone I've ever known.  We love to talk, to hang out together, to be parents to our children together.  He's my best friend.  I have been happy I married him since the day I did.

P.S. This is at least the second time I've posted this picture on my blog.  See how many more times I do because it's my all-time favorite picture of us.

Little Pink Riding Hood

My creative Sophia told me she wanted me to make her a lunch today (my girls usually buy their lunch at school).  I said okay, then saw what was *really* wanted:  lunch in a real basket, covered with a real cloth.

As she headed out the door she delightedly told me she was Pink Riding Hood today because she had a pink hoodie on under her pink coat.

I'm guessing this will be the first lunch in a basket with a cloth covering it that her teacher will have seen.

King Cake

Mardi Gras again already?  I don't celebrate it, but didn't want to miss a chance to bake something delicious.

It didn't turn out exactly the way it was supposed to (didn't read the part of the instructions that say to let it raise after forming and before baking, although that's always the way you make yeast dough products), but I'll have to say it is very tasty.

I made two, so my book club ladies will get the other one tomorrow.  Oh, I found the baby in the cake so I guess I'll plan to make another cake next year. :-)

Kind of annoyed

What do you think this is?

This is a pair of black boots in a grocery store bag being returned to Sears because they are defective.  Except they wouldn't take them back.  Very frustrated.

Will this suffice as dinner?

I hope so, because these with a glass of milk are what I believe the girls had for dinner (I was at Stake choir rehearsal).  I guess they are what I had too, minus the milk.

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday: Chicken noodle soup from the freezer

Tuesday:  Potato Fritatta

Wednesday:  Slow Cooker Southwestern Casserole

Thursday:  Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

Friday: Pizza with a cauliflower crust??

Pinewood Derby??

Okay, I have a confession to make.  Within 30 minutes of Sophia's birth I said to Bill, "Since this is a girl, we NEVER have to do Boy Scouts!!!"  And I was very pleased about that.

So how did I get involved in the Pinewood Derby today?  I guess I should not say "the" Pinewood Derby, but "a" Pinewood Derby.

Our Primary presidency (children's ministry) decided if the boys in Cub Scouts could participate in the Pinewood Derby, why not the girls?  For me it's not a big deal, the whole equality thing, because boys have the advantage in some areas and girls in others and it seems to even out.  But the presidency went ahead and asked the girls if they wanted to participate and . . . duh . . . of course they did.

So Bill helped the girls make their cars and Caroline was delighted to take second place!

An organized desk drawer!

I spend hours a day at my desk thanks to my two online jobs and my main drawer has been a terrible mess for awhile  ever.  I subscribe to a terrific organizing blog and this article about making drawer dividers came across my email a couple of weeks ago.

Just imagine all these things plus a few more piled into this drawer in very loose categories, things shifting on a daily basis.  That's the "before" picture I forgot to take.

I went with a patriotic color theme and need to get a few more pieces of paper to finish covering all the boxes.  I didn't let that stop me though!

Here are ONE of each kind of electrical connector, a box with a small mirror and a couple of keys, paper clips and a box of little cutting blades, and a box with all my important business cards.

 Here are my "comfort items" I use to keep my mind alert while I listen to sound files for one of my jobs.

 Brand new pens and pencils in the upper box and my extra on-duty pens and pencils in the lower one.

 Postage stamps and recycled envelopes for making shopping lists are on the left, with an open area for sheets of paper that have phone lists on them.

Extra comfort items in the back, sticky notes, and miscellany on the left

 Tiny things like paper clips, brads, and extra Skull Candy earphone tips.  Theirs are the best. 

 My favorite pencil for writing about my students' work, my scissors and ruler for collecting coupons.

Doesn't it look tidy now?

 

 

This post is linked to The Modest Mom Blog.

Kevin has a problem we don't have here in the desert Southwest

Five girls playing

My mom looked out the window and told me the number of girls out playing seemed to have multiplied.  True.  Three were mine and two were visitors here to play for awhile.  They range from 8y8m to 10y9m, so all are about the same age.

They were riding their scooters and the big prize was the dog of one of the visitors riding in our Cozy Coupe:

Funny, huh?

And she's off!

This was Carolyn's last load today--her two cats.  The girls are really sorry to see those cats go, especially the one on her arm, as he is a real charmer.

And here is Sophia's room all ready for her to move back into:

Another not-too-subtle hint?

And this time from Grandma!  Remember this?  Sophia wanted to help Carolyn move out?  Carolyn really is moving out now.  She spent the afternoon organizing things in her room and taking them out to her car before meeting friends from her ward who are going to help her move the things from her storage unit to her new apartment.

She came to me and delightedly showed me a jar of quarters Grandma gave her to help her on her way (she has to use a coin-operated laundry now--boohoo).  It reminded us of Sophia's offer.

:-)

Super Bowl

I don't know where the 49ers have been for the past few years, but I was delighted to see them back in the spotlight and they *almost* became the champions.  Better luck next year, San Francisco!

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday:  Beefy One-Pot Dinner, rice, rolls

Tuesday: Root beer pulled pork from the freezer, fresh veggies, dip

Wednesday:  Sauerkraut and Pork Chops, potatoes

Thursday: leftover Root beer pulled pork from the freezer

Friday:  Pizza

One of my favorite mission pictures of Kevin (so far)

Kevin sent me a disc a week ago and I still haven't looked at all the pictures because it's slow-going.  I carefully look at the details in each one to see why it was taken and what must be going on in each.  This one was in a set of pictures that looked like Kevin and his companion were working on their day off in someone's yard to clean it up.  Aren't these two cute?

A tip for administering liquid medicine

We are using an antibiotic in the family this week and this is one of my favorite medicine tricks:  put a rubber band around the bottle and slip the dosing spoon under it.  That way you always know where it is.