Meal Plan Sunday

Father's Day dessert: Ice cream cake
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday:Chicken BLT Taco Salad
Wednesday: Healthified Bacon, Cheese and Tomato Strata

Thursday:

Friday: Pizza

"Mormon Mocha"

Observant Mormons don't drink coffee, so I've never tried any of the fancy coffee drinks. However, we DO drink drinks in a mug that taste something like coffee, such as Pero and Postum.

Today I came across this recipe:

Ice Blended Mocha

1/2 cup strong coffee
1 cup crushed ice
1/2 cup half and half
2-3 tablespoons chocolate syrup

Mix in bowl of blender until smooth and frothy. 1 serving.

Here is the website with the recipe.

I thought it looked delicious on this hot Spring day so I changed it up a bit and made:

Mormon Mocha

1/2 cup strong Pero
1 cup crushed ice
1/2 cup whole milk (that's what I have on hand)
2-3 tablespoons chocolate syrup

It was delicious!

This picture is from the recipe page:

We're on foot these days

Last Saturday I had my first "fender bender," although I'm happy to report I didn't actually bend my fender, just scraped up and gouged the heavy plastic cover over it. A pick up truck and I were both backing out of herring-bone parking slots and bumped into each other. Low speed, no injuries, and no damage to the pick up truck. It was such a surprise and amazing what a horrible sound two cars colliding makes.


I got online with my insurance company as soon as I got home and reported the incident and set up an appointment to have my car looked at. I know all this online reporting saves the insurance company time and money, but to be honest, it was easier for me to report things that way as well.

Monday I brought my car in, got the estimate ($789) and made an appointment to return on Wednesday when they got the part in. I was surprised to find out they had to have my car for THREE days to install a plastic bumper cover! Silly me, the cover comes UNpainted and they have to color-match the paint, paint it, let it dry, then install it. Three days.

I figured three days without a car wasn't going to be convenient any time, so I might as well just get it done.

But what about swimming lessons that started this week? The lessons are at a public pool about a mile from home, so the girls and I have been hoofing it to the lessons. The girls have had a good attitude and our walks through the neighborhood have been really pleasant. They enjoy the walks home with wet bathing suits and wet hair in the warm weather.

This is the first time I've had all three girls in lessons at the SAME TIME!! Two years ago I had two in a morning class and one at night. Last year the lessons were contiguous so at least I only had to go to the pool once. This year the two different classes are held at the same time. I've already read A Tale Of Despereaux and I think today I'll finish the current issue of Time magazine. I've been waiting for this.

Oh, why have I been using stock photos? My camera focus is acting up and we are currently out of batteries for any of the cameras. The rechargables don't work and we have only one AA battery left. So no, that isn't my child in the photo above, although she is cute enough to be mine. :-)

Unexpected perk of technology

Tonight two men from Church came over for their monthly visit with my family. One of them asked if I had Skype on my iTouch. I said I didn't, but I did on my computer. He had it on his iPhone and wanted to try it out. We very successfully completed a video call to each other--sitting about 20 feet away from each other!
While he and I made our call to each other, dh downloaded Skype to his iPad. Then he tried calling me. Because his iPad doesn't have a camera, I couldn't see him, but he could see me. I was really surprised to see my face almost full size on his iPad! On my computer my friend had been only about 4"x6".
Then dh had a sharp idea; he handed his iPad to the other visitor, who is an elderly man with limited vision. The man's face lit up and he told dh that was the first time he had "seen" me and I was prettier than he expected. Gotta love that man, LOL. Once we had that idea, the first visitor used his phone to call dh, then we took turns holding the iPhone up to our faces so our elderly friend could see our faces for the first time. He was pretty delighted and so were we.

Cool, huh?

Camp Laffalotta Week 1 Princesses

My girls practically begged to have Camp Laffalotta again this year. I thought maybe they'd rather just float through the summer, but I must have made it fun enough for them last year that they remembered the activities. I was surprised they remembered the different themes we did as well.

So this week's theme is princesses. We read a traditional story about a Mayan princess and a nonfiction story about Princess Diana. One of their activities was to create a play, make costumes, and perform it for dh, my mom, and me. Here they are--what play is it?

If you guessed The Little Mermaid, you would be correct. S on the left is Ursula, wearing dark colors, then C as Ariel, then E as Prince Eric.

This shot is Ariel sitting on a rock in chains waiting for Prince Eric:


The adults were given chairs just outside the patio door and for some unknown reason, the girls insisted this chair be placed right in front of us. We kept trying to move it so we could see the dramatic action happening but they told us it was important. They never touched it at all!! I took this picture to show our actual view. Funny, huh?

Dh said he felt stressed by taking time to watch the play because he was in the middle of a project to repair our cooling system. However, he's such a good father than he just told himself to sit, relax, cool off, and enjoy the show. I didn't even detect any angst, although he told me about it later.

Here is the final bow:

Birthday!

This month S turned seven years old. All three girls have May birthdays, so it's a big celebration month around here. Unfortunately my camera wasn't focusing that night, so consider these "art" shots, if you will. I made a German Chocolate cake with butter frosting, and dh had purchased three kinds of ice cream, so everyone had a variety of things on their cake plates.


We have a firm tradition in our family; we don't wrap birthday presents. Instead we have a treasure hunt to find gifts and cards that have arrived in the mail. We've been doing this since the big kids were little.

The hunt takes the kids all over the house to find clues and presents. This year Grandma set up the hunt and her clues were devilishly hard for the girls to figure out. Teehee.

Here is my sweet seven year old:

Technology

Last night dh and I were listening to "The Bridge" on Sirius radio. It's "the softer side of Classic 60s and 70s music." We were reminiscing about music. I remembered being on the Music Committee of the church youth dances in about 1977. As a committee we decided on new music to purchase. Every other dance was a "record dance" which meant some adult spun records on the PA system hidden on the stage in the gym. No DJ chatter or anything like that, but it worked fine.

The ultimate reward the year or so I was on the music committee was that I got to keep the music box at home. It was filled with about 150-200 vinyl 45s. That box of 45s was one of most precious possessions I owned! In my room I had our family's portable record player, so I could play any song I wanted, any time.

That is when I fell in love with Bread (everything they sang!), Radar Love (Golden Earring--one-hit-wonder), Cherish (The Association), Dancing in the Moonlight (Van Morrison? Thin Lizzy?), Precious and Few (Climax Blues Band), and Stairway To Heaven (Led Zep). You get the idea. Great stuff.

The music box was homemade out of wood and painted in pastel colors. It was made of 1x8s I'm thinking, so it was tall and wide enough for for a 45 to stand up. It was quite deep with a long lid fitted with a heavy-duty handle.

Dh and I laughed as we compared that box full of records to an MP3 player a DJ would carry in his pocket today, holding many times that number of songs.

Today I ran across an article about IBM in the paper. Look at the storage unit from 1952 compared with one from 2011. Stunning, isn't it?

I love practically everything technology has brought to me in my life as it brought me my husband and much more!

Kevin's Excellent Adventure

Lucky Kevin--it has lasted from August 2010 until now. Yes, it's his Freshman year at BYU and that's why it's been such a good adventure. He has enjoyed his classes. He has enjoyed living in the dorm. He has enjoyed the friends he's met. He has enjoyed the . . . folk dance club? I'm pretty sure he has enjoyed living AWAY from home. He told me it has been a great year.


If you are an LDS reader, you will know from this picture what is next. Last week Kevin sent in his application to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Right now it seems like from the time the mission call is received in the mail until the day the missionary reports, about 4-5 months is elapsing. If that is true for Kevin, that means he'll leave in about August or September. He says if he could choose his own mission, he'd like to go to an English-speaking mission outside the United States.

He's making good decisions. He has changed his major and likes his new one. He's going to get a job this summer and see how much mission money he can earn before he leaves. He has nice friends. He's put himself in a good position.

Chicken update

Saturday one of my friends told me I was posting plenty of pictures of eggs, so how about some pictures of chickens to go along with them? I'm happy to oblige, Martha!

Each daughter here is holding her own chicken. There is one more (mine) and she is the same breed as the last one, which is a Plymouth Barred Rock. The first one has that fun beard on her and she lays beautiful bluish-green eggs. She's an Ameraucana cross of some sort and is in general called an "Easter Egger." The second is a Rhode Island Red and lays shiny medium-brown eggs. S's Barred Rock lays large brownish-pink eggs and mine lays large medium brown eggs. The sizes of all the eggs vary from day to day. Right now I'm saving the green and pink eggs aside for Easter.

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday: Hawaiian Quesadillas

Tuesday: Tortellini Soup

Wednesday: Spaghetti Frittata

Thursday:

Friday: Pizza