Kids in the pool

The girls like to have our neighbor boy come over for a swim.  He's in the grade between my girls and he and Caroline are especially good friends.

I was feeling a bit lazy so I had the girls put on their swim shirts and I just put sunscreen on their faces.  No one got a burn although they swam in the early afternoon.

It's nice to have a pool.

Sugar cookies with frosting

Well, we cheated. I found sugar cookie in a refrigerated roll on sale for a dollar, so bought a couple. Instead of slice-n-bake though, Caroline rolled it out and used cookie cutters. 

They had two friends visiting (one is just out of the picture).  It's amazing how the day goes BETTER with the addition of some friends.  It made everyone happy.

Hermit crabs!

The last day in Mexico our host used a mask and snorkel to look for hermit crabs.  He found six nice ones.

 If you look at the opening of each shell, you can see the crab.  Some of them practically crawled out of their shells while they were being held!

Note: the wind was blowing and puffed out dh's shirt--he's not Santa-in-training!

Sophia took a friend to the dental office today

Usually I take all three girls to the dentist the same day, but for some reason Sophia's routine exam was scheduled separately.  That let me have one-on-one time with her which is always a pleasure.  Interesting, too.

She looks like she's in great pain here, but really she was just opening up wide for her teeth cleaning with blue goo.

She wasn't worried about it all though, because she brought Cubbie along to keep her company.

And it was a perfect exam.

Mormon church meeting in Mexico

There is a local ward (congregation) in San Carlos, so that is where we went to church on Sunday.  The girls were really curious about it, what the church would look like, how they would understand everything spoken in Spanish, and so forth.

The church building turned out to be a small, new building that looked fresh and clean AND had awesome air conditioning.  The chapel was tiled and had nice stackable chairs instead of low carpet and pews.  Very comfortable.

Because there are a lot of English-speaking vacationers, there was a bit of translation available.  A bilingual man had a laptop with a projector and a Word document up, then typed the main points of what was being said on the document and it was projected on the wall behind the speakers.  It worked just fine, although I did miss a lot of the details.  I was able to understand enough Spanish to get the gist of what the speakers were saying anyway.

Here we are with our wonderful friends and hosts.  They made it tons of fun for us and made us feel very comfortable.

A long weekend in Mexico!

We just got back from a long weekend in Mexico at the beach.  Such fun!

We took a pleasant drive there (about 7 hours), listening to audio books, singing, chatting, and reading.  We did find out Mexican toll roads aren't as nice as American ones usually are.  No problems though.

My pictures aren't loading well, so look for more in the coming days.  Just a note that we really appreciate our friends' warmth in welcoming us on this excellent adventure.

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday:  Pineapple-ginger flank steak from the freezer, with rice

Tuesday:  Pasta Bake

Baked Pasta

one big jar of pasta sauce

one 16 ounce box of your favorite dried pasta (penne is a favorite around here)

some shredded cheese like parmesan or mozzarella

Pour the dried pasta into a big mixing bowl. Add the pasta sauce. Fill the sauce jar half way with water and pour that in too. Give it all a stir until it is well mixed. Pour it all into a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Top with cheese.

Cover the pan with foil and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Wednesday:  

Grapefruit-Honey Glazed Grilled Chicken (from a website forum)

This is a delicious and easy recipe for grilled chicken that my family loves. The marinade is refreshingly zesty and can be made ahead of time for convenience - just store in the refrigerator up to one day.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice (100% juice, not cocktail)
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Directions:

Combine grapefruit juice drink, butter, brown sugar, honey and red pepper flakes in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring until smooth, 4-6 minutes. Set aside to cool 10 minutes.

Arrange chicken breasts in a 11x7x1-1/2-inch baking pan. Pour 2/3 cup marinade over chicken just to cover, reserving 1/2 cup. Cover pan with plastic wrap. Refrigerate and marinate for 30 minutes. Remove and turn chicken over, allow to marinate another 30 minutes.

Divide remaining 1/2 cup marinade in half again; 1/4 cup will be used for basting and 1/4 cup will be used for serving.

Preheat grill. Grill chicken for approximately 4 minutes on each side; basting once or twice per side. Cook until chicken reaches 170° F on an instant-read thermometer.

Warm remaining 1/4 cup marinade, drizzle over chicken.

Makes 4 servings.This is a delicious and easy recipe for grilled chicken that my family loves. The marinade is refreshingly zesty and can be made ahead of time for convenience - just store in...

Thursday:  Stouffer's Cordon Bleu Bake from the freezer

Friday: Pizza

Quick and delicious breakfast--on my diet, too!

Our large grapefruit tree still has dozens and dozens of sweet, tasty grapefruits on it, although there are many more small green ones on it getting ready for next year.  I picked one this morning, sectioned it, chose a Nutrisystem breakfast entree, and got a Kroger CarbMaster "cultured low fat dairy blend" out of the fridge.

Easy, filling, and delicious!

Bridal shower

The daughter of my friend is getting married this weekend and I attended a bridal shower for her.  There are two kinds of bridal showers--the one given by your bridesmaids and the one given by your mother's friends.

source

This party was the latter.

Disadvantage:  a bunch of older women you may or may not know well

Advantage:  they have more money than your friends and buy better gifts than your friends can afford

The bride is a practical girl and registered for lots of housewares.  It was fun to see the things she got and remember what it was like to have everything new.  It made me want to get some new kitchen towels.

In addition to the pile of gifts, she received a card with a pile of cash inside.  I contributed to that.

It was a fun girls' night out.

Taco Bell in Korea?

                               
Today I was talking to one of my Korean students and he told me he really liked eating at Taco Bell when he lived in the United States.  It was his go-to lunch place, in fact.  I made him a very happy man tonight by alerting him to the presence of several Taco Bells in Seoul, including one near his office.  He says Monday lunch will be at Taco Bell.  Maybe mine too!