Friday, February 8, 2008

Great little video that shares a lot...

Click Here



I saw this video on LDS.com's newroom area. Originally developed to help reporters at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah understand Latter-Day Saints, it does a great job of briefly explaining who we are. It's titled Myths and Reality.

John 3:16



We've been doing some scripture mastery with Peter during family scripture study. This is the first one he's been able to repeat almost perfectly without any help. He truly is a sweet little boy.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Garden of the Gods



We spent a week in Colorado Springs with Shannon and Ky. We had a great time with them. They even took us on a little sight-seeing trip to....
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS.
It was very beautiful and the kids absolutely loved climbing around in the rock formations.

Christmas Revels

Since we moved away from Utah my family has started a tradition of having a medieval feast for the Christmas Eve party. This party is affectionately termed "Christmas Revels" and everyone who's anyone goes. You know how it is. Well, after so many years of feeling left-out and hearing about how wonderful the Revels were all year long, we finally decided this would be the year for us to make our debut.


Severely lacking in costume-age, we turned to our dear friend Karen Mikkelsen who is the costume lady extraordinaire at one of the local high schools. She generously loaned us these beautiful costumes (complete with head dress for me and boot spats for Weston). We were dressed like the best of them at Christmas Revels.


Mom and Dad always look great. I love this picture!


Beautiful Maidens



Most of the men.



Although it took Weston a while to come to grips with having to wear a costume to the family Christmas party, he took pleasure (and solace) in acting the part of Petrucchio during the feast.
We had a wonderful time and hope it won't be too long before we can make it back another year for Christmas Revels.

Nacho Cheese Cornnuts



Me Like-ee!

My Handsome Husband



For Weston's MBA program he was instructed to supply a "professional-looking" photo for his online profile. Though he is generally the undisputed master at self-photography, it wasn't quite working this time after many, many attempts to do it himself. Finally we took the camera with us to a public place (Shakespeare Theater Company) and did a photo shoot in the lobby during intermission. With MUCH protestation and humiliation on his part, and MUCH insisting on my part, (and the occassional interruptions by people offering to take a picture of both of us,) we were able to get the above photo which I love. Doesn't he look great?
Now here's the other option. Which one would you pick? Really.

Chicken Salad!

So during my 3-month hiatus from posting on my blog I actually spent some time lurking on all of yours. I came to the realization that I might try my hand at an actual Blog entry, since up until now all of my entries have been either Btravellogs or Bkidsscrapbooks instead of actual musings that are going on in my head.
So in an effort to jump into the monumental task I have ahead of me in updating my blog, I'm going to explain exactly what's on my mind right this minute.

I am eating the most heavenly chicken salad. Once I got the idea in my head to dig up this recipe from my college shower-hosting days, it took me a few days to assemble all the necessary ingredients. The task involved a trip to Aldi as well as to Target where I picked up the mayonnaise that was not available at Aldi. Why didn't I have mayonnaise on hand, you may wonder. I'm pretty sure the reason is because whenever my wonderful, helpful husband cleans out the fridge, he throws the mayonnaise away. Period. Doesn't matter if the expiration date has passed or not. Don't get me wrong...I can appreciate that we all have our #1 despised foods that make us cringe, and I am willing to allow him to lend that distinction to mayonnaise. It just makes for an extra errand for me whenever the urge hits to make a tuna sandwich (not very often) or chicken salad (almost never).

So a few minutes ago, as my chicken salad was nearing completion, I was getting ready to pour the dressing on and the thought actually crossed through my mind..."my chicken salad is almost done....I can't wait." Almost audibly. Scary? What's more, after I dished it up, I took it in to Weston to show him my culinary creation, even though I knew he would be thoroughly disgusted by the sight of it. I instructed him to feign happiness in my behalf. He did a fine job.

Now I'm eating my salad, updating my blog, and listening to the violin concerto station on Pandora Radio. In the immortal words of Brian Regan, "Can life get better? I submit that it cannot!"

What's that? You want the recipe? OK. Here it is:

Summer Chicken Salad

2 cups chopped, cooked chicken
1 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup snipped dried apricots or raisins (I just use a can of mandarin oranges)
1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted (not necessary but I'm sure would be yummy if I were gourmet enough to #1 know where to find them in the store and #2 buy them)
1/2 cup mayonnaise or miracle whip
2 Tbsp. frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Mix everything together (best to do the dressing items in a separate bowl first and then spoon over salad items). Chill well. Enjoy!