Last Day of School

So it's officially here, summer vacation! Scout finished up yesterday with a little awards ceremony. Her teacher named her the most Graceful Dancer because she was a dancer in the operetta and she had her dance entry for Reflections go all the way to state. She earned her Soaring Eagle award which is a nice medallion awarded to each child who goes above and beyond the expected.

Sport and Crafty also earned their medallions for the year. All three had awesome report cards! When I was a kid, my parents gave us fifty cents for each A we earned in school. I remember once when I was in about 7th grade being so excited because I received $3.50 and that was just enough to buy me a new laundry basket.

I'm not that generous with our kids. In fact, this is the first year we have given any rewards for excellence on report cards. It's just something I expect from my kids. I want them to do well in school, not because they have been bribed, but because school is important and they should work hard at it anyway.

So this year Bossy had her kids bring me their report cards and now that I'm a grandma with school-aged kids, I guess I need to be that loving benevolent figure...

I bought them each a candy bar. But that caused no end of grief at my house. I had never rewarded my kids and now I was giving treats to the grandkids??? Where was the justice?

So I bought them all candy bars. And now I've started a new tradition.

Snickers, anyone?!

Our Mini Vacation part 2

After we got out of the pool, we headed upstairs. About an hour later we all met in our room jammied and ready for bed. The kids polished off the last of the pizza and we read our scriptures and had family prayer together. It had been a long day and even though the bed was hard as a rock and totally uncomfortable, I curled up with Baby Doll and fell asleep before 11:00.

We got up early Saturday and had breakfast, cleaned the rooms, and checked out before 10:00. I didn't know how long it would take to get to Manila through the mountainous roads, so we wanted to allow plenty of time. The Tupperware party wasn't until 1:00, but I couldn't chance being late. It was a good thing we left early, because we rolled into town just before noon.

It took us about 5 minutes to see pretty much everything. We headed back to what was obviously the center of town and bought gas so we could use the restrooms, then we drove to the park. It was right next to the elementary school and across the street from the high school. It was also about half a block from the Tupperware party location.

It was a little chilly, but we tugged on jackets, and unloaded our picnic lunch. While we were eating, we noticed a group congregating  near the elementary. There were only about 12 people, but it was making my sweetie a little nervous. Then Bossy noticed the neat rows of round white laundry baskets...I guess even in Manila you can order a Bountiful Basket!

We relaxed after that and the kids enjoyed the playground. I changed my clothes in the van and then my sweetie dropped me off at the party site. My cute host was as nice in person as she was on the phone and her party was awesome! It didn't cover my expenses, but it made a pretty good dent in them. She even gave me a Scentsy warmer and a scent to go with it (that's what she sells...) as a gift for coming all that way!

The party ended about 3:00 and we hit the road shortly afterward. Rather than go back the way we came, we headed into Wyoming. The drive was quicker and we got to see different scenery. We only stopped once at a Maverik for ice cream sandwiches and gas.

We got home just before 7:00 and in time to wave to the Drama Queen as she took off for work. She and Teach treated me to a clean house and 16 dozen boiled eggs ready for dye. They even cooked supper! We spent the rest of the evening coloring eggs and getting ready for Easter.Sunday.

All in all it was an awesome weekend, full of family, fun, and fossils...and a little bit of Tupperware...

THE Christmas Party

My parents had 8 kids and I’m number 4. Six of us live here in Utah, within about ½ an hour of each other. So every Christmas we get together at my house for revelry and celebration. The party started at 6:00 and Grandpa showed up about half an hour early with some of the other grandkids.

My sweetie slaved over 2 huge pots of chili and everyone brought potluck salads to share. After dinner we moved all the food back to the kitchen and set up the tables for cookie decorating. I told you already that Princess baked 10 batches of sugar cookies on Saturday and I ended up making 8 batches of frosting instead of six.

Some people were more creative than others...

Everyone participated in this sticky sweet activity and they made some pretty awesome designs! Unfortunately, most of them were eaten before Teach managed to grab her camera. (She was too busy frosting cookies of her own…)

Nice cookie, Gym Rat!

After cookies, we headed for the basement so Princess and Prima Donna could serenade us with their amazing clarinet skills. About halfway through Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the jolly old elf (aka my sweetie) showed up in all his Christmas finery. The kids sat on his lap and everyone got a bag of candy and had their pictures taken by Teach.

Then Grandpa led the somewhat irreverent sing-along of Christmas songs. He seemed a bit offended when my little brother couldn’t remember the words to “We Three Kings.” Tomorrow I’ll explain that whole story to you…

Then it was time for gifts. My siblings all still exchange gifts although most of them have gone to family gifts. We love choosing gifts for the nieces and nephews since most of them are very grateful and excited to receive them. The little Christmas trains were a huge hit with the little ones and the girls loved the Webkinz, but the biggest deal was the Nerf pistols.

As the guys started opening them up, my sweetie came charging down the stairs with two huge repeater guns and opened fire! That started a huge Nerf war that lasted for nearly half an hour. The kids had so much fun! But I think the ones that enjoyed it the most were my little brother and my sisters’ husbands. They were at it long after the kids had given up and moved on. (There are no pics of the battle...Teach wasn't taking any chances on her camera being a casualty of war.)

Then my sweetie and I raced back upstairs to make eggnog shakes, a tradition for all Christmas parties. As people were heading out the door, they each chose a candy cane from the garland that encircles our kitchen. Despite the fact that a few family members were missing (and this was the first one without Grandma), I think it was the best Christmas party we have had in the last decade. Three hours just flew by…and so did dozens of Nerf bullets.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight!

Christmas Parties

How are you all doing? Are you ready for Christmas yet? I can't believe we are down to less than a week! We have a huge family party at my house this evening, so I don't have much time to put together a post for you. My sweetie is making a pot of chili big enough to feed 50 people and the smell of the peppers sent me running from the kitchen. I know I'm a baby about the burning of my eyes and the choking in my throat, but his chili is amazing! I'm still trying to get him to give me a recipe so I can share it with you. The problem is that it changes every time he makes it.

Santa and Scout

Princess spent all day yesterday making sugar cookies so that we could decorate them at the party. Last year we did gingerbread houses and the year before that we made tiny salt dough ornaments to hang on 8-inch trees. Usually we do one per family, but this year she made about 150 cookies and now I get to make six batches of frosting.

Santa and Baby Doll

Drama Queen and Curly and I made 45 paper sacks filled with candy, peanuts and oranges for my sweetie to deliver in his Santa suit. The younger cousins love seeing him come in! He has real sleigh bells and he does a fantastic job with the little ones.

We also wrapped gifts for everyone last night after we got back from Kohl's at midnight. Yeah, a little tired. Here are some pics from past Christmas parties, and I'll update you tomorrow on how this year's turned out. Time to go make frosting...

Food for Thought - Stuffed Peppers

Look what we found in the garden today! At my house that can only mean one thing…stuffed peppers. I grew up living a rather dull life when it came to food. My mom cooked the same basic meals over and over, and we rarely tried anything new. (That changed after I was married and my brother spent some time out of the country.) Not that I minded much. Food was just not that important to me then (I wish I still felt that way…). I pretty much ate whatever was placed in front of me and then got on with the important things like homework and chasing boys.

There were very few things that I absolutely would not eat. Here is the short list:
1. Cantaloupe.
2. Green beans in tomato sauce.
3. Mush.
4. Franco American Spaghetti.

My kids have way more things on their lists. I even liked liver and onions for crying out loud! In my defense, even the smell of cantaloupe made me ill as a child. I seem to remember eating it when I was very small, but one day my grandpa put something on it…salt, I think. I never could eat it after that. And my mom, seriously, cooked green beans and then poured a can of tomato sauce over them. Disgusting!

Anyway, this is not supposed to be a negative post. Needless to say, I had never heard of stuffed peppers. My sweetie swore by his mother’s recipe and the first time I had them I was hooked. OK, the first time I SMELLED them I was hooked. They remind me of fall and all the happy scents of canning and using the veggies from the garden. My sweetie calls them his comfort food.

I am not a huge green pepper fan, but I love the flavor cooked in. So after they are finished, I simply slip the pepper off and slide it over to my sweetie’s plate. Most of the kids love/tolerate it that way. Sport is our only nay-sayer. If I’m feeling particularly generous I leave a little white rice out for him. Don’t forget the crusty rolls to dunk in the extra sauce. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!



Stuffed Peppers

Wash:
8 – 10 peppers, then remove lids and ribs

Cook peppers in:
1 cup boiling salted (1 ½ tsp salt) water for 5 min.
Drain and reserve liquid

Combine: 
2 lbs ground beef
1 ½ cups cooked rice
¼ tsp pepper

Fill drained green peppers with this mixture.

Melt: ¼ cup butter

Add: 1 cup sliced onion and sauté until brown.

Then add: 
18 oz ketchup
2 ½ cups tomatoes, cooked or canned
6 whole cloves
liquid from cooked pepper

Stand filled peppers upright in sauce.  Cover and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes.  If peppers are large, make sure hamburger mixture is cooked all the way through before serving.

 As you can see, I had more hamburger than would fit in my peppers, so I simply broke it into meatball-sized pieces and scattered it in the sauce. The kids love it that way and it cooks just fine. Make sure the pieces are smallish so they cook all the way through.

Firefighter's Museum

It’s really hard to do anything spontaneous around our house! My sweetie talks about how difficult it is to turn a big ship…that’s about how hard it is to switch directions and do something different around here. So it’s my last Friday morning to sleep in since Crafty, Sport, and Scout start school next week! I know, crazy, huh?! It’s because we are on year-round school here.

Anyway, after I rolled out of bed somewhere around 10:30 (shh…don’t tell), I decided maybe we ought to have one last hoo-rah for summer. After consulting with my sweetie, I shouted, “Field Trip!” to anyone within earshot and then I started pulling on my clothes. Five minutes later, I had everyone gathering, dressing, and making lunches. It took us about 35 minutes from the time my brain kicked in until we were loaded in the van and ready to go. Teach had to work, so sadly, she stayed behind…again…

We headed west to Tooele, where they have the Firefighter’s Museum. Even though my best friend worked hard to help set up this museum because her dad was an amazing firefighter, I have never had the opportunity to visit it. Maybe that’s because it’s only open on Fridays and Saturdays from 11:00 – 3:00. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. We unloaded the kids and the stroller and since there weren’t any other cars in the lot, I sent the Drama Queen to the door. She came back with a puzzled look on her face. “What’s the matter?” I asked as I settled Baby Doll into the stroller. “It’s closed due to illness…” she said. I was not happy with this turn of events, especially with the price of gas. “You’ve got to be kidding,” I suggested hopefully. She shook her head. “Nope!”

I pulled out my cell and called Bossy. They were a couple of miles behind us and were trying to find the turnoff. “Don’t bother,” I complained. “It’s closed due to illness.” “Are you kidding me?” Clearly her response was the same as mine. “I knew we should have called the number.” I guess I hadn’t read the paperwork very well because now it was my turn to be confused. “What number?” I asked hopefully as I began digging for my paper. Sure enough, there was a number for someone named Dave. I said goodbye to Bossy and punched the number into my cell. After 4 or 5 rings, Dave answered the phone. He asked me about my group, how many there were and what ages. After a minute or two he suggested that I try the door to the museum. He had opened it for me remotely. He cautioned me against letting the kids climb onto any of the vehicles except Grantsville One. He told me how to work the movie, and asked me to shut the doors tightly when we left. I couldn’t believe it! We had total freedom at the museum. I thought this kind of trust left with the ‘50s.

We wandered around for an hour or so, took pictures, and watched the movie. I saw my friend’s name on the “thank you” wall and we spotted her dad’s equipment in a display case. When we were ready to leave, I left a nice note for the curator and we carefully closed the doors. Who says you can’t do something spontaneously?! That curator did…he let in a group of 14 people after a simple phone conversation, and he made our day. Thanks, Dave!

Food for Thought: Tamales

Can't blame him. Eww...

When we first got married, my sweetie told me he hated Mexican food. Now this was a real problem for me since the only cooking I had really done was for my job at Taco Time. Over the years he has mellowed quite a bit and as it turns out, Mexican is one of his favorites, just not the little frozen tamales in the yellow bag or school lunch tacos.

You all know that Gamer is Hispanic, so when he joined the family it was only marginally difficult to get my sweetie to try a few new recipes. He passed on the offer of menudo (made out of beef stomach in a clear broth), but agreed to try tamales (even though the frozen ones were a real issue for him as a kid).

The first time Gamer and Bossy made tamales were for Taco’s blessing day. In the Mormon faith, a baby has a blessing day at approximately six to eight weeks old. Traditionally, the extended family is invited and after the church service we hold a big family party. For us that means cooking for 40 to 50 people. It can get pretty chaotic preparing for a party like that, particularly when there are several of us cooking at the same time. My sweetie and I were busy preparing the various side dishes while Gamer and Bossy were handling the steaming of the tamales.

With all the stress and excitement, Gamer accidentally set the hot steamer pan directly on our countertop. Now when he was growing up that would have been no big deal since his mom had tile countertops. Unfortunately, our laminate countertops did not fare so well. At least we got a lasting memento of a wonderfully memorable occasion. Everyone loved the tamales and they have received many requests to make them again. So here you go, Tamales, Gamer/Bossy-style. Hope you enjoy them. Leave me a comment and let me know!

Pictures of Gamer happy with the camera are rare.

Tamales
1 ¼ lbs boneless pork loin or shoulder
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 bag chile pasilla or dried California pods
4 oz California chili powder 
1/8 cup cooking oil
¾ cup water
½ tablespoon salt
1 bag cornhusks
2 ½ lbs prepared masa (dough)


Tamale Dough
2 cups of Maseca for tamales
2 cups lukewarm broth or water
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup lard or vegetable shortening


In a crock pot or large pan cover meat with water. Add fresh garlic and black pepper. Simmer until done, time varies depending on your pot. It can cook longer, just remember to add water when low.

Pic credit

Prepare pods by removing stems and seeds (opt). (Remember the seeds give it heat. If you use mild pods I recommend only de-steming.) Lightly saute pods in cooking oil. They burn easily, so watch closely and the flavor will be fine if they are slightly black.

Place softened pods in blender, add water, and 1 oz chili powder and blend until smooth. While blending, remove pork from pan and place on a large cutting board. Drain water and rinse pot well. Shred pork with two forks. Place shredded pork and blended chili mixture back in the crockpot on warm (low on stove). Cook until ready to roll, stirring occasionally.

Soak cornhusks for a few minutes and rinse well. Quickly sort husks. Set ripped or small husks aside to make ties. Select a size and prepare most of the husks to that size. Add excess to the tie pile.  Tear tie pile into 1/2 inch strips.

Prepare Masa (dough). Combine Maseca, baking powder, remaining chili powder, and salt in a bowl, work broth or water with your fingers to make a soft moist dough. In a small bowl, beat shortening until fluffy, add masa and beat until dough has a spongy texture.

Spread masa evenly over cornhusks, place a tablespoon of meat mixture in the center.

Fold all sides to the center, and tie with small pieces of cornhusks. Place in steamer. Cover and steam for approximately 1 hour.

Stop the Merry-go-round!

Every year our little city has a celebration called CountryFest. It attempts to mimic those old-fashioned town days we remember as kids where we had fireworks and games at the park, a softball tournament and a parade. Unfortunately, like everything else it has become more of a street fair with dozens of booths all lined up to take your money. I’m not complaining about those people, I understand that they need to make a living, in fact, a very dear friend Becky O'Keefe at Twisted Spiders mostly supports her family selling beaded spiders in booths just like that every weekend. 

More pictures here on Facebook!

But the kids always have a hand out, hoping quarters and dollars just might fall into it. I’ve gotten smarter about these situations and now I simply leave my purse at home and tuck a twenty in my pocket. If we spend it, it’s generally on kettle corn or cinnamon almonds that can treat the whole family. 

So a few years back we took the kids to CountryFest. I’m pretty sure it was the summer I was pregnant with Curly, so my sweetie found me a spot on the grass to watch the entertainment on the stage and then he offered to walk the booths with the kids. As usual, they begged for anything and everything. The Dog Walker in particular kept pointing at the carnival rides and pestering him for money. Now any of you who have attended one of these events knows that the carnival rides are ridiculously expensive…these were $3.00 per ride! That meant even one ride times six kids (who were old enough to really enjoy the rides) was nearly my whole twenty. 

After about half an hour, my sweetie joined me on the blanket with a warm bag of kettle corn. The kids all plopped down around us, digging into the popcorn with greedy hands. 

pic credit

 "Where’s the Dog Walker?" I asked worriedly. My sweetie settled himself more comfortably on the grass. "I gave him some money so he could go on the rides," he said. "What?!" I was annoyed. That wasn’t really fair to the other kids and I was not in the mood to explain why the Dog Walker got preferential treatment. 
"It’s OK," he explained confidently, "I already talked to everybody else. They all wanted popcorn." 

I looked around at their contented faces, happily munching and enjoying the entertainment on the stage. After a moment I shrugged my shoulders, grabbed some popcorn for myself, and settled back to watch the show. About 20 minutes later I saw the Dog Walker staggering across the lawn. He stopped first at one garbage can, then about 20 feet later at another. My sweetie choked on his Diet Pepsi. "I guess it worked," he chuckled. I was totally mystified. 

The Dog Walker had finally reached us and flopped down on the blanket next to me. I glanced at his pale face, "Are you OK?" I reached a hand to touch his forehead. He was sweating and cold and clammy at the same time. "You were right, Dad," he managed. "Those rides just make you sick!" My sweetie hid a smile. "How many times did you ride it?" he asked innocently. The Dog Walker coughed into his hand. "Just twice…" I looked at him incredulously. "Why did you ride it twice if it made you sick?" "Well, Dad gave me enough money for two tickets." I gave my sweetie a look. I couldn’t believe he was messing with the Autistic kid. "Why don’t you go over to the restroom and wash up a little," I suggested. "Maybe it will make you feel better." 

As he stumbled off in the direction of the restrooms, I confronted his tormenter. "You are so mean!" I accused. He chuckled, "Best six bucks I ever spent." I was still annoyed. "What do you mean?" He lounged back in the grass and glanced toward the restroom. "He’ll never ask to ride a carnival ride again." And you know what? He was right. Just for proof, I asked the Dog Walker to help me with a couple of details on this story and the first thing he said was, "I hate carnival rides!"

Camping

In 2008 when the Dog Walker was fourteen, he was all excited about finishing his merit badges to earn his Eagle Scout award. It takes 21 badges to earn the Eagle and some of them are required. One of the hardest is Camping. Camping was one of the original 57 badges created in 1911, and to earn it a scout has to spend 20 days and 20 nights camping either with his troop or his family. 

Family campout 2010

We started keeping track when the Dog Walker was an 11-year-old scout. For each trip he would either take pictures and log the dates or draw pictures of what they did while they were camping. He got five days each for his 12 and 13-year-old scout camps, so that gave him a pretty good jump. Fathers and sons times three years, plus several family camping trips and he was at 19. We were excited about this, knowing that with the May Fathers and sons camp he would be at the required 20. That same weekend we made an appointment with the counselor and showed up on his doorstep with all the requirements. 

Dog Walker

The Dog Walker proudly presented all of his pages and dates to the counselor (who also happened to be his scout leader). Everything was perfect except for one thing…we didn’t have enough campouts. "But we counted so carefully," I protested. Our very patient scout leader pointed to each individual camp and ticked up the numbers. When he got to the second scout camp, instead of assigning it multiple days, he only counted it as one! Apparently you only get the full number of nights the first time you go to scout camp. The Dog Walker was devastated. 

We headed back home and my brain was churning. Once again, I was seven months pregnant with Curly and not excited about the prospects of doing any camping. Unfortunately, there weren’t many other options for us. So we pulled out the calendar and planned a trip to a nearby campsite for the first weekend in June. It seemed pretty silly to haul all of our stuff 20 miles down the road just so we could sleep in a tent, but that’s exactly what we did. 

Pic credit

Willow Park was a huge flat area with some trees, a playground, and lots of mosquitoes. We pitched the tent in the center of all of them. There weren’t many other people around that particular evening and we found out later that it is because they chose that day to spray the area with pesticides. Somebody came around and warned us to stay in our tent between 5 and 6 in the morning…. 

Anyway, we camped as close to the nearest restroom as possible, but I had been getting up four or five times every night and even that 300 feet to the restroom seemed impossible. I slept in my clothes with my shoes at the ready. I spent several minutes in fervent prayer, asking for intervention so that I would be able to make it through the night even though I hadn’t been able to for several months. As I drifted off, one last trip down the road seemed like a grand idea. 

The next thing I knew, the sun was up and it was morning. My bladder was definitely urging me to get up and quickly, but the kids were already stirring and it was time to start breakfast. I am so grateful for these small and simple things that remind me that even the seemingly impossible can be accomplished if you believe in the power of prayer.