Play Day

It's been a while since I've taken the time to play with my

friend, Kelly.  I'm always amazed at how good I feel when I've 

spent the afternoon seeing life through the eyes of child.  Our plan

was to go to Carl Sandburg house, have a picnic and see the new baby

goats.  The weather didn't cooperate with us, so we decided to go to the

movies instead.  Before we went to the movie, we had lunch at Kelly's

favorite restaurant.  We had to go here because they had the toy we needed 

to get, to go with the movie we were going to see.  Makes sense, right?

McDonald's  is no dummy.  They know if they can get the kids in

to buy the toys, the parents come along too.  Masterful marketing plan.

Well, it sure worked for me. This is the first time I've been to a 

McDonalds in, well.....I don't know .  But it's been a long time!

I decided to have a Happy Meal with Kelly.  She had chicken nuggets

and apple dippers. ( a new menu item since my last visit)  I had a 

cheeseburger and fries.  What the heck.  If I was going to eat fast food

I might as well do it up right.  And I will be the first to admit that a

hot fry dipped in those little tubs of ketchup tastes mighty good.  And yes,

I know what they do to make them taste good - I read Fast Food Nation

too.

They were out of the bird toys.  We were given Star Wars bobble

heads from Clone Wars.  This was just wrong. We were here to get

the bird.  Kelly quickly assessed the situation and said, "It's okay, I

like Star Wars too."  What  a great attitude, even though I kind of

doubt if she's ever seen Star Wars.

We had lots of dippers and sauce with this meal.  Caramel for the

apples, ranch dressing for the chicken and ketchup for the fries.

I watched with interest as Kelly dipped apples in ketchup and 

ranch dressing.  And fries ( mine) into caramel sauce.  I asked 

her if she thought that was good and she said,  "delicious."

And after all the dipping objects were gone, she had a little

taste of the ketchup straight.

Now, I know if I was the mother, I wouldn't let her do this.  But

I'm not and that's what makes it so fun. :)  I know she can go home

and her mother will feed her healthy food.

After our delicious, if not so nutritious, meal....we were off to the 

movies to see RIO.

This was truly the largest beach ball I have ever seen.

We had to have movie snacks, because we might be a little hungry.

 Okay so we weren't hungry at all, but you gotta have some

popcorn at the movies, right?  And maybe a little pack of Skittles.

These seats are definitely not designed with a five year old in mind.

She doesn't weigh enough to keep the seat down!   

This was Kelly's first 3D experience.  She rocks in these glasses.

I loved the way she kept putting her hands out to try and touch

the animals.   She said, " The birds are so close I can almost touch

them."   It was a cute movie.  Not once did I nod off.( I've been known

to do that at some children's movies.)  And the music was fun and

made you want to just get up and dance.  We didn't.  But we did

do a little bird dance in the parking lot afterwards.  No pictures,

you'll just have to imagine it.  All in all, it was a great day.  My

"smiler" was all tired when I dropped her off and I realized this is 

why I enjoy being with children.  It's a great stress reliever from 

all the grown up stuff I usually do. Sitting in McDonalds and 

experimenting with dippers and sauces, wearing 3D glasses and 

laughing uncontrollably at silly animated creatures on a big screen,

eating popcorn and french fries and dancing in the parking lot.

I think I need more play days in my life!

* Goal #3 - Do something fun with a friend each month.

* Goal #6 - Laugh more.

April Fool's Turkey

Over the Christmas holidays, when all the turkeys were on sale,

I picked up an extra hen and put it in the freezer.  Unlike some things

that can get lost in the depths of a freezer, a turkey isn't one of them.

Every time I opened my freezer there it was - saying, "do something

with me."  I have been making a concerted effort to eat foods

from my freezer this last month. One reason was to save some

money on groceries  and I also needed to make room in

there before the new growing season yields up a harvest that

will need to reside in cold storage. I was getting tired of moving

that turkey out of my way whenever I needed something, so I 

defrosted it and cooked her up on the first of April.  When

Mark came home from work and walked into the house, a 

full turkey dinner awaited him.  "Happy Thanksgiving", I said

quickly adding, "April Fools!"

I thought it would be fun to see how many meals I could make

from this one turkey.  It wasn't a huge turkey - I think it was about

11 lbs. and I can't remember how much I paid for it, but it was on sale,

so it was a good deal.  It was probably under $10.  The first night

we had a traditional roast turkey dinner with the fixings.  Mashed

potatoes, gravy and green beans.  It tasted like Thanksgiving.   

I took all the meat off the carcass and put it in freezer containers .

 Back into the freezer it went, to be pulled out for recipes throughout

the month.   First thing I did, was cook the bones and other

turkey parts that I don't eat into a stock.

That doesn't look so appetizing, but it was the start for a 

great turkey orzo soup.

We had four meals from the soup.  By four meals, I mean an

individual serving for four people or two people eating it twice.  

Does that make sense?  

Of course we had turkey sandwiches. That's a given.

But these were better than average - 

thick slices of turkey, swiss cheese, dijon mustard,

lettuce and LaWren's cranberry sauce all piled on a 

Kaiser roll.

They were really good.  We had four turkey sandwich meals.

Later, I made turkey enchiladas from my regular chicken enchilada

recipe.  I made enough for three of these meals.

Turkey salad was my next idea.  Pretty tasty with grapes,

apples and nuts in it.  This was lunch for three.

LaWren's Turkey Tetrazzini was up next.  Creamy noodles, mushrooms,

asparagus and turkey. We're talking comfort food.  Yum!

We had four meals from this casserole.

I was almost to the end of the turkey and I had just enough

to make a white chili with the rest.

Spicy, but not too spicy.  With corn, white beans,green chilis and a little 

tomato.  It doesn't look very white in this picture, though.  

I combined a couple of online recipes to make this and was

pleased with the result.  Quite tasty!  This yielded four meals 

each topped with pepper jack cheese and cilantro.

Seven different recipes and twenty-four meals from

one humble turkey.  Not bad, huh?  And they were 

all delicious and not once did I feel as though I was

having leftovers.  A turkey (especially one on sale)

is a smart buy and that's no joke.

*Goal #23 - Try 50 new recipes

*Goal #31 -  Save $50 a week

The Love of My Life

Thirty years ago today, I was preparing to walk

down the aisle to be married to the man who had

become my best friend.  We were total opposites and

crazy in love.  Young and broke and not sure 

where life would take us, and all we wanted was to

spend every moment together.  

I mean, really, do you blame me?  He was a
"hottie" and I was completely smitten!
Indulge me as I take a little walk down memory
lane to April 25, 1981.  We were twenty years old.
Can you believe it?  So young!

We were married at the First Baptist Church in Jonesville, NC.

My mom helping me get ready.  Oh, how I miss my mom!

Mark and his dad.

My attendants looked so pretty.

My sister ,Sherri, was my maid of honor.

I was scared to death.  Happy, but scared.

The newly weds!

with my family  

and Mark's family

and with our grandparents.  This picture is especially precious to me

as all of our grandparents have passed on since that time.

My mother made my cake.  She was so talented.

I should have learned how to decorate cakes from

her when I had the opportunity.  It's a skill that

would have come in handy for years to come.  

No time.  I was too caught up in other things -

hence the wedding pictures.  :)

We had a very simple and lovely reception.

Here we go.  And our life together begins.

On April 25, 1985, we took our first son

Travis (who was six months old), to

the Washington, DC temple and there

we were sealed for time and all eternity.

An amazing day.

The last thirty years have been filled with joy

and happiness, along with struggles and sorrow.

That's what life is all about and I wouldn't  have

wanted to take this journey with anyone else.

We were young and naive when we stepped out

of that church so many years ago, but we've grown

up together, raised an amazing family and now

we enter another phase of life, the empty nest.

It's taking some getting used to, but  I think we are 

going to like it. I enjoy having time to spend together and

getting to know this man even better.  After thirty years, I'm

discovering that I've just scratched the surface.

But that's okay.   Eternity is a long time.

Christ the Lord is Risen Today!

I have had the most amazing Easter. 

  I woke up early because I  wanted to be outdoors to see the sun rise.

 I decided to hike up to Jump Off Rock, which is located in front 

of our house, straight up the mountain.  I've been up there before, but it's

 been a long time.  The trail that the kids and the dog had made through

the woods is long gone and I had to blaze my way through some

thick growth. When I started it looked like this outside.

By the time I connected to the trail that took me to the top

The sun was coming up and my heart was pounding- a good early morning 

workout. In the woods, it was hard to find a place to get a picture

of the rising sun.  You can barely see it peaking through here.

In all actuality, Jump Off  Rock is really a better place to 

see the sun set- as your not looking towards the east

but it was still beautiful.  I loved hearing the birds waking

up and singing their praises.

There were some other folks gathering for a sunrise service

so I decided to join them.

There is something really special about standing on top of

a mountain singing, Christ the Lord is Risen Today and

being surrounded by this kind of beauty.

It took my breath away.

I loved the way the fog was settled in the valleys.

I saw some beautiful wildflowers this morning.

This patch of trillium is growing below Jump Off Rock.

And wild columbine-

Wild Iris

Solomon's Seal

and I don't know what this is, but

it is so pretty.  If anyone knows 

what it is - please let me know. 

I can't find it in my field guide.

It has a tiny clusters of white berries 

coming out of the leaves.

I spent some time at Micah's place.

Because of Easter, I know I will be 

with my son again.

I am so thankful for the knowledge that families

can be together forever.  Heaven wouldn't be heaven

without the ones you love.

This is the perfect place for scripture reading and prayer.

I read the resurrection account from all four gospels and 

I especially loved these words from Luke-

"Why seek ye the living among the dead?  He is not

here, but is risen."      Luke 24:5-6

We had a wonderful sacrament service at church with

beautiful music, written by my friend Darlene and the

narration was written by another friend, LaWren.  

Such talented ladies, those two!

I love seeing ladies in Easter hats.  This is my

neighbor Ellen.  She wanted her picture taken by

her snowball bush.  It is full of blossoms.  She made

me the sweetest Easter basket with all my favorite

candies in it.

And aren't little girls in Easter dresses darling?

We had a yummy Easter lunch with friends and family.

The highlight of the meal was this Lemon Cake.

It was worth all the time it took to put together and 

every dirty dish I had to wash.  Have you ever made a recipe

like that?  You know, you feel like you've used every bowl,

spoon and measuring cup in your kitchen!

( First I made the lemon curd to go between the layers, 

next a lemon cake with whipped egg whites for volume

 and then the lemon buttercream frosting.)

But, it was really good, if you like lemon desserts.  And I do!

The only thing that could have possibly made this day better

would have been to spend some of it with my kids.  Oh, it's hard

getting used to being an empty nester and having your kids

spread all over the country. I especially miss them on

holidays.  All in all, it has been a day of blessings.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!

* Goal #1 - Take 50 hikes.

*Goal # 12 - Nurture relationships with extended family

*Goal #14 - Begin each day with scripture and prayer

*Goal #22 - Study the New Testament

*Goal # 23 - Try 50 new recipes