good genes

This is a picture of me with my brother S.  I may be 8 and S is 6.  Our oldest brother was getting married.  I'm grateful for the person that made us pose for this picture.  It is hilarious to see my daughters posture staring at me from this photo.

store cookies

There's a store here that makes amazing chocolate chip cookies.  G got some tips from his culinary arts class that brought us closer to knowing how to replicate them. 

Behold:

1/2 c. salted butter because I'm not the kind of person that uses unsalted butter.
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 T molasses
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. bread flour.  This is important for keeping them soft.
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t salt
8 oz. mini chocolate chips

Make 1.5 inch balls on parchment paper and flatten them to 1/4 inch.

Bake at 350 for 9 minutes.

Sickness

This week our whole family was sick.  P had a cough for the last 3 weeks so he may still catch the flu that struck the other 6 in the family this week.  I hope he doesn't.

M was the only one who hadn't gotten sick previously and then today she did two things that were so out of character I knew she was sick.  She took a nap and she didn't want a chimichanga.  Sure enough she was laying on the couch and I told her she needed to go get in the tub because she was sick.  She finally went to the bathroom but didn't quite make it to the toilet.  : (

M really wanted to go to a friend's birthday this saturday and she's so sad to be sick and miss this event.

Fall 2016

New movie!  I'm so glad I started this process 13 years ago.  I still need to make a movie that is about Phillip and I as kids and then dating and early marriage.  But we don't have many pictures.

Looking back

Over the years we've been able to do some fun things with the kids on an annual basis.  We try to float the I river each July.  The trolley is free in September as well as many of the local attractions.  In October we go to a corn maze.  In November the zoo is free so we go do that.  December has the nights of lights that we've enjoyed via trolley and going downtown.  In February we go see the Manatee.  It's fun to see the pictures of these events show the family aging and our traditions.  Sometimes I forget a camera though. 

If this were a children's book the theme would be "Family time on a dime" or something.  Going down the I river is actually really expensive but it's special to us. 

Looking ahead

This has been an interesting and good year.  In January 2017 the speech therapist "graduated" G.  When you turn 12 there are a lot of things that change, like the definition of disability and the offering of speech therapy.  Over the summer G's processor had a lot of malfunctions which made scout camp difficult.  In October G's school decided that he could no longer attend part time.

I've spent a lot of time working on stuff for my dad this year.  In May I flew out to Utah.  In July we drove up to DC for 2 weeks to work on his house.  In November I flew out for some legal stuff.

This fall we enjoyed being in 2 co-ops.  For the last 3 years we've met with a co-op for multiple grades.  This year some church friends started a pre-school co-op.  It's been nice.  I don't think the pre-school co op will exist next year since most of those families are putting their kids in school.  I think we won't be able to do much with the other co-op either because next year M starts middle school band.

Last week G started at the local public school for 2 classes. 

Right now we're sick and watching MacGuyver episodes from season 1 and 2 non stop.

Ladies night

Tonight I got to hang out with my friends L and A for 7 hours of chatting, shopping and Chinese food.  L taught us what our colors are and helped us push past our comfort zone to find clothes at the thrift store that we really looked good in.  It was an interesting vacation away from every day life.  I'm grateful for her generosity to us.  I'm grateful for P doing such a fabulous job of rescuing me from several crisis today.  I am so blessed.

Self Reliance

This talk by Marion G. Romney is awesome.  I don't think I've ever thought about poverty and wealth like this.  The purpose of wealth is to give it to the poor so they can be freed from the limitations on their agency caused by poverty.

"Can we see how critical self-reliance becomes when looked upon as the prerequisite to service, when we also know service is what Godhood is all about?"

"There is an interdependence between those who have and those who have not. The process of giving exalts the poor and humbles the rich. In the process, both are sanctified. The poor, released from the bondage and limitations of poverty, are enabled as free men to rise to their full potential, both temporally and spiritually. The rich, by imparting of their surplus, participate in the eternal principle of giving. Once a person has been made whole or self-reliant, he reaches out to aid others, and the cycle repeats itself."

bringing the love back to ohio

The title of this post is a shout out for one of our favorite songs that I'll use for the movie of this trip.  We spent the first night in a log cabin in Wytheville, Virginia and did not actually freeze to death but it was cold enough to freeze water in the cabin.

The next day we drove up to Kirtland, Ohio and saw ice along the way.  Each hint of snow was a celebration.  We got over that as we got used to the routine of being really cold.

We had a nice tour of the church history sites in Kirtland.  We had planned to visit the temple and take the CC tour but it turns out they are closed for the winter season.  We walked the temple grounds and had some amazing freaking out by B and P whose hands were cold.

Then the car got stuck in a ditch and we called a tow truck. 

 Since we didn't go on the tour we had time to go to the great lakes science center.  Grandma C got our family a museum membership that allows us to visit any participating science center free.  It was a tremendous blessing to us on this trip. 

 We went to the Great Lakes science center in Cincinati, the COSI in Columbus, and the natural history center in Martinsville, Virginia.  That was 6 wonderful hours of learning, not sitting in the car and not freezing to death.

Our next stop was to see cousins A and O in Columbus and uncle T.  P took the oldest 5 sledding and
later we had Chinese take out for dinner. 

The kids had so much fun with their cousins.  I'm so glad we could come see them.  The next day we got to visit the COSI with them.  T did the opening show and the kids got to see how awesome their uncle is.

We drove some more and saw more snow and ice.  P wanted to get a picture of the kids with some of these ice formations but it didn't seem like we could find a safe place to do that and we're fans of not dying.

We arrived at cousin T's house late on Friday and had a fun time seeing her cute baby Tigger and admiring her home.  T made a delicious brown betty for breakfast and we went to the natural history center in their town.  Nice!

We arrived home around 10pm Friday night and found Sam's family sleeping on the couch cuddled up so cute.  I wish I'd taken a picture of them.  They were down in Florida to visit R's father and I'm glad we got to see them.  We went to Treaty park Saturday for 3 hours!  It was so nice to be outside and not freezing to death.  I really like being home.

It was a really great trip full of family, fun and freezing.