Sunset in Eagle Idaho 06/19/09

Can you believe that? Outstanding!

Eagle Fun Days and Family Fear Factor

We just finished a great weekend with most of my family coming from Utah. Everyone arrived Thursday night and we had 12 people sleeping at my house. Friday everyone went hiking to Table Rock while Pam and I did the shopping. Friday night we went to Big Jud's. Scott ate the Big Jud and fries which gets his picture on the wall (2nd time). He didn't get sick...yea for us! Then we went to Michael's work Blue Cow Frozen Yogurt. It's so fabulous! We watched an old scary movie from the 70's - Bad Ronald....very funny because some of us could remember seeing it when we were kids and it freaked us out.

Saturday morning was the waterparade and two of our guests hadn't been before. The weather was very cloudy and tried to rain but held off for the parade. Everyone was soaked. Later that day, we had "Family Fear Factor". They were divided into teams and the first game was to chew 7 saltines completely and then to try to blow a bubble with bubble gum....very hard. Next they had to find tootsie rolls in a mess of sauerkraut and kimchee. Very gross. Then came the food! Without knowing what it was, they had to eat three different kinds of things.....(heart, gizzard and ham hoof). Then the gagging began and luckily nobody threw up since we were indoors thanks to the rain! Then for a beverage they got a great concoction of beets, pineapple and green beans. Wow some of them could just down in like nobody's business. The final event was to find quarters mixed in with lots of change and crickets! I had to be sure none of those pesky critters escaped in my house. It was great and I'm sure something that will be talked about for years. Then we had the fabulous BBQ - cooked in the rain of course - and dessert. What a great day.

Sunday we went for a nice walk on the greenbelt where we saw three snakes...not so fun. I think everyone was exhausted but had such a great time. Thanks Kevin for all of your hard work in planning and cooking and making sure there's a little something different and exciting every year!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great weekend. We drove down on Friday and stopped at Maddox for dinner (always yummy). Saturday, we went to the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall. We happened to time it right as they were doing a program. So we were able to see the HAFB 21 gun salute and the bagpipes as they played Amazing Grace while walking along the wall. Then we rode the Front Runner to SLC and went to the outside mall(name?). Zach, Katie and I went to the IMAX presentation "Under the Sea" in 3D at the Planetarium. It was very cool. We rode the Front Runner back to Ogden and went to dinner at Pizzeria (my favorite). Sunday, we went to breakfast, then to the cemetery. It was raining soooooooo hard and cold!!! We were supposed to have a bbq at the park but it was too cold so we stayed at Pam's. I was able to spend time with all of my family which is the best!!! Monday morning we went to see Brianna for her birthday - she's 3!! We had a gift for her and poor Brendan look so sad.....eventually Kevin game him a gift too so he was happy. Brianna got a talking mirror with the Disney princesses and lipstick and they both got bubble toys. We had a great time in Ogden and as always it's hard for me to go home.

Piano Recital

Tuesday May 19th was my piano recital. Everyone did pretty good! I had a couple of students who had chosen really challenging pieces and I prayed they would nail them and they did! I love the look I get as they leave the piano.....they quickly look at me and you can see them trying not to smile. It's so rewarding. Everyone received their composer statue for guessing the mystery composer. It was a great night and always great to have over - at least for another year.

You Gotta Love Spring!!!!!

You know Spring is here when.......

Yup, it's aerating time again! Kevin and the boys have done this for I don't know how many years but Zach is the only one available to do it now so he gets all of the cash! They work very hard for most of Saturday, get paid and then Kevin hobbles around for most of Sunday. It's been difficult for teens to get jobs right now - jobs are going to grown-ups with families etc. so it's good for Zach to get some spending money. Again, not the most fun but he doesn't complain at all. I'm so proud of my boys!

Storing Up!

During Spring Break last week, my dear son Zach went with me to the Garden City Cannery. I've felt such a great need to finally get more food storage. I haven't been to the cannery for almost 10 years and another 10 years before that. I'm so grateful for the new guidelines that have shown properly stored products are now good for 30+ years so that all of the old stuff I have is still good! That means I have a ton of wheat (which I don't know what to do with) that is still good and can be used for trading! (haha)

Anyway, Zach wasn't too excited but he didn't complain - not even once! We did dry packing - flour and sugar. The nice part is that after you do some work, you are able to by anything else that is on the shelves. So we purchased flour, sugar, oats, spaghetti, rice, apricots, pears, peaches and apple slices. I think Zach enjoyed running the can sealer....it is kind of fun. He was also able to help a couple of other older ladies with their dry packing. Thanks Zach for being such a great help!

Kevin has also helped me in purchasing other things that we currently eat - like soup, canned veggies, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, tuna, canned chicken and other things.

It does take some money to get a large initial start but if you did a little each week, you wouldn't notice the cost at all. The hard part will be rotating everything and paying attention to which things are only good for a year or so. I'll have to work on that - but, I feel so much better knowing that I've made a start in doing what the Prophets have asked us to do and it's comforting to know we won't starve in the event of a catastrophe!