For the Beauty of the Earth

For the beauty of the earth,

For the beauty of the skies,

For the love which from our birth,

Over and around us lies.

Lord of all to thee we raise,

This our hymn of grateful praise.


This is what greeted me one evening when coming home. I got my camera and took a picture.

Isn't it lovely?

A Minor Death in our Family

Yogi loves toys.

Specifically, he loves stuffed animals with squeakers inside.

He loves to grab them, shake them and chase them when we throw them.


Last Sunday we all went to church.

When I came home I was greeted with this:


Yogi killed Reindeer.

He chewed a hole in his posterior, pulled the stuffing out of him, grabbed the squeaker and chewed it right up.

Poor Reindeer, he never knew what hit him or should I say, bit him.


I took Reindeer and restuffed him and sewed him up tight.

He is almost as good as new...minus the squeaker.

Green with Envy

I don't want to make you all feel green with envy, however, I must say that I will be in California tomorrow.

Yes, you read correctly. We will be strolling down Main Street in Disneyland, taking in the sights.

We will also take a drive to Balboa Peninsula for a little snack at BJ's pizza.

I'll take lots of pictures.

I also have lots of pictures to post but I'll wait until I get back. Our computer has been in the repair shop for two weeks.

Blech!!

Until I return....................

Summer in a Jar

Yesterday at our family dinner I decided to serve homemade whole wheat bread.

It was the perfect addition to grilled chicken and broccoli.

Alyssa jumped up and grabbed the raspberry jam.


It's flavor is inspiring.

However, Court jumped up and said, "We need our heaven in a bottle."

What is 'heaven in a bottle' you may ask?

This:


Watermelon jelly.

It has the flavor of summer and the delight of candy.

Kalie and I decided to have a jam making day this past summer and we wanted to try a new recipe...watermelon jelly.

We got the recipe online and began.

Even though Kalie and I boiled it as long as the recipe indicated, it never really set up.

In short, it's runny.


Because of this, I have never introduced it to my family.

The other day, I accidentally grabbed a jar of watermelon jelly thinking it was raspberry jam and popped it open.

I realized my mistake, put a lid on top and put it back into the fridge, not ever thinking about it again.

Until Sunday.

Court introduced us to a bit of summer heaven. He simply got out our small bowls and poured the jelly in and we dipped our bread into the liquid yumminess.

It was reminiscent of all things warm and lovely.

So if you want to remember this:


Even after this:



Try this:

Sweet Relief

Ahh, I have spent the last two days up in Eden with our friends, the Stenquists.

They have a condo in Wolf Creek and every year they invite us up for the weekend to eat, play games, watch movies and RELAX.

On our way up we decided to try Taggart's, a restaurant up Morgan Canyon.

Their food is great, but let's talk for a minute about their desserts.

They have two glass cases full of desserts that you can stare at on your way into the restaurant.

Sugar cookies, pumpkin cookies, the biggest piece of carrot cake I've ever seen, flourless chocolate cake, cheesecake.......

The list goes on and on.

I know it's hard to drag my thoughts away from the desserts but I must.

I haven't relaxed much in the last month, with working on our family room and living my regular life.

So going up to the condo was a much needed break.

The only problem? Every time I sat down to watch a movie, I fell asleep.

It became embarrassing.

I finally resorted to peanut M & M's to keep me awake.

In case you are wondering, this resulted in extreme gastric distress, especially when I packed in a piece of flourless chocolate cake from Taggarts on top.

What a bad idea.

Nonetheless, we were able to get in several games.

And I slept so well.

Lunch Date

I got together for lunch with two good friends today.

We drove up to Ogden to eat at Rooster's Restaurant.

If you haven't been to Rooster's may I suggest going there.

NOW!!

Their soups are to die for...if they have a kind that appeals to you.

Today was tomato rice. That didn't sound good.

So,I had pasta salad and a rustic turkey sandwich.

YUM!

The best part of all was spending time catching up and laughing and watching Marie try to get her granddaughter to eat one bite of grilled cheese.

I'm sure I'll be there soon myself...trying to convince a grandchild to eat something, anything.

I'm grateful for good friends that love me despite me.

Sleepy Heads

I came upstairs the other day and this is what I saw:


It made my heart melt.

Howling Good Fun

We had such a fun-filled Halloween.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Having adult children figure out their own costumes is such a stress reliever.

They decide on their own what they want to be and need only a little help from mom.

It's great!

Brock decided to be a Charlie Chaplin sort of character. He was missing the hat and cane so people mistook him for something else but I thought he looked good.

He had Court spray paint his hair black which was so funny. It was a little patchy and had light spots everywhere. But with Kalie's help they got it right.


Kevin and Kalie came and spent the day.

Here is Isaac in his "first Halloween" outfit.

Adorable!


For dinner we had mummified dogs, baked beans and fruit salad, all of which were given Halloween names by Kalie.


Our dessert were these darling cupcakes that Kalie brought. Not only did they look good, they tasted great!


It rained and rained that night and the trick-or-treating was a little sparse. Now we have tons of candy left over.

What a bummer...

We finished off the evening with mildly scary movies and granny smith apples dipped in caramel.

Try it. It is the perfect combination of sweet, tart and crisp.

Now it's time to get ready for the holiday season to begin!!!

Fall Choir Concert

Having a daughter who loves to sing gives us the great opportunity to attend choir concerts at the high school.

The choir director has the most amazing talent for picking out music that is appealing to the students and parents alike.

Alyssa is in the sophomore girl's choir.


I have posted a link of a recording of the last song Alyssa's choir did. It was amazing.

It is rather long but worth your time to listen. Alyssa is one of the four soloists in the group solo.

Enjoy!

Click here to watch the video.

Please excuse the poor picture quality. I used my ipod for recording this video.

Farewell

We have recently bid farewell to two things that have created great stress in my life.

The first goodbye was to the van.

Goodbye dear van.

You have served us well.

You drove us all around Utah, Idaho and California.

But you began needing repairs. A lot of repairs.

And when the transmission started acting up, it was all over for me.

I realized that when I began driving into less used driveways to get into parking lots in case the transmission stalled that it was time for a change.

I told Boyd that we needed to have a little talk.

I explained the situation.

One thing about Boyd...he acts quickly if there is a problem.

We traded the van in and had a new car by the end of the week.

Now I can drive into any parking lot entrance I want.

And I only miss the van when we need to haul things, which fortunately isn't very often.


The second goodbye was said to Kitty.

Kitty was a good kitty.

But Kitty was a little psychotic in the last couple of years.

She began pulling her fur out in large chunks and leaving it all over the house.

Gross.

She couldn't clean herself very well and she had huge clumps of yucky fur at the base of her tail.

She gained tons of weight in the last 3 months and got really fat, really fast.

And she smelled really bad.

She wasn't very happy here and she didn't feel very good. So, when she began pooping in her bed and then laying in it, we realized that it was time to do something about it.

We decided to send her off to Kitty Heaven.

And that is exactly what we did with the help of kind neighbors.


I realized that after Kitty was gone that I have traipsed through kitty litter in the washroom for 10 1/2 years.

Not to mention that her litter box, bed and food dishes took up 1/3 of the washroom floor.

I feel like I have a new lease on my life. My washroom seems to have doubled in size, no more dancing around kitty litter, and the cars we are driving are all functioning as they should.

SWEET!!

Birthday Weekend

Boyd and I save all of our change into an old glass peanut jar.

I try to make sure that it is mostly silver, meaning nickels, dimes and quarters.

This past month when the change jar was full and overflowing, Boyd asked me what I wanted to do with it.

I decided that I wanted to go for an overnighter for my birthday.

And when we counted up our change we had enough for our weekend adventure.

Boyd knows the manager of this hotel:


He got a good rate on a two-room suite and we invited our friends, the Stenquist's to come with us.

In preparation, we ordered gift certificates from 50/50 Friday on Fox 13 for Wabi Sabi in Daybreak.

Wabi Sabi serves sushi...however you want it.

Our sushi chef was Scott and he made us some sushi rolls that took your breath away.

They were so good, so flavorful, and so beautiful.


We finished off our sushi with a serving of fried pumpkin pie.

Oh my goodness, it was to die for.

Please sir, can I have some more?

We drove back to our hotel and prepared for a friendly competition of card games between husbands and wives.

After some nail-biting games we headed off to bed and dreamt of our next step in our celebration.

Park City!

First, the outlet mall to get some missionary shirts for Court.


The Van Heusen outlet only had 3 shirts in Court's size. I wanted 10.

Now I have to find more.

Have you ever tried to find a 14 1/2 inch neck dress shirt in white? It's pretty much impossible unless you go to WalMart and their shirt collars bubble.

Oh well. I made myself feel better by finding some winter shoes that are actually both cute AND comfortable.

And then we continued with one of our favorite activities, browsing the Historic Main Street in Park City.


We visited the art galleries, bought candy from the Rocky Mountain Candy Factory and gawked at the jewelry.

It rained when we first got there but as we continued, it stopped raining and was chilly and beautiful.

Our last stop on the way home was here:


Centerville has finally opened up a new In-N-Out Burger.

If you haven't tried an In-N-Out burger, may I suggest that you try one. NOW!

It was the perfect birthday weekend gift ever! Thanks, Boyd.

And he's going to.....

Court's mission call FINALLY came...

on my birthday.

He called everyone he could think of that would be interested to come and watch him open it.

We had a living room full plus 2 people on phones.

It was so exciting!

He held on to that envelope all afternoon and would barely let anyone look at it. It was HIS after all.

Right before he opened the envelope I took this picture:


He went to the knife drawer and got my best Cutco knife out to slit the top of the envelope.


He pulled out the letter and began to read...

You have hereby been called to serve in the Washington Tacoma mission!

We were all thrilled, especially Court who was worried about having to learn another language.


The best part? The city of Forks made so famous in the Twilight series is in his mission. Bwa ha ha ha ha.

Court hates the Twilight series.

In case you were wondering...

Or in case you weren't...

NO CALL FOR COURT!

Still waiting.............

A House Full of Giggly Girls

I grew up with 4 sisters and 3 brothers.

There were a lot of us.

I think that one of the ways that my dad kept his sanity around a bunch of pubescent teenage daughters was to call us "Giggly Girls".

I don't know if we were that giggly but my parents managed to survive all of us and today we are all good friends.

Every year my mom gets her girls together for Women's Conference in September.

Most recently we congregate at Gardiner Village, eat at Archibald's restaurant and then shop till our feet hurt.

This year Kalie was able to come. Living in Arizona the past 4 years made it a little difficult for her to attend our soiree.

Kevin even volunteered to take care of Isaac, although it made it so we couldn't fight over who got to hold him...

Kalie and I after a fantastic lunch.


My sisters Heather and Rose are standing behind my cousin, Bonnie and her friend.


My sister, Mary, sat next to my mom and her cousin from England, Eileen.


My sister, Carolyn, brought two of her daughters, Kristi and Rebekah.


I didn't take any pictures of the witches, Afton's candy shop or Just Us Girls, but I enjoyed every minute I was there.

Soaking up sister time is the BEST!!

Our Days are Numbered

It was Court's 19th birthday last Sunday.

Yes, it was on General Conference Sunday.

Both of my boys have birthdays around General Conference weekends which has been a source of great stress for them.

But I digress.

This was a huge day for Court.

First off, after listening to the morning session of conference, he met with the Stake President. After an extensive interview, Court was told that his mission papers would be submitted that night.

Wow!!

Then, Court saw his birthday cake without frosting. It was a blank palette to him.

He asked if he could decorate his cake. Hmmm. No convincing needed here!

I have decided that this is the way to do birthday cakes...have the birthday child decorate their own!!!


This is the finished project. I will admit that I did help put the black border around the bat symbol.

Sigh.


Kevin and Kalie came to our home on their way back from Elko. We got to enjoy them for dinner and hang with Isaac.

Question: Guess who loves Isaac?

Answer: Grandpa!


Court wanted a Batman birthday. He wanted Batman books and movies. I ordered everything online and prayed like crazy that some of the presents would get here on time. This is what came...3 Batman movies.

Now we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the rest of the books.


Court also requested that he light his own candles. He has a really cool lighter that he wanted to use:


I have decided that I need to do better in the mother department. I didn't have any candles for his birthday cake. We had to borrow some from our neighbor. They had six matching candles.

I'm lame, I know.

However, it did give him something to blow out.


At 7:00 p.m. we had an appointment with our bishop and the high councilor to ordain Court an elder.

While we were waiting for Court to finish his cake and ice cream and get ready, my mom came to our house. She sat in our chair and was holding Isaac. Yogi jumped right up beside her.

She was the most popular person around!!


Boyd ordained Court to the Melchizedek Priesthood. Court had invited some friends, Kirby and Kyle to stand in the circle. Brock and Kevin were also here along with Bishop Wilson and Brother Payne from the high council.

It was a lovely moment.


Now we are biting our fingernails as we wait for his mission call to come.

Exciting!! Nerve-wracking!! Inspiring!! Wonderful!!

A Day of Blessing

September 26, 2010

Isaac's blessing day.


Blessed by his father, Kevin Chamberlain.


Adored by his grandparents.



Surrounded by Casselman's.



Loved by his mother.


And a most incredible meal enjoyed by everyone.

Candy Corn Fun

One day while flipping through the October issue of Women's Day, I came across the instructions to make a candy corn wreath.

Who ever knew that these:

Could turn into this:


As Boyd puts it, "Candy corn tastes so bad that now they are using it in decorating?" At first he was skeptical about the whole idea of the wreath but when he saw the completed product he was a fan.

Even though this year has flown by and I am not ready for the impending winter, this wreath will help ease us into the season with enthusiasm!

The Story of the Relief Society Quilt

"We need to sew a quilt", the Relief Society President said.
"Can you help us?" I quickly agreed and nodded my head.

I planned and schemed and came up with ways
To involve many sisters and not many days.

A rag quilt would be the ideal thing to do
It's simple and charming and would involve quite a few.

Donations were gathered, the squares were all cut,
Kits were passed out, no time to sit in a rut.

The sisters stitched busily then passed their kits back.
I sewed the rows as they came in a stack.

We met together on Relief Society night
And snipped all the rows. It was a beautiful sight.

And then came the finale, time for a wash,
To fray all the edges. It would look posh.

My excitement grew as I opened the washer
Then faded quickly when I saw the disaster.

All of the squares had turned very pink
The red on the back bled to every sewn link.

Panic flooded my mind, my brain was sent reeling
This was to be displayed and shown with great feeling.

I washed and I washed with color safe bleach,
Wisk, All and lemon juice--anything within reach.

Nothing would help, the color didn't budge
It stayed sickly pink, slightly better than sludge.

I finally gave up and threw it in the dryer
Folded it nicely and made up a flyer.

I drove it to Melody who would set up the display
And left it with resignation, hoping she could save the day.

My mom and my sisters all went to the church
Partook of the dinner and set on a search.

We found our poor quilt, the "Field of Seams".
Here is how it looked despite all my dreams.


It has personality, it should keep one warm
Despite all its flaws, it still has good form.


May those who receive know it was made with love
With a desire to serve Him up above.

Before and After

Yogi is a Maltese. Maltese hair is very fine and mats easily.

If their hair gets too long, it gets difficult to take care of.

We decided to take Yogi to the groomer and get a haircut.

This is Yogi before:


This is Yogi after.

His hair is a little short but I sure can comb it easily.

The nicest thing about his fur is that it will grow back quickly and then he will look back to normal.


What do you think? Short? Long?

Three times the fun, three times the pain

The Bear Lake Brawl. An appropriate name for a day of triathlon racing.

Brock wanted to do a triathlon.

He began training early in the year by taking a swimming class at the university. He got to be a pretty good swimmer.

All summer long he cross-trained. He biked, he ran and he swam regularly preparing himself for the big day...the Bear Lake Brawl.

For those of us who are uninformed as to the nature of triathlons there are four types (that I am aware of).

The Iron Man
The Half
The Olympic
The Sprint

Brock chose to do the sprint. It is composed of a 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike ride and a 5k run.

We got up at 3:30 in the morning in order to be dressed and to drive to Bear Lake on time.

That is why this picture shows it still being a little dark. It was early. Too early. But Brock was ready to go.


Brock stepped into the lake in preparation for his heat. The people in his heat were men 17 - 40.



Bear Lake water is cold. Even though Brock wore a wet suit, he struggled with finding a rhythm with swimming. He ended up doing the entire swim in a backstroke.


We watched carefully to see when Brock came out of the water. When we saw him, we were so excited. He had finished the swim, which was the part he was most concerned about.


There was a trail for the swimmers to run along to get to their bikes. Brock was prepared to jump on the bike as quickly as possible because he wore his biking shorts underneath his wet suit.


Brock started on his 12 mile bike ride with confidence.


Just coming back from the biking portion and getting ready for the running portion. Running is Brock's strongest sport so Boyd and I expected great things.


Boyd and I timed Brock on his run and began looking for him after about 20 minutes. He came in shortly thereafter.


Brock's time. He came in 19th overall and 3rd in his age category. Not bad for a first triathlon.


The awards ceremony. The first place man in Brock's age category ended up being in the top three overall so it bumped Brock up to 2nd place in his age category. He got a silver medal, finishing his race in 1 hour 24 minutes and 29.5 seconds.


Of course you can't leave Bear Lake without eating at LaBeau's. We had burgers, fries and raspberry shakes. The food was fantastic!! I heartily recommend it to anyone who is taking a trip to Bear Lake.


This was one of the most exciting races we have ever witnessed. Thanks Brock for providing us the opportunity. It was GREAT!!