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One experience I love each Christmas Eve day is to be alone in the house while Clyde is running errands or doing an airport run. I listen to the Tabernacle choir, busy with my meal or cookie prep. Every song reaches into my heart and pulls me into a holy place, a sweet feeling. I am taken back to the stable, that night, that family just begun. I feel the greatness of His gift, for me. I think of my own family, and the traditions we love to share. At this time even rolling a cookie is a holy experience. Love. Tears. Tenderness all my own. Thank you.

O Happy Day

Last night as I was folding laundry I heard a loud 'clonk' as my washer stopped mid-cycle. This made me sad, since on Nov. 24th we paid $209 to get a new timer replaced on our 5 yr old washer. Clyde returned from giving his final and when he heard the news, he started researching new washers - hours and hours trying to figure out which one would fit, front or top load, best price, etc. He went to turn out the Christmas lights on the outside bushes and said they must have burned out - already off! Before bed I bailed out all the water from the washer(any guesses on how much water fills a large capacity washer?) and it took forever. I removed the clothes, planning to take them to a laundromat in the morning. This morning, Clyde was researching more about washers. I went to dry my hair and my dryer would not work. Weird - it had not been having problems. I decided to take it to the kitchen plug, just to test it. Voila! It worked! The problem was the plug in my bathroom. I wondered if the washer problem was also electrical, since I could not get any cycle to work. I tried turning on the clothes dryer - nothing! It was an electrical problem! So I hurried to the guest bath to dry my hair, and had to push the reset button on the plug to get my hair dyrer to work. Clyde went downstairs to look for tripped circuits and find the one to reset. So I went in to the laundry to check the plug and tell Clyde when it was working. I tested the clothes dryer again and it worked!!! So did the washer!! We don't have to buy a new washer after all!! And just hitting the reset button in the guest bath plug did the trick. My laundry is on one side of the house and my bedroom bath is on the complete other side of the house! So we almost went to buy a new washer, almost called the repair man to complain about his work, and got lucky just in time. It pays to wonder sometimes when your hair dryer does not work - maybe there is a different solution?! Nothing else in the house made us think there was any elelctrical issue at all -- no lights were off, fridge and clocks running... O happy day - I don't have to buy a new washer. Clyde's favorite story today.

Cousins Dinner recipes

So it was mentioned to me that I should post the recipes for the meals I serve at Cousin's Dinner each month, with the hope that some cousins might actually cook them.
So here goes:

Creamy Meatballs

Use 12 – 15 frozen meatballs from Costco or target

Mix one can cream of chicken and 1 can cream of mushroom soup

Add ½ can evaporated milk.

Mix soups and milk together, then add meatballs. cook in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes so the flavor from the meatballs permeates the soup mixture. I usually add a tiny bit of water to thin.

Serve over rice

Can be doubled, cook in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

Also can be frozen and cooked later.

MIMI’S Corn Chowder

	(Yields 2 1/2 quarts) This is straight from their website!!
	4 tablespoons butter or margarine
	6 tablespoons onion, chopped 3 cups frozen corn, thawed
	3/4 cup celery, large dice 2 tablespoons sugar
	2 1/2 cups hot water 2 teaspoons salt
	2 cups raw potato, peeled and cut in 1/2" cubes 1 pinch white pepper 3 tablespoons flour
	1 quart Half & Half
	Method
	On medium heat, melt butter, then simmer onion and celery for 5 minutes until soft, but not brown. Add water, potatoes, corn and seasonings. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are barely tender. Whisk the flour into 1 cup of the Half & Half, and stir into the soup. Add the remaining 3 cups of Half & Half. Simmer for about 15 minutes until the soup has thickened to a creamy consistency. Correct the seasoning with additional salt and pepper if needed. In order to correct the consistency of the soup you may add a little milk to make it thinner. To make the soup thicker, simmer another 5-10 minutes. Mary’s Fajitas (Janice’s version) 11-24-02 One 3-4 lb sirloin tip or top round roast. Bake in slow oven (300-325) till very tender OR cook in crock pot on low all day Oven needs a little water to keep it from burning, crock pot will make it’s own juice If using the crock pot, Add a bit of the juice and tiny bit of oil to the dry packet of McCormicks Fajita seasoning. Pour over meat at end of cooking after you have shredded the meat. Cook sliced red and green peppers, onions in marg. Open can of black beans, sour cream, salsa, guacamole Slice tomatoes, lettuce, cheese Serve on warmed thick tortillas. You could also use chicken with this marinade – left over meat is yummy for sandwiches, and snacking. More recipes later.

The 'deer' office view

I recently moved with all of Graduate Studies into the Former Presidents' Home on the BYU campus. This used to be a home for the University President so it has a backyard and stands pretty much by itself on the edge of the hill. We often see deer out the windows around lunch time and late afternoon. The deer family lives just off the hill in the wooded part between upper campus and the lower parking lot by the tennis courts. I love the view of the yard now that many of the leaves have changed and are falling. I can see Timp right out my window and also the lake to the west. I have two walls of windows! Can't get much better than this. I just wanted to share these few photos with you so you could imagine me at work!

Tag, by no one, just for fun

Fourth folder, fourth photo. This is Clyde and myself at the Neil Diamond concert at the Hollywood Bowl in LA, October 1, 2008. We bought the cheap seats and went with Camille. We knew almost all the songs! Neil Diamond is 67 and has been singing the same songs since we were in college!

33 years

October 24 was our 33rd anniversary. That's more years living with Clyde than I did with my parents! I still love and like Clyde! We went to the temple and to dinner at the Harvest Room at Thanksgiving point. That place is an undiscovered gem! not too busy, quiet, and the most tender steak ever! and the rest of the food was delicious too. For my gift to Clyde and to ME, I stayed home from work and did something I really wanted to do - I cleaned and organized the den. It had kind of become a huge dumping ground since I began full time work two years ago and then a lot of my time was directed at planning three weddings for KC, Nicole and Michelle. No excuse I know but it was messy. I tossed old computer stuff, papers, made piles for shredding, and filed tons of papers off my desk. A filing cabinet is so great. Clyde purchased a new large clock for the den and we hung more photos of Germany. I had wanted Clyde to help me do the den for a long time but he just did not want to get into it like it needed. So 5 hours later, it looked pretty good. I surprised him with my efforts. Here's a few photos to prove it.





























Less is really more- more efficient, more space, more peace, more freedom from stress. I like it this way.

a surprise

A couple of days ago I cleaned out the drawer containing receipts I have been saving. I always keep my grocery receipts so I can tally the month and look at my yearly totals and averages. Apparently I didn't do much except plan a wedding since last November, because the receipts were quite stacked up in my skinny little drawer. What amazed me was how much I spent in some months, and more surprising was how many trips I made to the stores! I live close to Costco and go about 2 or 3 times a month - mostly for the great produce, chicken, and bread. We don't buy any junk food from there. I also go to a regular store for all the other stuff I need. I have planned menus and shopping lists for YEARS, and my spending seems under control, I thought. But adding up the number of receipts (=trips to a store) I have some self control or planning to improve. But Days Grocery is just three minutes away! Adding all the trips together some months I had 12 - 18 receipts!! (=trips to a store=spending $$) Yikes! I am going to try to plan even better, have stuff on hand for special events ( like work parties, family dinners, etc.) and go to a two week menu (buy more, shop less often). Every time I go to a store I always buy more than the items on the list or what I need so it adds up. It is a good exercise to see what you spend on food some months, because it makes you more careful, thrifty, and creative the next month. Just don't wait 9 months before you do the tally, like I did recently. I have kept track of our food spending since 1992! Since that time my household has changed sizes several times, and now it is just me and Clyde. The challenge has begun...

Who am I?

Twice in the last two days I have been mistakenly identified. Yesterday at church I was sitting next to my friend Pattie Shumway. We both have dark hair, about the same style and length. A ward member leans over to Pattie and says,"thanks for the ice cream." She looks puzzled and I whisper to her, "it was me who gave them ice cream."
Then today at 5 pm on the way to my car, someone on the sidewalk was talking on their cell phone. He looked right at me, only 4 feet away and said, "Hi Debbie, have a good night." I smiled and said goodbye. I have no idea who he thought I was! So I guess I can stand in for many faces!

the way up!

This is a photo of one of the streets we drove on as the GPS tried to get us to the hotel!! We just kept going higher and to narrower streets. Very old streets!

GPS confusion

Here is one little story from our Germany Trip:
We rented a car and brought our own GPS system to help us get around. Camille was the great navigator, interpreter of the directions etc. It worked pretty well to get us to Salzburg. We put in the hotel address and it seemed to take us right to it, except it took us kind of past the street the hotel was on. Then it took us kind of around the back side of the city, and then started taking us up hilly old cobbled streets. Before we knew it we were next to an old monastery, on a hill and going towards a very narrow stone arch - people were walking on this path. We stopped, put in the mirrors, and after a few scary stalled starts, finally inched through the arch and on to level ground. We then saw a couple of other cars up there. NO way were we going to go down that same way, and our hotel was NOT up here. When we got our nerve to drive again, we saw a different path (cement walking path that went down the front of the hill. We put Camille in the drivers seat and as we slowly started towards the path down, the GPS glibly announced: "Turn right in 500 feet... you have arrived!" We were on the edge of a cliff beneath the fortress and apparently our hotel roof was just down below us!! HAHA. Here is a photo of the fortress in the last light of day. we later learned that our hotel was in a pedestrian area and the GPS will NOT take a car into a forbidden area.

Empty nest/ ness?

We are officially Empty Nesters. Things are a bit quieter here around bedtime. Meals are not elaborate sometimes. But I'm glad I have married children close by who drop in often!!

TA DA!

I did it! By myself! I got a new background for the blog. Simple enough. Matches the cool wedding backdrop!

family

We had a wonderful wedding weekend! I love my family!

innovation

On Sunday night we noticed our back patio light had a ton of 'stuff' in it. I wondered how that much dirt or dead bugs could fill it up so much. When Clyde took it down to clean it out, he found this birds nest in there.

From the looks of it, I am pretty sure the eggs hatched (all the poop tells me so). I did hear a lot of chirping, but I have been so busy I just thought there were lots of birds around this spring. They have all flown away and I didn't even see a one of them.

We have had nests before in places like the downspout, the ladder in the garage, even on top of the garage door opener, but in a light fixture is a first!

great cooks

We had a delicious meal on Mother's day, all cooked by Nicole, Erin, Michelle, and Casey.
Teriyaki salmon, lemon garlic snow peas and green beans, fancy salad with respberry jam in the dressing, whole grain bread, and bananas foster for dessert.
A few photos for you.

Quick sandwich meal

Saturday was a very busy day. Tons of errands, trip to Centerville for Derek's wedding, etc.
For dinner I had purchased some pre-sliced beef for a stir fry. When I started dinner, I sliced some red peppers and onions and tossed in the iron skillet. I decided I wanted a faster dinner so I just chopped the meat a bit smaller, tossed in the other half of the skillet and sprinkled it with some yummy Redmond Season salt. Put a lid on and sliced some white cheddar and two crusty ciabatta rolls. When the meat and veggies were done, I piled it on the sliced cheese on the roll, and then spooned some of the beef juice onto the top of the roll. The quick version of a philly beef sandwich. Yummy and FAST!

My life lately, in no particular order

THE TO DO LIST

DONE CALL Kneaders, ORDER FOOD --send check to Wedding ice lady.
DONE APPT WITH Kneaders for cake design
DONE Send photo to Mollie
DONE Proof invites
DONE Pay for invites, receive invites
DONE Finalize invite list, remove some,
DONE Get a few more addresses
DONE Get labels, address and return
DONE Buy postage for 500
DONE Label and stamps on invites, insert dinner and temple cards DATE___________
DONE CALL Wedding Ice lady, ask about set up, book table clearers – does she do water???NO
DONE Purchase plates, napkins, forks

Reserve heaters??? Ask Noahs
Almost DONE Buy dresses or skirts and sweaters two bridesmaids, two marrieds
FINISH ADDING SASHES
DONE Go to Noahs with Erin,

DONE Plan table layout
DONE Check out kitchen facilities
DONE Order wood chairs
DONE Layout of food tables, sign in, cake
Design florals; DONE order containers, DONE candle holders,
Determine what photos will be displayed and where. place in holders and add background
DONE print some engagement photos

buy large display for black and white backdrop, paint urns, add paper.

Plan food layout – do we need yellow puddling table cloths??no

DONE Get someone to help stock food – Melissa and Michelle Schow and Kathryn Paxman

Test music cd in their sound system

DONE Purchase cake stake 16”BUT CALL TO SEE IF IT WILL WORK!!

Purchase large gift bag to cover faucet
Purchase container for card and envelopes

DONE Find or buy water container,
DONE Choose photos for Pikabo book
DONE Determine background color
DONE Buy pens
Michelle plan music
DONE Call temple to sched endowments on May 9 ( Friday)
DONE Janice decide on dress –Black and ivory
DONE Gloria has a dress
DONE Call hotel for people to stay
DONE Email sent Find out if Gary can come
Dress:
DONE Go for fitting and alterations appt
Pick up after pressing

Find earrings
DONE make hair piece
DONE Get new outfits for dinner, temple yellow sweater and skirt?, dinner?
DONE Buy garments
DONE Buy temple clothes
DONE Buy temple dress press it
DONE Buy temple bag

Plan food for Friday after sealing, before and after recept., Saturday am

Plan schedule of who does what to set up reception: tie ribbons, set out florals, 166 votives lit and placed, hang photos on wall, set up cake, food, water, plates napkins,

Sugarless dessert?

Sunday we had cousins dinner. I needed to make a dessert that had no sugar in it, since Michelle is on Dr orders to avoid sugar. How do you make a dessert with no sugar? I dreamed up this recipe:
Filled crepes with fruit!
Nicole and Erin make crepes ( recipe for 20 had 4 t sugar - only a tiny bit)
I found sugar free white chocolate pudding - 2 boxes and mixed that with 16 oz of spreadable cream cheese and the milk called for in the pudding. This was pretty firm.
I drained two cans of pineapple tidbits for the juice ( just pineapple juice, not heavy syrup). I squeezed two oranges for juice. Then I added 2 T of cornstarch to the juices and cooked it till it thickened. I chilled that. I cut up 1 lb of strawberries and added one can of the pineapple tidbits.
To serve we spread a thick layer of the pudding mix on the crepe, added the fruit which had been mixed with the thickened juice sauce, and rolled the crepe. top with a dollop of Cool whip and more fruit. ( must be some sugar in cool whip?) They were a big hit and not much white sugar for Michelle. She said it was better than a cake - we sang happy birthday to her. Sorry no photos :( they just disappeared too fast. Michelle had hers half eaten before we sang!

Happy Hour Shower

Nicole and Camille had this great idea to throw a "Happy Hour" shower for Michelle. Nicole loves the idea of fun food and she and Camille dreamed up some great drinks and food. Here are some photos of the party.




The spread - bruchetta, lemon bars, brownie bites, brie and berries and crackers, puff pastry and spinach dip mini quiches, strawberries, mini banana choc chip muffins, PLUS three kind of drinks!




















Camille and Nicole even raided their old prom clothes to dress up for the part!


Here we are! We all got a great big kick out of cousin Lori's present - a scanty black teddy with glittery, strappy heels for the honeymoon!! You should have seen the laugh on Michelle's face when she looked in the bag! Michelle received some great gifts and a fun time was had by all.

Tax Time

Last night I prepared our federal and state taxes, using Turbo Tax online. I have done this since 2001 and it is a snap, since they pre-populate the info with what you gave last year. It was late, but I had all the necessary documents. I did both returns in less than an hour. As I put everything away, I realized I had forgotten to enter our $1900 of real estate taxes!! Yikes. Plus I had taken a deduction on the state forms for insurance premiums that I had have never taken before - wahoo.

So tonight I went back in to Turbo tax and they walked me through an amended return. Turns out I owe $462 less!. So after creating two amended returns, I decided to check on the state insurance deduction. We were NOT eligible after all. So I did a third amended return for the state. Less refund :( but I am honest. Now I have to mail my amended returns and I get to wonder if the IRS will take the first amt due out of my account, then give me a refund or what!!. And will the refund sent by the state be too much now that I have figured it correctly? I will make some phone calls tomorrow. And take a bit more time next year? Sheesh.

Our Lake

The snow has been melting. Our front gutter does not have enough slope for gravity to make the water run under the very frozen layer of ice and pile of snow under the tree.
















We now have a lake in our driveway and Clyde has been digging a trench/canal to drain the water. I have done this many winters. Now that we have a nice drain only 15 feet from our driveway, it seems silly for so much water to accumulate. Next year we will have to get our snow blower fixed and hope that Clyde will clear the gutter area - it takes a long time to melt that pile under the tree!

Crunch!

Today about 2:30 I decided to leave work and run two errands - one to pick up my two heart and blood pressure meds since they had both run out in the last two days. The CRV (new last April) was parked in the West ASB lot and there was a student trying to park a extra long flat bed truck in a car stall! At first he tried two stalls away from my car, but backed up and went further down the row. Then he started attempting to pull into the stall to the right of my CRV! He backed up a few times to get a wider turn, but his truck was huge AND wide and just as I was 4 feet from my car, his truck HIT my car!@!@! arrgh! It was terrible to see. So he jumps out and apologizes and tells me this is his FIRST TIME driving and he was coming to the "learn how to drive a truck " class! His boss just handed him the keys, told him where the training was and said good luck. NO instruction as to where it might be appropriate to park the huge thing (25 foot truck!) NO trucks except regular pickup trucks and passenger cars park in this lot! I finally went and got a BYU policeman and made a report. I was trying to remain calm since I really needed my heart meds - missing a day did not feel too good! Clyde finally got my message and showed up not too happy. The poor 18 yr old kid even said yes when I asked him if he wanted someone else to back up his truck and drive it away. He was going to walk to his bosses office and just give him the keys! About 5 other cars would not have been able to move if he did that. So Clyde pulled our car forward and the policeman guided the student driver on backing out and not hitting anyone else! BYU Risk Management will pay for this repair and Clyde made good friends with the guy in charge - he had just purchased the same car for his wife! The estimate is $1125 and will be fixed next Monday. It was a terrible sound and sight to see! I wonder if the student will even be able to keep his job as a driver! For sure we are going to complain about how they did not give enough instruction on where to park for his first venture out!!

Enough Already!

This is a Hawaiian saying in pidgin that expresses my feeling about all the snow we have received lately. It just keeps coming 3 - 4 inches at a time. But since our snow blower is not working, we have been shoveling this winter (mostly Clyde) The pile on the side of our driveway is HUGE!! See if you can spot the little bit of the corner of the mailbox in this photo. Spring we are ready!!

8 weeks later trip to the ER!

On my way to take Michelle to meet a photographer, my heart started racing again. We turned around and went home instead of to Salt Lake. This was at 2 pm. Heart rate - about 180 beats per minute. I decided to sit quietly and see if it would go away on its own. About 5 pm Clyde took me to the store so I could use the blood pressure cuff and see my heart rate. I really thought it had slowed a bit. nope - 188 per minute. So my neighbor brought over her stethoscope and let me listen to how fast it was beating. She encouraged me to go get 'converted' at the ER. This procedure is called "converted" because you get converted to a healthy heart state from a very fast heart rate. So we went at 7 :10 pm. Saw the same nurse as before, and at 8:15 pm got the same heart stopping shot as before. Worked like a charm, I think medicine is amazing that a shot of liquid can reach the heart in seconds, stop it and restart it so it beats normally. That's a miracle. Clyde is glad to be done with this long before the middle of the night! 6 hours is a long time to have your heat beat at 180 bpm. I'll count that as heart exercise...
I have a second follow up appt with the famous electro cardiologist so we'll see what he says after a second episode in 8 weeks. I promised to take my meds until then.

Shivverrr

It's been really cold here in Provo, as low as 4 degrees at night and Thursday it only got up to 16 degrees all day. So when I came home Friday night I didn't think much when Michelle told me she was really cold and had to put on a fleece jacket to even eat dinner with us. We left pretty soon after dinner to go to a movie with the Paxmans. Upon returning at 10:10 pm, we noticed the house was registering at 66 degrees!! No wonder Michelle was cold! We experienced this same problem of the furnace not working on Christmas day. After a $75 service call three weeks ago we thought all was well. So last night we bundled up and went to bed before our body temps dropped! This morning the house was 60 degrees! I baked some cinnamon rolls, drank hot chocolate, and wore my heavy fleece robe over my clothes. A different heating business is coming this morning to check out the problem. They have warned us it will be expensive since they charge almost double to come on a Saturday! Yikes. We wonder if we could last through the weekend and how cold the house would really get if we waited till Monday. Carlsons are coming from Denver on Sunday to visit the baby so we will pay the huge weekend fees to get our house warm. Right now I'm planning to hurry and get in the car to go shopping -- it's bound to be warmer at the store than our house!! Post Note: $350 later, we are getting warm again! a part had to be replaced, this time it is expected to work for a long time!

Fondue Fun

We had a very successful fondue party for New Year's Eve. Nicole land I found the sort of recipe on Cami's blog, then called Emily for more details. We used my new electric fondue pot and made a double batch for our 13 person party (prepared on the stover first). Here is the recipe for the record:
2 cans cheddar cheese soup
2 8 oz blocks cream cheese
8 0z swiss cheese, shredded
12 - 14 oz cheddar cheese
6-8 dashes nutmeg
3 shakes of garlic powder
3 shakes of onion powder
chicken broth as needed to thin - about 1/3 cup to start with and a little more during the night.

for dippers: grape tomatoes, celery, broccoli and cauliflower (cooked in the microwave 2-4 minutes to remove a bit of the crunchiness), two kinds of artisan bread ( rosemary and plain french), granny smith apples, beef little smokies, Italian meatballs,
We also had shrimp and sauce, spinach dip with crackers, pork little smokies in a glaze of bbq sauce and grape jelly, blue corn chips with yummy guacamole by Cisco, and queso from Bajio Grill (which we heated up in the little potpourri crock pot!).
JD and Jean and Carrie were still here due to weather so we had a fun crowd and Alicia and Dustin and new baby little James came later. We fed 13 in all! For a late dessert we had brownies and peppermint ice cream - perfect amt of sweet and chocolate to end the night.
We played Catch Phrase and laughed hilariously.
I think we have a new tradition! Maybe later I'll post pictures.