Monday, May 5, 2008

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,

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

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!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

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.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

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.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

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!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

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!!

Sunday, February 3, 2008

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!!