Are You Munching Metal?

Hannah's science fair project was centered around the iron that is in breakfast cereal. She picked three breakfast cereals that had varying degrees of recommend daily iron content. She soaked several cups of the cereal in big bowls for 45 minutes, stirred vigorously and then inserted a very powerful magnet that extracted all the iron that the soggy cereal released. It was a fun project. As a grade, she got 100 percent. In her class, nine kids got 100 percent. Four of them were selected to go to the school science fair (for 4th, 5th and 6th graders). Hannah's was selected. She won a blue ribbon among all the other top contenders. She would have preferred to be in the top 10 as she is ultra competitive and likes to win! After a few tears she was quite delighted with her blue ribbon and very motivated to be in the top 10 next year. (She was in the top 10 last year with her "Must it Rust?" science project.) I think she did a fabulous job! And we are all very proud of her!

Stay tuned for the next installment of science fair projects, entitled....

"How much POP is in a kilowatt?"

(Becca's project is due tomorrow!)

Dad

Good News! They realeased my Dad from the hospital.

The blockage, or whatever it was, has resolved!

We are so excited.

We will all get to see him this weekend.

My Dad

As I was walking into the gym the other day I saw a car with a window sticker in the back that said "Cancer Sucks." I thought: My sentiments exactly!

I don't like to blog about my Dad. It is just too hard. It makes me cry when I stop and think about him and how hard this has been on him and on Mom.

Please keep him in your prayers. He is in the hospital...again. We are hoping and praying that it will be a short visit. They are not exactly sure but they think that he has another bowel blockage. We should know more later today. Please pray for him, his doctors, a clear diagnosis and treatment, and of course for Mom.

Thanks for all your previous love, concern and prayers. I really appreciate it. This photo was taken this summer when Brookelynn went through the Temple.

Juicing it Up...Finally!

When we moved into our house many years ago I had dreams of having a few citrus trees. Of course the yard, which was in no shape for grass was certainly not ready for citrus trees. After planting grass...more than once...we finally had a yard that could sustain a little "real" landscaping. We added plants around the pool, some flagstone over the cement patio, a firepit AND....citrus trees (ruby red grapefruit, lemon, lime and orange)...two of which are still actually alive (orange and lemon)! The grapefruit tree has been replaced more than once so it may never be. The lime tree produced limes all last season but froze during the winter :( !

I was very excited and then the landscaper told me the hard, cold truth...we would not have edible fruit for a "few years". Hmmm..! So Hal and I (mostly Hal, okay all Hal, at my direction) fertilized the citrus trees faithfully, until this year. Every year our orange tree would produce at least 3 oranges. Every year we would wait until they were the perfect color of orange and then we would pick them and run in the house only to be disappointed at the quality! Then we would just throw them away.

This year, however, without fertilization, (lets just say we were kind of giving up!) our tree produced a LOT of oranges. Yesterday morning I sent the kids out with a bucket and told them to get them all! (Our tree is so big that they can reach them all...easily.) So they did. Not only were they edible but they were juicable! So we juiced all of the oranges, getting about two gallons of OJ. I have increased faith that we will have more oranges in the future. Wahoo! Maybe I will try again to have a Ruby Red Grapefruit tree and possibly try again with the lime tree...who knows. Of course, ANYONE can grow lemons. So we have LOTS of those!

Cowgirls and Cowboys

Tonight was the much-anticipated Daddy Daughter Date for Hannah and Hal. The theme was western so we raided Becca's and my closet to come up with the ensemble for Hannah! My vote may be prejudiced, but I think she looks darling! Hannah's belt buckle is a genuine calf-roping belt buckle given to me by my good friend Lisa Winn (back when she was Lisa Winn) and of course she is a real cowgirl so it was one of her "extras". The green and yellow belt was also a gift given to me by and made by my cousin Mike.

As for Hal's western attire, the boots are vintage Stan. What a great treasure for Hal to have! The shirt, hat and Wranglers....yes I said Wranglers...were part of an outfit he bought one year when taking me to the Ute Stampede. Of course, the Wranglers didn't compensate for the lack of cowboyness and he did have to leave the rodeo early for boredom reasons but he gets big points for trying!!! And big points for staying at the rodeo much longer than he wanted to!!! As a reward my Mother gave Hal a genuine Ute Stampede belt buckle which is proudly wearing tonight also!

Tonight these two lucky wranglers are going to be having a western cookout and a s'mores making party in the neighbors backyard. Because Jasmine wasn't available tonight to carry these two to the party they walked. Here they are heading out.

Hannah also wanted a picture with her favorite member of our family...Tiger.

Slides, Slides, Slides

I have been wanting to get my parents slides digitized for a while. After an extensive search across the country for the best price per slide it turned out that the best price was right in my backyard in Mesa (at least it is the best price until their special ends at the end of February). I asked Mom to package up the slides and send them my way. I then spent a solid week looking at about 2,000 slides! I narrowed it down to 1,300 that worthy of being digitized.

It was so much fun! I really enjoyed watching my early childhood memories and reminiscing about how much fun this or that was. I was surprised at times at which slides brought back the most memories (a picture of Mom sitting on her stool at the counter talking on the phone!). My kids got to glimpse some of the pics although they didn't have the stamina to make it through them all. After several photos of Mom on the phone the kids said that I was just like Grandma!

I cannot wait to get them back. Of course it will take a few weeks because the special is so popular that they are quite backlogged. I couldn't believe how many slides were stacked around the store when I dropped Mom's slides off.

So, just when I thought I was done looking at slides Hal decided it was too good of a deal to pass up and he spent this week looking at his 2,000 slides. He also narrowed it down to about 1,400. It was fun for me to watch his childhood as well as many slides from the time he lived in Korea as a missionary.

We are going to take his slides in today. Now we just have to wait to see them again. We are so spoiled with our digital cameras.

When I get Mom's back I will be sure to post some of my favorites!

Home Teachers and Valentine's Day

I am feeling a bit remiss. I think I am going to be this great blogger and put it ALL down in words! Well, sometimes life gets in the way and we get busy living it instead of memorializing it.

Some stories are worth memorializing.

A few nights ago our door bell rings. I am down in the other end of the house and so I leave it someone else to answer the door, which if you have ever rung our doorbell or called our house phone you would know that this is not a fail-proof method. But, this particular evening the door was answered.

A few minutes later I am walking down the hall and realize that Hal is standing at the door speaking with our home teacher. I invite myself to the door and say hello. Hal turns to me and explains that we have a NEW home teacher and this is him. I say, “Oh...um…no, this IS our home teacher! He has been our home teacher for a while.” Of course our young, eager home teacher is nodding vehemently that he is indeed our home teacher and he has been so for a while. Then my adorable, well-intentioned husband says, “Oh, I must not have been home when you visited.” Our home teacher, bless his heart, says “No, you were here!” (which is true). Of course we invited him in…but he couldn’t stay. We invited him to come back another day and really visit us…but he declined.

After a few bumbling minutes of Hal trying to figure out why he doesn’t remember this particular neighbor as our home teacher we awkwardly close the door holding the red box of store-bought valentine cookies and I begin to snicker. Of course Hal is very embarrassed that he doesn’t remember. But in his defense, this home teacher has been our home teacher for quite a while but has visited us so infrequently that it might seem like we have a new home teacher. And if we were being honest we are just glad that anyone would even claim us.

The punchline, however, is that taped to the store-bought cookies is not the home teaching message for February, but rather the VISITING teaching message!

We hope you had a very Happy Valentine’s Day! We spent the actual day lounging on the beach of the Sea of Cortez! It was wonderful. It was a short but sweet trip that did wonders for my soul. For some reason I am able to relax ten-fold in Mexico. Maybe it is because there is not cell phone service! Or perhaps it is the guacamole. Who knows?!?

Oh, and the carpets are clean again! This time it has been almost a week!