Betcha didn't know . . . . .

Wanna hear something profound? Tonight, our sweet little Himbeere shared this little gem of wisdom with us "You can't call 'em 'pits' until they got hair in 'em." Now there's a thought to ponder as you drift off to sleep!

Goodies, Goodies Galore!!!

I always hear the ladies work and church, when Christmas time comes around, talk about how busy they are because they have to get their holiday baking done. Wow. We don’t normally go all out with baking but this year we certainly did more than normal. The first bunch of cookies we did were kind of an experiment. The picture in the cookbook looked all cute and pretty. Ours didn’t quite turn out as nice. But they were still pretty yummy. They're supposed to be cute little teddy bears.

The next bunch we did were candy cane cookies. We even flavored them with peppermint. They turned out much better.

Then the art work really began. Blaubeere and son came over with all her equipment and we made some really cool looking cookies. Yes, those are paint brushes they were using.

They had bags of frosting, sprinkles to scatter on them. They were using “Royal Frosting”, which sets up a little harder when it dries. In the end, they made some fantastic looking cookies. I took some to work for a treat day and they got all kinds of compliments, ooohs and aahhs.

The next bunch we made have a little story to go with them. See, we wanted to double the recipe so we could have a few extra. But when it came time to add the sugar we accidentally quadrupled it. What to do, what to do. So, like any sweet-loving American family, we quadrupled the rest of the ingredients. So we certainly did end up with lots of this kind.

Then there was the cookie exchange at school. Take in a plate and bring home a bucket, a real assortment of all kinds of cookies made by everyone participating in the exchange. We ended up with not just cookies but fudge as well. That was great!

The goodies weren’t limited to just cookies, tho. We got some really yummy candied apples from Nicole. And we had a bunch of candied popcorn we’d bought from the scouts during their popcorn sale at the end of November.

So with all that, along with a few goodies we brought home from the store we ended up with more than enough Christmas goodies this year.

It all reminded me of when I was a kid and my Mom would do her holiday baking. She’d end up filling a couple of 5 gallon cans, with tight lids, full of every kind of cookie you could imagine. Then the cans would sit out on the back porch, where it was nice and cold to help them last. The nice part was that she was liberal as to when we could have some. Between the tight lid and the cold porch (you could only stand to be out there so long!) they didn't go too fast. We had all we wanted, certainly more than we needed. It was great. This is how great Christmas memories are made. Cool.

99 Things

Ritsumei (Blaubeere) had this meme on her blog, it looked like fun, so I swiped it. Here goes! Things I have done are in red.
1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (trombone & baritone)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Tokyo
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (started up it but didn’t go all the way)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s Pietà (It had traveled to the World’s Fair in New York, where I saw it. Never been to Italy)
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (taken my girls out while they sold them – does that count?)
62. Gone whale watching (Seen dolphines chase along side the boat, but no whales)
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (Wrote a fiction novel once but couldn’t talk anyone into publishing it)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House (We were in town but didn’t get to this one)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury (I was summoned once but the case settled out of court)
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee (and a wasp and a hornet – ouch!)

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

We woke up to -14 this morning. All day yesterday and all night it had been snowing and blowing so there were drifts all over the place. We had shoveled out the driveway yesterday but more snow had fallen and then the wind had blown it around. Made for some really nice drift patterns in the driveway.

Church hadn’t been cancelled but was limited to just Sacrament meeting. And sparsely attended at that. Later in the day we hopped in the car (trusting it would warm up) and drove around delivering plates of cookies to our home and visiting teaching families. Fortunately the car did get nice and toasty warm so it wasn’t a bad drive. The branch boundaries are most of two counties so we ended up making a about a 40 mile round trip but it was fun. When we got home we noticed the snow had even drifted up on this little bear we have hanging out on the garage. He looked cold.

Ouch!

Then there was the time my little Himbere was walking from the car into the garage as the door was still opening, but looking back at the car so he didn't notice that the door hadn't quite got open enough for him to walk in . . . . . . . .

A Season Ended

You know what terrible thing happened to me the other day? Actually this goes back farther than just the other day. Some time ago I stopped at the cheap hamburger place here in town only to learn that they no longer sold jalapeño poppers. Ruined my day, to say nothing of my lunch. I haven’t bought anything there since then (that’s not entirely true). So I had to look around for another place to get them. Then I discovered Arby’s. Life was good again. But then, just the other day, I stopped there for jalapeño poppers and they told me they no longer carry them! I couldn’t believe it! They said they were a seasonal item and their home office had told them the season was over and it was time to carry something else. Ruined my whole day, to say nothing of my lunch. Now I have no where to turn.

It's the Most Favorite Time of the Year

I really like this time of the year. The Fall is probably my favorite, if I were to have one. Around here the leaves get really beautiful. That's a real nice thing about living here; all four seasons are distinct and definite. The weather begins to cool off, no more hot, dog-days of summer. The leaves begin to turn. It comes on gradual, with the color building until it reaches peak in early October or so. This picture was taken out a north-facing window where I work. Nice shot north, out across the trees. Makes it look like forest wilderness as far as the eye can see but there's houses and farms scattered all throughout the trees.
Sometimes you'll be walking along, engrossed in the myriad of things running thru your mind, pressing on you that need to get done, and suddenly the beauty of the place will intrude on your senses so that it can't be ignored. Those, I think, are among the tender mercies of the Lord Elder Bednar spoke of a couple of years back. If the Lord felt to take us far from family to live, He was gracious enough to put us in a really beautiful place. There have been a lot of real nice things happen while we've been here. So the other day I looked out the front window as evening was coming on and saw the sun setting thru the tree by our drive-way. A simple sight, but the long, evening light thru the tree as its leaves were well on their way turning from green to yellow, struck me as quite marvelous.

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Since before we moved, way back 14 years ago, and now back, our community has regulated the celebration of Halloween to the weekend. At first they would put it on either Saturday or Sunday, depending on which day the real holiday was closest to. Then they began putting it on Sunday every year. Well we've always felt that the celebration of Halloween was not really a sabbath appropriate activity so all those years we had to tell the kids we weren't doing Halloween and find some other way to enjoy the season while still keeping the sabbath. So we were particularly pleased this year when our community decided to just celebrate it on the actual day of Halloween. How refreshing. So each of the kids decided what thy wanted to be and set about making themselves a costume. Now this on - he seems like he may have been confused about exactly which holiday was being celebrated.

They actually did quite well. We didn't have to spend hardly anything on costumes. They mostly put together costumes from what we already had. This young lady did rather well, I thought.

Our youngest and his friend got away without being photographed. He can be a toad that way sometimes. But his outfit was equally cute and imaginative. So here's the whole crew (almost), all decked out and ready to go.

More Wedding Prep

Today's big project (at least for me) was to get some significant work done on the decorations for the open house coming up in just four short weeks. It was the best day we've had for a couple of weeks for painting. Unfortunately, we didn't get so far along as to get any painting done today. But Maulbeere was a great helper and did a fantastic job at getting the backdrop ready. This is the back drop that is planned for behind the cake and some other stuff that will be nearby. So we set up shop in the garage and used the trailer as our "work bench" and went to work.

We had these 4'x8' pieces of lattice wood that we wanted to put some edging on to make them a little stronger. So we laid the lattice across the trailer and fastened some wood strips around the edge of the stuff. Some we didn't have to cut.














Some we did have to cut. An old friend who was a really good carpenter told me once, "measure twice, cut once."














So we thought we'd give it a try. Maulbeere did really good - she only had to recut once. Pretty good for her first time with a skill saw.



















We got quite a bit done but not as much as we'd hoped. And when we got all three pieces trimmed we decided we needed to do more to make them a little more sturdy. So we had to go get more wood, along with the paint, and will work on it again during the coming week. But it was a good time, nonetheless.

A Berry Good Time!

A couple of weeks ago some friends asked us if we could feed and water their dogs over a weekend while they were out of town. To sweeten the deal they offered to let us have a picking at their raspberry patch. That was sweet! So we went over and gave it our best. We didn’t get over there as early as we would have liked to so it was getting dark fast as we picked. But we still managed to give the patch a good going over. Mom was the best darn picker of the bunch. Maulbeere (and in all honestly, others) picked but kept missing the bucket. But we still managed to get quite a few home. So they went in the freezer. Yum Yum!

Nesting?

So there's this little boy that lives at our house - soft brown hair, cute little brown eyes, and a nesting instinct like you've never seen. Try as we might to encourage him to keep his “nest” clean, neat and orderly (like any parent would prefer) he nests. So in the morning to get to his bed to wake him up I have to dig a path thru the nesting material. One day he got stuck in his nest and needed help getting unstuck. But man, he has cute dimples that show best when he’s laughing. And since they were showing the whole time he was stuck and getting unstuck its hard to be really unhappy with him. Light brown hair, dimples and soft, brown eyes. What you gonna do?

A Change is as Good as a Rest

This was an interesting day at church. I didn’t have to teach a lesson for sunday school. I actually got to sit next to my wife and listen to a good lesson. That was interesting, too. I extended the call to the new sunday school teacher. It reminded me of a call I extended to someone years ago, to be primary president. She was awe-struck. Almost overwhelmed. But she did just fine. She (the sunday school teacher) mentioned today how she’d agonized over it all week. She was a young married and this was basically her second call as an adult. She’d been primary secretary for over four years and had always thought there’d be some other calls between that one and teaching Gospel Doctrine. Some kind of progression. She thought it was a big jump. But she did just fine; I thought she did really well. It was nice to be able to listen from the congregation and hold hands with my wife. That was nice.

Oh, What a Day!

August 30th was the day of the big bridal shower so what's a guy to do!? Go golfing, of course! So we did.

So with the guys out of the way the ladies were able to get down to the serious partying. It was a good time for the guys to be gone. Some 30 ladies packed into the family room. Nobody got a picture of the whole crowd, that I'm aware of. I'm not sure that kind of crowd could be photographically reproduced adequately. There were ladies there from the Adams Ward, the Stevens Point Branch and friends of the bride from high school. And, of course, the bride herself.

We had borrowed 20 chairs from the church and those and everything we owned that you could sit on were occupied. But they had a good time. Lots of games, lots of talk, good food; all the stuff that ladies like in a bridal shower. We marked our house with balloons on the mailbox out front. Note the festive bouquet.

Now look on the right side of the road and find the balloons. All these cars were people here for the shower. Filling our double wide driveway three cars deep and parked in front of the houses two doors in both directions from our place. On the west end, at the corner, they were two cars deep.

"And behold, I was about to post other pictures from that weekend but lo, I am forbidden that I post them not. Therefore I post them not, for they are hidden from the world." At least until after the wedding.

The Summer's Last Adventure

Its summer time and the living is easy. Yeah, that's how it goes. Apparently the summer didn't hold enough camping for the boys so they've been camping in the back yard. Pitching tents, sleeping out. Not every night; their mean old dad makes them move the tent every couple of nights to give the lawn a break. So the first couple of nights it was a village.

Aug 17, 2008

The next time they got kind of a late start and were putting up the tents in the dark. Fortunately we have a couple of lights that light up the back yard pretty well.

Aug 20, 2008

While the tent was right off the porch we had a couple of warm, humid days and the lawn got a little steamed by the time they moved the tents. This time the went for the back corner of the yard.

Aug 28, 2008

Kinda like a bear crawling out of hibernation, uh? But each night they've been real good about getting up when we called them for family prayers in the morning. And they're having lots of fun. Can't blame them for wanting to sleep out; school starts right after Labor Day. Will they get to sleep out after then? Who knows. Seminary starts awful early. We'll see how it goes.

Getting Ready

Now, me - I had never heard of Gerber Daisies before my daughter decided she wanted that flower for her wedding. So this is new to me. So to help everyone become familiar with this kind of flower we got some the other day and put them on the kitchen table. They're not exactly the same color that the ones at the wedding will be but they're close enough to do the job. And they actually look pretty nice. And they have staying power, too. This picture was after we'd had them a couple of days. Still looking pretty good. So there they are, making me think of my daughter. Now that's the best part.

Scout Camp: the next installment

Well, the boys are off to scout camp this morning. After all the agonizing over what they need that they don't have (this in spite of being asked numerous times during the preceding week) that they remembered as its time to get in the car and drive to the drop-off point. All the things they chose not to take because it wasn't cool or they couldn't possibly see a need for it (like the rain poncho they almost left behind - yes, rain is predicted for a couple of the days they'll be at camp). And so far we've found that Himbeere forgot to grab his fishing pole on his way out the door.

But finally we got them and their stuff in the car and off to the drop-off point. Then everyone else (they all came in the same car) was half an hour late and all the while we waited it was "we missed them" or "they're not coming" or "we got the time wrong". Yea, so anyway, the rest of the group finally did arrive so they could load up.

At the parking lot they had to load a bunch of troop gear in, too. But it went good because everyone helped load up. So we got the boys' medical forms, permission slips and all the other stuff to the scout master and finally they were about ready.

Putting in a couple of tents and stuff.

Then a picture and a prayer and they were ready to pull out. So they have a 2 1/2 hour ride ahead of them up to the camp and then nothing but fun for the next week, right? Riiiiiiiiiight. Bugs, dirt, campfire soot & ash all over, animal proofing camp sites, sunburn, feeding the raccoons, and all the things that make camping so much fun. Remember them in your prayers.

Getting the Scouts to Camp

Our scout troops is going to camp in a couple of weeks and has been having fundraisers to help pay for it. Today was a brat fry at one of the local grocery stores. Our boys went and helped out pretty good. Here's Schwarzebeere , checking out the goings on at the grill.

Himbeere was there helping out, too. They have to attend these fund raisers to be able to use a share of the money raised. This was the second our boys have attended this summer.

Schwarzebeere likes working inside the booth, which is fine. During the lunch rush it can get pretty busy there but he does a good job keeping up.

One of the things they both like is that the troop lets them each have a free brat for helping. Have to feed them lunch anyway since they're usually there from around 9:00 until 1:00 or 2:00. And they're welcome to buy themselves more if they want.

A fun time for a good cause. They're both looking forward to going to camp.

Little Things that Creep Around

The other day my daughter and I were out stolling around the back yard and came across this little fellow fixing his dinner in the little corner of the back of the house and the deck. Got to get it all seasoned with this juices so it can age properly before he eats. Looked to me like the little guy had everything under control. Is it soup yet?

The Process of Discovery

We moved into this house last October, at the end of the summer. Into the fall, actually. While the yard looked pretty nice we really only saw it from the front. In August we walked thru the house for the first time, and that included a peek at the back yard. But by that time all the landscaping was shutting down for the fall and winter. Nothing was blooming or in flower any more. So we could see that there was plenty of greenery around but we had no real idea of what it all was at that point. So this spring and summer has been interesting as all the stuff in the yard has come in bloom and we’ve been able to see what everything is. Does that mean we recognize and can name everything? Nope. But here’s some of the things that have bloomed around the yard this year.

This is out front, right at the street. Our yard has a little ditch all across the front of the yard that runs a foot or so from the street. Every few yards,down in the bottom of this shallow ditch, there was a clump of something growing but last fall we couldn't tell what any of them were. This is one of them. We will probalby move them all to somewhere else in the yard.



This is growing along the back of the house. Pretty when it blooms but the flowers don’t stay and then its just low greenery. Not bad but not something I wouldn’t have put in. We had these at the old house, too.



This is the one we’ve been watching with the most interest. We figured they were some kind of day lily all spring. The big question was what color. We had lots of orange lilies around the old house. These are a pretty bright yellow. Kind of nice. They also don’t stay in flower very long but they’re sure pretty while they are.



We weren’t sure until they actually bloomed, but we had suspected these were irises. Lots of different kinds of irises around. My Mom & Dad’s yard had lots and lots of irises, too. They bloom a little early so they were part of what we always took to the cemeteries for Memorial Day. These are a little small. They were in a planter in the back yard, up fairly close to the house but we moved them to the back corner of the yard. They can go hog wild back there, if they want to. We wanted the space for other stuff.



Interesting, huh! I like flowers. I suspect this yard was professional landscaped. Its a nice yard. Know what else I like about this yard? Automatic sprinklers.

All on a Saturday afternoon

Saturday my son asked if I would help him work on his bike. What he really meant was “Dad, would you fix my bike?” So we worked on it for a while. We had bought a new innertube that he wanted put in. His old one had a slow leak and he was irritated that he had to keep pumping up his tire every couple of days. Well, I was mean and made him go thru the effort of checking his old tube for leaks. And what was worse, I made him do the majority of the work. So he turned his bike over, took off the rear tire, pulled out the tube and got the bucket of water. We have a little tool for taking tires off the rim but we couldn’t find it so I helped him do it with a screw driver. Have to be extra careful not to damage the tube when you do that. He pumped the tube up so we could run it thru the water but he didn’t get enough air in it so I put some more in. He got pretty excited because he was afraid the tube would burst. But we didn’t put that much in it. Still, we never found a leak. But he was insistent so we changed the tube anyway. This is where it got frustrating. We put the tire back on and he rode it around but it only took half an hour or so before it was going flat again. He made a big fuss and wanted to do something so I asked him what he wanted to do. “Put the old tube back in.” So we did. But not before checking the new tube for leaks. I was amazed that we were unable to find any leaks in it but I had seen it going flat. So we put the old tube back in. By that time his brother had joined us so we now had a “peanut gallery”. So we got the old tube back in and his bike all put back together. Then I was mean again and made him gather up the tools and put them away. He was actually pretty good about the whole episode. And in the end he was happy because the old tube held the air the rest of the day. I should ask him today if its still holding the air. Then again, maybe I won’t.

His fickleness (is that a word?!) reminded me of when he was younger - old enough to want his shoes tied but not old enough to do it himself. He would ask to have his shoes tied but it had to be just so. I can remember retying his shoes three and four times until I got it done to his satisfaction. Took me a little while but I finally learned that what he was looking for what having them tied tight. If they weren't tight enough he'd want you to do it over.