Red, White, & True Blue!

Grab your hat & flag, it is Freedom Festival Time! Gramps & I officially began the Freedom celebration last night by attending the non-denominational fireside at the Marriot Center with key-note speaker Glenn Beck. All I can say is, will it be overkill when I paint my house red, white, & blue? I left with greater patriotic feelings then when I arrived. We are so blessed to live in our free country & if I understood Glenn's talk we all need to wake up & remember what is "good" about America. Let's not let ourselves get mired in the problems our nation is facing. "We the people" are creative & hard-working with the ability to solve the crisis we face, whether it be financial, defense, or those outrageous high pump prices. In his talk he listed many of the inventions that have come from USA. The crowd was exploding with applause as we remembered how great we have been & continue to be.  A small, yet very impressive band played all the favorites; Battle Hymn, This Land is Your Land, God Bless America, etc. Michael Ballum played the piano, sang, & told patriotic stories. One of my favorite parts was as the band played each military song, those in the audience that served in each respective branch stood for recognition. Gramps stood for himself & James during the Air Force song. We mentioned Rob & Austin during the Army tune & I thought of Grandpa Farrimond during Anchors Away as he was a Navy man. We have a rich heritage within our small family circle of brave men willing to defend our nation. I truly am proud to be an American. We look forward to the parade & stadium of fire on Friday. Unless plans have changed Austin will be participating in the flag ceremony. It is always an honor to salute the flag, but I get emotional when I see one of my boys in uniform at such events. Thank you James, Austin, & Rob for your sacrifice in behalf of our family & nation. (Picture 1: Glenn Beck @ podium 2: the fantastic band 3: gr & gr)

Windex Isn't Just For Windows

Anyone out there with  a microwave or dishwasher. I recently learned a couple of cleaning tricks for these 2 appliances that I will pass on to anyone interested in trying. I have used both tricks & plan to continue to use them, as I think they both work. Number 1: Spray a rag or dish cloth with Windex, 4 or 5 shots will do. Then place in microwave & heat for 30 seconds. The crusty food will wipe off easier. It really works. You may need to repeat if the crust is really, really bad. I started scrubbing my microwave, then remembered the trick. It was a night & day difference, it really was easier to clean.  Number 2: When your dishwasher is empty, fill both soap cups with cider vinegar. Run through a rinse cycle. Then do the same with Clorox. I also cleaned the bottom of the door, as it catches & builds a lot of crud. Do this treatment once a month to maintain a clean dishwasher. I  had trouble with glass looking cloudy, but this has cleared it up. I am at the end of the month & I am still smooth sailing. This is the 1st month I have cleaned my dishwasher, but plan to keep it clean this way. Good luck, I hope this makes your chores a little easier.

Last Blog, I Am Caught Up

If you are looking for a reason to love Sunday, I've got a good one for you.  No exercise, it's the Sabbath! This past week I have gone on a long uphill bike ride every day this week except Monday. It feels sooooo good not to ride today! Thank goodness we get Sunday every 7 days. I love Sunday!

Happy Birthday Aunt Julie

Better late, than never is my motto. Julie & I have been trying to celebrate her birthday since February. With both of us in school, work, & moving it has taken 4 months to finally party. I treated her to a night of scrapbooking at Archivers, a local scrapbooking store. It was so fun, it has been too long since I have done any scrapbooking. I enjoyed the activity & the company. Although I didn't finish any pages there, I have about 8 pages designed & ready to finish at home with my embellishments & sewing machine close at hand. Included in the evening was dinner, a 12 x 12 page kit, a make & take, & door prizes! As most know door prizes are my favorite element of any party. So here is an open invitation to all the scrapbookers out there, the next time you are in Utah let's get together for an evening of scrapbooking at Archiver's.

Can You Teach An Old Dog New Tricks?

Jennifer has a pressure cooker. On the day Tess was baptized Jen was cooking chicken in a crock pot for the luncheon afterwards. After several hours Jen checked the meat & it wasn't ready. Pressure cooker to the rescue, the meat took minutes & was tender & tasty. Jamie was impressed & resurrected her decades old pressure cooker from the back of the cupboard & again uses is regularly. Not to be left in the dust I shopped online, found one that looked like I would like it, hinted I wanted it, & received a $10 used one from a thrift store via Aunt Jamie. Thank you again Aunt Jamie. I am so glad she found it for me. She even sent the replacement ring & valve. After reading the instructions, I installed both parts, then set it on the back burner, a little afraid to try this new technique of cooking, as I've heard somewhere that they can blow up if not used properly. I went to book club & found out Opal has one & uses it regularly. She got a crock pot recently & doesn't like it as it takes too long to cook food. Well, I finally decided to embark on the maiden voyage. I put water, chicken, rice, & seasoning in the pan, brought it to a boil, put lid securely in place, then watched & waited. Steam was building up, hissing noises were being emitted from the valve, & droplets of water were gathering under the weight. Well, about 10 minutes into the process there was a loud popping noise & rushing of steam as the new steam valve blew right out of the lid straight into oblivion. Both Gramps & I were in the kitchen at the time & needed to be resuscitated as we were in coronary distress.  . We both thought we were goners. After searching high & low I found the valve, put it in the lid the way I thought it should be instead of the way the instructions said to put it in, & tried the process again. Second time around was successful & we had chicken & rice wraps for dinner. There are a few adjustments I need to make to the recipe, but will definitely be using the pressure cooker again.

Have You Heard From Austin?

It is always fun to get real snail mail, which I received from Austin this week. I think his letter to me & my care package to him crossed in the mail. He was bored in the 1st Aid class he was in, so he wrote me a letter on small notebook paper telling me about life at Fort Lewis. He has a week & a half left, then home to Utah for a week, then finally reunited with Julianne & little baby Addy. Will she remember her daddy? I am blogging this letter for 2 reasons. Number 1: Remember your parents. They really do love to be part of your life, even after you have grown up with your own family. After being number one in your life for many years, it is an adjustment to take back seat to your child's spouse & children. So thank you to Rob for dropping in on his way through to Detroit & thanks for the note from Austin. I do have wonderful kids that call & take care of me. Thanks for Planet Earth Jen for Mother's/Father's Day. I realize this is a diversion, but a funny thing happened in regard to Planet Earth. As I was checking books out at the library my cousin Marilyn, who works there, held up the Planet Earth & asked, "Have you seen these, they are wonderful?" I was able to answer, "Yes, I have my own copy." Number 2: (if you have forgotten, as I have, I am writing why I was happy to get Austin's snail mail) I love the paper he wrote on. It looks like the paper now being used in scrapbooking to journel on really cool pages. I think I am going to use the back side of Austin's letter on some scrapbooking pages. So, to wrap this up, send your parents a cheery letter when you are away & write on cool paper & you will give double the pleasure, double the fun!  p.s. the mouse is to let you know the size of paper Austin wrote on.

Guess Who's Coming To Breakfast?

I went down to the kitchen this morning to make breakfast & the back door was ajar & a pair of Robby's flip flops were on the floor just inside the door. I called upstairs asking Gramps if he had gone outside wearing flip flops sometime in the night. As I was talking I also looked down the basements stairs. I was so surprised to find Robby on the couch! "Did you quit?" I asked, "what are you doing here?" He came up the stairs & I got a hug from him. I was so happy to see him. It feels so good to have one of my kids here. I love it. So to explain this surprise visit, his area in California has been slow all along. A manager called to see if anyone was willing to change states. Robby countered with them if they would pay him some gas money & raise him to experienced, which gives him more per install, he would move. Well, Utah was a little out of his way as he is on his way to Detroit, Michigan. It will be good for him there with the raise & more work too. We only get him for about 24 hours, which isn't a lot of time, but we are glad for what we can get. Gramps and I are discussing which jobs he can help us with which will be of most benefit to us before he is on his way again. We've got to make hay while the sun shines.