I'm Too Cute To Be Up To Anything...

This is Xena pretending she's not trying to muscle in on my breakfast. I guess she thinks that if she's cute I won't notice her inching closer and closer to my plate!

Golden West! It Beats the Rest!

You remember when I told you about Youngest Son and his friend winning 1st in state in their DECA competition, right? They left at 4:00 this morning for Anaheim and the national competition, where they will be until Sunday. He is so excited! Their project is a marketing model for Golden West Credit Union, whose headquarters are in Ogden. DH's boss has a lot of business connections with Golden West, so he called and set up an appointment yesterday for the boys to meet the CFO and Executive VP. They presented their project and to their shock, Golden West gave both of them $250.00 and offered them summer jobs! After their meeting, the boys came back to the house to finish up their project plans for California. They were so happy and funny- singing the Golden West jingle ( "Golden West, It beats the rest!") and rejoicing in their good fortune!

Here they are with the Golden West execs:Prsenting their project- Who else thinks they look like missionaries teaching with a flip-chart?

Temple Tulips

I took my camera along to Stake Conference yesterday. The Ogden Tabernacle, where our meeting was, shares the grounds with the Ogden Temple, and the blooms there were beautiful! Lots of bright sun, so the colors are pretty vivid!.

You Are Really Cute, But What Did You Do With My Daughter?

Props to my Only Daughter who got all brave on me and cut her hair! I think it's really cute! It might take me a few days to get used to, but I'm a grown up now, so I can handle it. She's had short hair before, you know. She used to look like this:Then her hair grew and it was so fun to curl:
Then in about 6th grade we cut it all off again, but that didn't last too long:She looks all cute and trendy now! :)

Conversation at Work

Clever 5th grade boy: "Please take a picture that will show my inner beauty."

Me: "I'll see what I can do."

Gotcha!

I have a crazy boss. He is lots of fun to be around, and he always livens things up when he drops in at whatever school we're working at that day. Yesterday he left this present for me in the van:I'm thinking, "Hey! I must be a pretty great employee! I get a present!" When I opened it, I found his 20 year old Bell Photographers softball shirt. I had admired it one day when DH and I had dropped by the church where my boss was cleaning the gutters. It's a men's XXXL tshirt with paint splotches. I'll have to watch what I say around him, I guess. At least he washed it before he wrapped it!

Smoothie King

Youngest Son is a member of the FFA. That would be the Future Farmers of America. He doesn't raise pigs or grow beets (reference The Office!), but he is taking the AP Nursery and Landscape Design course at Weber High and had to join. Today they sold strawberries for $4.00 a flat. That's a pretty good price, huh? He made smoothies with some and we froze the rest. He says that when he goes to USU this fall, he will need a blender to make smoothies. I say he takes my circa 1982 harvest gold blender and I buy a new one!

Post Horse Show Wrap-Up

I love to go to horse shows and I love to come home from horse shows! They are fun, but exhausting with lots of teenage girl drama. Kind of like girls camp. with horses. The weather could have been better since is was snowy and windy the first 2 days and we almost froze! This year's first horse show was lots of fun, but then it's always fun when your daughter and her horse do well, right? Rocko was a very good boy. Our trainer rode him in the Pre-Green division- that's usually a trainer's class where the jumps are 3 feet high- and he was Reserve Champion with the 2nd highest points overall. :) Only Daughter rode Rocko in the Modified Class that is open to all riders with the jumps set at 2' 9". After a tense warm up round, they came back to get a 3rd, 5th and 2 6th place ribbons. OD also rode him in 2 flat classes on Thursday. In a flat class, all of the horses in that division come into the ring and walk, trot and canter at the judges command. It was good for OD and Rocko to get some mileage in the show ring together and I am very proud of both of them! I warmed Rocko up on Friday morning and he took good care of me. I tried out my camera's new external flash and, while not perfect, those indoor pictures are so much better than before!! :)

OD and Rocko doing their thing: Apparently Rocko thinks the jumps are really 4 feet high. Lots of wasted energy there, buddy!
Some of our Saltaire Farm friends: We always sit in the same place where I am expected to bring my "treat bucket" of munchies and my saddle pad quilt. Back in the day I made saddle pads with fabric that the girls provided and they love to find their fabrics on the quilt.OD getting a reluctant Rocko ready for another class: Rocko is really tall and OD is really short! :)C'mon, little girl, get on your big pony!
OD and her long-time friend, Kaitlyn, who is the only other girl at the barn who doesn't ride on Sundays.

A Horse Show- Finally!!

Today is the start of the first horse show of the season and I am so excited!! It's payback time for all of those exhausting work days. Depending on my energy level, I might not be checking in until Sunday, but here is a horse scrapbook page to get you in the mood too.

Family Night Frisbee

Youngest Son has decided to join the inter mural Ultimate Frisbee Club when he goes to Utah State this Fall. He didn't have school yesterday, so in between jobs he practiced his Frisbee skills. After dinner we all went outside for a bit of Frisbee fun. I wouldn't say we were great at it, and the Frisbee landed on the pool cover a lot, but we had fun!

Post-Easter Wrap Up

Well, another Easter has come and gone! We pretty much ran around a lot yesterday- church, Meadows Meal, then Edna's. It was all good fun, but I was pretty much worn out by the end of the day. We had a pleasant surprise- Oldest Son shown up to do his taxes and it was fun to see him!

Youngest Son found his basket in the downstairs dryer:
I made these cupcakes for the Meadows Meal, and the Blueberry Tart for Edna's:
Then DH made Xena dance. She's not happy about this.

Happy Easter!

It's a beautiful, sunny Easter morning! Enjoy your day! Here are a few egg-coloring pictures from last night:

I Figured It Out...With A Little Help!

Finally I can seam two separate pages together to show a 2 page layout. Thanks to my sis and her friend for helping with the software, and my SIL for showing me how to make this big file a bit smaller!! So, for a special Easter treat, here are some Halloween pages!

A Few More Recipes

It's funny...when I'm not working, I get to do more fun things! Like try new recipes like these:

Chicken Wild Rice Chowder- 6 servings

1/2 c. sliced fresh carrot
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped celery
2 Tbs. butter
3 Tbs. flour
3 1/2 c. chicken broth
2 c. cubed cooked chicken
1 (11oz.) pkg. Chicken Rice-A-Roni, prepared.
1 c. half and half
1/8 tsp. pepper

In a large saucepan, saute the carrots, onions and celery in butter until tender. Stir in flour until blended; gradually add broth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in the chicken, rice, cream and pepper.

Cheese Biscuits
1 tube crescent rounds (8)
1/4 c. Italian salad dressing
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese
1/2 c. shredded Mozzarella cheese

Separate rolls; dip the top of each roll in salad dressing, the in Parmesan cheese. Place cheese side up on an ungreased baking sheet; sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese. Bake at 400 for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Early Birds

The birds are back in record numbers in my backyard. Even the Magpies. Darn Magpies. Sometimes I count more than 30 birds of 4 or 5 different kinds in my trees. Here's a robin:The daffodils are up at the temple, too.
Now, if the snow would stop, I'd be happy.

Italian Meat and Potatoes- Yum!

This recipe might seem a little odd, but it's really good comfort food!

Italian Meat and Potatoes- 10 to 12 servings
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. sausage
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. salt
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) cheddar cheese soup, undiluted
1 1/4 c. milk
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. sugar
6 med. potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

In a large skillet, cook the beef, sausage, onion, pepper and salt over med heat till no longer pink. Drain. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the soup, milk, tomato sauce, garlic powder, oregano and sugar till smooth. Spoon half of the meat mixture into a greased 9x13 pan. Layer with half of the potatoes. Repeat layers. Top with soup mixture. Cover and bake at 350 for 1 1/4 hours or until potatoes are tender. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese. Bake 15 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

March Madness Winner!

Each year our family competes against each other, trying to pick the winner of the NCAA tournament. In years past, everyone paid one dollar to participate. Then Pres. Hinkley said, "No gambling!", so now we just do it for fun, and for random prizes. The menfolk usually spend a lot of time researching their teams and spend some serious internet time on the sports sites before making their picks after each round. This year I came in dead last. My SIL won a bottle of sparkling cider, some bubbles and 2 golf magazines.

Sunday Conference

We were lucky enough to get tickets to the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference, and we invited my mom to come along. It was my first time to be at a live conference session and it was pretty awesome! I love Pres. Monson- after the session was over, he waved to all directions in the Conference Center and everyone waved back. Outside, the demonstrators were wild with crazy signs and pictures. There were missionaries there from the MTC who gathered and sang "Called To Serve" like a fight song back at the demonstrators. Couldn't help but think that YS will be one of those missionaries soon... I took a few pictures:

DH and I with Mom:
The massive Mormon throng on Temple Square:Youngest Son and DH:The Conference Center:And one inside before things got started: