I still have memories of my elementary school choir and band concerts at Christmas time and at the end of the school year. Of course I thought that the choir (which I sang in) sounded fantastic, but felt sorry for my parents for having to sit through the squeaky band performance. Well, now I am the parent sitting through the band concert, and they still sound a little squeaky, but I couldn't have been happier to be there listening.
May 24, 2012
Mango Black Bean Salad
Summer for me is all about yummy salads. This is a great one from Cooking Light.
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 - 15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 and 1/2 cups diced mango (I use Trader Joe's frozen mango when mango is out of season)
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp. salsa
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 green onions, sliced
3 Tbsp. chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
Stir all ingredients together and serve. Yum!
May 20, 2012
Lisa and Me
Lisa and I have known each other since 1984 when we were 13. We were in the same ward and lived in the same neighborhood, but the school district boundaries went through our neighborhood, so I went to a different junior high and high school in a whole different school district than Lisa. So we were friends on a church level, but not really more than that. We did go to EFY together as roommates when we were 14, but that was about the extent of any outside of church interactions. Then at BYU we were in the same dorm (Deseret Towers (DT), S-Hall, me on the 4th floor, she on the 5th). We were in the same ward (two girls floors and two boys floors made up a ward). We became real friends that year, hanging out with a great group of kids and going on some fun group dates. After our freshman year, we became roommates for the next 2+ years until I got married. We've never lived near each other again, but our friendship has remained strong through the years.
Dinner at the Little Pasta Inn for my 19th birthday in 1990.
Hiking in Provo Canyon.
Freshman year - 1989-90. Lisa and I were going on a date with the Beazer twins from our ward. We decided to surprise them and dress like twins ourselves. Oh, those cute things you do in college!
Sophomore year - 1990-91. Lisa and I would make a no-bake cheesecake for the guys we were friends with who went into the Mission Training Center (MTC) which was (and still is) located just up 9th East from everywhere we lived together. We'd go take them to the MTC for immediate delivery. (Lisa, do you still have that recipe?)
Junior year - Halloween 1991 - Lisa and I dressed as a clothes line for our ward Halloween party.
And the Polyester Prom later our Junior year.
That was then...
This is now...
So gratefull for this amazing friend! Love you, Lis!
May 18, 2012
a girls' getaway
The last weekend of every April, BYU hosts Women's Conference, two days of speakers, classes, service projects, and sharing stations. I went once, in 1998 when I was pregnant with Lauren, and haven't made it back since. Over the last few years I would hear of friends making the trip to Utah for Women's Conference and think, how did I miss it again?! So I got myself on the email distribution list and determined that this year I was going whether anyone else was or not. When I got the email about registration around the first of the year, I emailed my friend Christy, whom I knew had gone a couple years ago, and she was on board to go. She talked to Elizabeth H. about it, Elizabeth H. talked to Corinne, and we all booked our plane tickets. Then we heard that Emily, Suzi, and Rebecca were going too. And so were Melissa and Stacey, because Melissa's sister was the opening speaker on Thursday morning. At the airport we ran into Kathryn, who was meeting her mom at Conference just for the first day. It was a fabulous girl getaway.
Above, Rebecca, Kathryn and me. Below, Suzi, Christy, Elizabeth H., and Emily. We were all on the same flight to SLC.
During the first class session on Thursday, I went into one of the service rooms where I could cut and tie fleece scarves while I watched a live televised broadcast of a speaker on another part of the campus.
Christy, Elizabeth H. and I skipped the 12:30 class on Thursday to enjoy lunch at Slab Pizza. They have an ingenious concept for ordering pizza- every customer orders a slab of pizza, a quarter of a large pizza. As soon as 4 slabs are ordered, they make and bake the pizza, then deliver the quarters. So we ordered three different flavors, carmelized onion with goat cheee, Thai with peanut sauce, and BBQ chicken. They triple cut each slab, so we each got to try them all. They were all amazing!
You can't visit BYU without getting ice cream at the BYU Creamery! The caramel cashew was divine!
This next story has to be one of the highlights of my trip. It's kink of a long, confusing story, but I'm going to share it anyway. My dear friend Lisa, formerly of Boston, now of Highland, UT, picked me up on Friday evening after the conference was over so I could spend the weekend with her. Elizabeth H. and her family were heading to a Thai restaurant in Orem, and Lisa and I decided we would give it a try (Elizabeth's sister served her mission in Thailand and goes to this place almost weekly, so you know it's authentic). We walked into the restaurant and Lisa immediately recognized a girl she'd danced with on the BYU International Folk Dance Team years ago. Then we walked over to say hi to Elizabeth H. and her parents who were just finishing up. Lisa's parents and Elizabeth's parents both served as mission presidents in Nigeria at the same time, so Lisa had met them before. Then as we were just getting served our dinner, this guy came and sat at our table, and with arms on the table said, "How you doing, girls?" I just looked at him, thinking, "Does he work here and wants to know how our food is?" Seeing the bewildered look on my face, he asked, "Don't you recognize me?" at which point Lisa said, "It's Zach Aanderud!" What?!?! Let me give you some background to make this declaration more meaningful. In 1984, my family and the Aanderud family moved into the same neighborhood in Portland. We were in the same ward, along with Lisa. Ben was two years older than me, Zach was a year younger than me. They became like brothers to me. Ben drove me to seminary and school, I in turn drove Zach to seminary and school. Their home was like a second home. Our families vacationed together. I love this family! I exchange Christmas cards with Ben and am FB friends with their sister, but I can't remember the last time I saw Zach. Probably before he left on his mission which would have been in 1991 maybe? So it's been about 20 years. He's married, has 4 kids, and he and his wife are both professors at BYU. It was such a treat to see him! I certainly hope this is what Heaven will be like, bumping into all the people you have known and loved over the years.
Then, on Saturday, Lisa and I went to Salt Lake to check out the new City Creek Mall adjacent to Temple Square. While standing in Loft I heard someone say my name. I turned and looked into the face of this young woman and she said, "It's your cousin, Becky!" Of course it was my cousin Becky! But it's been three years since I last saw her, and seeing her out of context (she lives in Portland, not SLC), threw me. Becky was in town visiting her twin sisters, Stephanie and Valerie, so she went and dragged them out of H&M and we took a picture together. Another fun surprise!
Temple Square was just beautiful with all the tulips in bloom.
Saturday night, Lisa introduced me to Downton Abbey, the PBS series I'd heard so much about. We watched the first 6 episodes of Season 1 before I boarded my plane for home on Sunday evening. It was a very rejuvenating and refreshing long weekend. Even three weeks later I am still feeling renewed. I think this is going to become an annual tradition. I can hardly wait for next April!
May 14, 2012
Mother's Day 2012
"I hope that my dear sisters throughout the world - grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and friends - never underestimate the power of their influence for good." - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (attached to the See's chocolate they passed out to all the Relief Society women at church)
After getting to sleep in and shower, uninterrupted, this is what I walked downstairs to, along with a sparkling clean family room and kitchen thanks to Lauren:
After church photo session. The three littles had drawn pictures of me in Primary and when they sang in Sacrament meeting they held them up at the end. It was very sweet to see all the Primary kids beaming and waving at their moms.
After a great day at church, we enjoyed salmon, corn on the cob, green salad and cool whip-cottage cheese-jello salad for dinner. Emily and Lauren did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen (my favorite part!), and we walked up to the water tower to see the goats that have been brought in to eat the vegetation for fire-proofing purposes. (It doesn't take much to entertain us around here:) Scripture study, prayer, and Daddy put the kids to bed. It was a great day!
May 07, 2012
It's a party year!
(Get ready for a whole bunch of pictures!)
It's an "on" year for birthday parties and the first one of the year was last Thursday when we celebrated Maren's 7th birthday! It was a Barbie extravaganza! She woke up to this:
After school we braced ourselves for the arrival of 15 friends to join us for a Barbie Fashionista Birthday Party! We did hair, make-up, and nails so the girls could rock our red carpet runway.
Presents were next on the agenda. Maren was very excited to see what was in all those beautiful packages. I think Barbies would be a very good guess!
Next came cake. Maren wanted "the cake lady" (our friend, Davlyn, of Flour and Flower Designs) to make her a "tall layer cake". I told Maren it was wedding season and the cake lady was probably too busy making wedding cakes, including one for her own son, to make a birthday cake. I just didn't feel up to the task of making a cake though, so I went over to Albertson's and found a Barbie sheet cake for $34. But Emily Puckett would hear nothing of that! She insisted on making Maren a six layer rainbow cake that she decorated beautifully with light pink roses. What a gem! (Emily and the cake!)
And to wrap up our Barbie-licious birthday celebration, we went to - can you guess? - Ruby's! For the third year in a row! Each year it's been a different Ruby's location though - thank goodness we have so many so close to us;)
I'd say it was the perfect 7th birthday.
April 30, 2012
and she's off!
Emily completed the online Driver's Ed course, she's scheduled to take her permit test on Thursday, and today she is off for her first behind-the-wheel instruction, making that permit valid as soon as she gets it. Oh boy! Here we go!
April 24, 2012
the reason behind youth protection
So on our map from the hotel with all the tourist attractions in DC I noticed a Boy Scout Memorial over near the White House. Since Craig has been involved with scouts for years and I am newly involved in scouts, I thought it was a good idea to check out this memorial that was erected in honor of the 50th anniversary of Boy Scouts (which was 52 years ago, FYI). This is what we saw:
Naked man and scantily-clad woman with boy scout
HUH?!?!
I DO NOT think this is what they mean by "two deep" leadership (hee, hee!!!)
(And we'll end the tour of our nation's capitol with that!)
