Can 448 people be wrong?

I Googled "book club treats" trying to find something yummy for tomorrow (I'm hosting The Hunger Games discussion--should be fun!) and found this little gem. Click on the picture for the link. I don't think you can go wrong with 5 ingredients or less, but I'll tell you tomorrow if it turned out to be a winner or not. :)

Piano piece

Rhiannon has been taking piano lessons for a month and a half. She enjoys it! (and she's doing a great job practicing regularly, too). Her teacher plays a lot of duets with Rhiannon, which makes learning her part lots of fun. Another bonus is the big basket of "goodies" Rhiannon gets to sift through when she reaches her practicing goal. Can you guess what her favorite "prize" is? Whole packs of gum! :) Tomorrow she'll have her first group lesson--I'm curious to hear how that goes.

The piece she likes to play most is a little ditty we like to call "I Love Mommy, She Loves Me." Enjoy!

Yankee pride

Last night was Wade's first t-ball practice of the season. All 11 boys showed up, including lots of parents, both on the sidelines and on the field to help. And it was COLD outside, not East Coast or Utah cold, but Ridgecrest "windy cold," if that makes sense. I was impressed by how well the boys paid attention AND how well most of them already knew how to play. Some of them were hitting off the tee like Babe Ruth. Speaking of Babe, Wade's team this year will be the Yankees.

I'm not a New York Yankees fan at heart. Personally I'm not impressed lately by ball players' personal lives, steroid use, etc. (A-Rod, Jeter..) But I know I need to rally some support so I tried to remember some cool Yankees from the past. After looking at this list, I feel better:

Click here: Retired Yankees List




Should be a very fun, busy season, with some 24 games and practices! We'll keep you posted!

I'm a pruning m-a-c-h-i-n-e!

I spent 3 hours in the backyard today pruning, raking, and weeding--it needed it. The past two or three months I haven't done anything back there besides walk out to the trashcans, which are both nearly full now from all the debris I cleared out! Many thanks to Sandi for helping me prune the rosebushes--it was fun to hang out with her and give the plants a little TLC. My next three projects are to do the same in the front yard, cut back the grapevine, and also empty/clean-out/refill the hot tub. Spring is in the air--yay!

Jason got back from Fallon, NV safe and sound today. He goes back to DC on Monday for a week, and then the week after that he goes back to Fallon. That's 4 straight weeks of travel, folks. Not a lot of fun, for him or us, but it's part of the job, a job that provides very, very well for our family. I hope Jason knows how much we appreciate all that he does!

Besides our crazy fun Monday, the rest of the week was pretty quiet and non-eventful. I'm definitely not complaining about that, especially after the busy week before. On Monday the kids and Jason had the "day off," so we had a family day down in Lancaster/Palmdale, everything from shopping at Kohl's and Costco to enjoying a YUMMY lunch at Olive Garden. When we got home, some friends invited us to join them for some baseball--we "had a ball!" :)

Usually when Jason's out of town, I try to go to bed pretty early--it's just easier and less scary that way. :) But one night I stayed up late watching an episode of Cranford on PBS. WOW. I have to admit I tried watching it once and was pretty bored, but I must have been in the mood for it this week because it was AWESOME! I was laughing out loud one minute, and then almost tearful the next. Good times--gotta love productions like that.

Busy Valentine's week, in review

Jason is home! Hallelujah! He was able to get flights out on Friday after being stuck in DC all week. He said the few pictures he took didn't capture how much snow there was. When he could finally get out of the hotel and drive around a little, there were huge, tall piles of it everywhere. Basically it was hard to find places to PUT the snow. We're so happy he made it back safe and sound. What an adventure!

Rhiannon finished The Secret Garden this week, and she's very happy with her new desk! We continue to hear comments from Rhiannon's teachers, both school and church, about what a sweetheart she is. Love that girl!

Wade had a rhinoscopy on Tuesday, basically a scope of his nasal cavity. His nasal passages were totally clear after some medicine they'd given him for the test, but his adenoids were HUGE. Even though he was totally "clear," he still couldn't breathe through his nose because the adenoids blocked about 95% of the passageway. Wow. Probably not a surprise to family members who've dealt with adenoids before, but it was a big surprise to me. Wade will continue getting allergy shots, and the next step will be visiting doctor(s) to see what they recommend for the adenoids. The allergist highly recommended a doctor down at Loma Linda, our old stomping grounds. So we may be traveling a bit, too. One of the downsides of living in Ridgecrest, but we will do whatever it takes!

I did a little bit of everything this week. Watched a 2-year-old and an infant (who were REALLY good), baked and decorated several dozen sugar cookies, took the kids to The Lightning Thief (which we all enjoyed, even though it was WAY different from the book), did various things for Primary, and counted down the days til Jason got home. I can't wait to take a road trip down to Lancaster on Monday, too.

Hurray for 4-day weekends!!!

Valentine's fun

Pictures of the kids at last weekend's really awesome Stake Primary activity and our goofy Valentine's hearts photo shoot. :)

Stuck

The last time Jason got stuck on the East Coast was on The September 11th. This time he's stuck because of more "Snowmageddon." He fought to get back there all day Monday, and then once he got there another huge snowstorm hit. Of course his meetings got cancelled, too, so he's left sitting in his hotel trying to stay occupied until Friday afternoon, the earliest he could get a flight scheduled. Poor guy! We just want him home, safe and sound. Here are pics he took and posted on Facebook...

View from his hotel room before the snowstorm. Crystal City had just dug out of 30 inches from the storm that had hit the previous weekend. And then here are some "after" pics. Apparently they don't give you a good idea of just how much snow is out there...

Fan mail

Lately I've been reading this fun series of books by Heather Frederick called The Mother Daughter Book Club. I sent an email to the author and got a delightful message back. Enjoy!

Here's my "letter," followed by her response:

I have really enjoyed your Mother-Daughter Book Club books so far and look forward to sharing them with my 9-year-old daughter, who also loves to read. She's got her hands full with a lengthy Battle of the Books list for school that she's trying to get through by March, so it may be a little while before she discovers yours.

A few weeks back I sat down to breakfast with my kids and told them how I had laughed out loud when I read about Cassidy getting kissed by Zach Norton. They thought it was pretty funny, too. My 6-year-old son sometimes randomly blurts out "I hate Zach Norton!" and then giggles. :)

A few weeks ago I read Dear Pen Pal and loved it. As soon as I finished that, I reserved Jean Webster's Daddy Long Legs online at my library. I had never heard of that book before. Well, I picked it up yesterday afternoon and finished it this morning. What a great book! I absolutely loved it! Thank you!

Your books are so much fun and a pleasure to read. They take me back to when I was "that age." Can't wait to share them with my daughter and enjoy that connection, too.

Happy regards, and happy writing/reading!
Your friend,
Verity Cushing



Dear Verity,

What a lovely email to find waiting for me! I'm thrilled that you are enjoying my books, and that you're looking forward to sharing them with your daughter. That is just music to my ears, as I'm sure you can imagine. :)

I'm also delighted to hear that you tracked down Daddy-Long-Legs. It's such a charming book, and one that deserves to be kept alive and rediscovered, I think. It sounds like you agree.

You may be interested to know that I just finished writing the fourth mother-daughter book club story. It's called Pies & Prejudice (because the book club will be reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and it will be published next September. And there will be a fifth one after that! So, plenty more adventures ahead for Emma, Jess, Cassidy, and Megan.

Thanks again for taking the time to write. It means a lot, truly.

All the best,

Heather Frederick

P.S. I love your name! Might have to borrow it for a character one of these days...


What an awesome way to start my Wednesday! :) You can learn about Heather Frederick's books here: http://www.heathervogelfrederick.com/index.htm

Happy Reading!

February: Week 1 Review

We're happy to report that the kids are feeling MUCH BETTER...finally! This viral "cold" has swept through the town. Wade stayed home from school Monday and Tuesday. Taking him to the doctor on Tuesday had a pay-off, though: a little bottle of liquid gold cough syrup, the kind that will probably last for years because you can only take very small amounts of it at a time. I gave Wade 1/2 a teaspoon of it, and he slept the whole night long. It's what he needed, though, because he'd been getting next to ZERO sleep the nights previous because of his coughing. I am so thankful for modern medicine!

Wednesday was Mommy's recuperating day--I wasn't sick, just exhausted. Thursday we went to our ward's Pinewood Derby, which was packed and a lot of fun. Today Jason and I enjoyed a lunch date and ran errands around town. Tomorrow the kids have a Valentine's activity at the stake center, Wade's friend comes over to play, and Jason and I get another date in. Sunday, is, well, usual Sunday stuff. And then on Monday Jason will fly to DC for 4 days. He may have a LOT of travel the next few weeks... We're all looking forward to a healthier weekend and more Valentine's celebrations! :)

I just can't get enough...

These may not be exciting pictures to our blog visitors, but they sure make me happy! Jason did a lot of work putting flooring and baseboards in the new storage room. Today we started filling it up. I love it!!! The best part is that there is still LOTS of room to spare. :)

When Wade gets the camera

Random pics taken by Wade earlier in the week. My favorite is the self-portrait he took called, "This is me, sick!"