I'm late, I'm late for a very important.... something

So I have always been the person that puts up their Christmas lights to turn on on Thanksgiving evening and then spends the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving decorating the trees and the rest of the house. (and yes that says trees with an "s")

But Brandi had a soccer tournament in St. George the weekend after Thanksgiving and we pretended to have a blizzard the week before Thanksgiving so the decorating didn't get done. Last week in the grocery store, a neighbor stopped me and wondered if I was ok because lights weren't on the house. Then when I got home another neighbor came over to ask the same thing. I got lights on the trees on the porch by Sat. night and on the house by Monday night. Yesterday I also got all the snowmen in the front entry. but that is as far as I have gotten. By the time I got home from work, after running a couple errands, it was time to go to Brandi's concert and then I needed to put Matt's Christmas box together to be shipped tomorrow so he will have it in time for Christmas and now it is time for bed.

 When am I supposed to decorate? Wed? I have class. Thursday? The boys have a concert. Friday? possible Saturday- I have to proctor the ACT, Brandi has a game, clean house (yet again) do the laundry and all that other stuff.  My goal is to have it done before I go to bed on Saturday. Really. But don't hold me to it. It just may be the year of sparse decor that I always threaten.

In other news- I was at Deseret Book and the woman in front of me was purchasing Key Lime Pie by Josi Kilpack. I asked her if she was buying for herself or someone else and had she read it yet? It was for her and she had not read this one, but had read the others and was excited to read it. As the conversation went on, I mentioned that I was part of the test kitchen and that Sandra's Chocolicious Frosting from Devil's Food Cake was my creation and named after me. She was so excited that she took the book out of the clerk's hand as he was bagging it, cleared the counter, handed me a pen and asked me to sign her book. She then left the store with it held to her heart and she was beaming from ear to ear. Sweet little old ladies, gotta love em. (Sure beats being told you are fat.)

And it yet still more news- I finished my gingerbread house. all of my kids did a house and so did my grandbabies. So far those are the only entries. Not very exciting when I give my family the prizes.  Don't forget you have until Friday to get me the pictures.  And don't be afraid to use the pre-baked ones from the store.

And the final piece of news- and I am doing this news because I don't know if I will be online tomorrow where I can share this, but
Happy Birthday tomorrow to the best daughter-in-law in the world!!! I love you.

---

Indeed.

In other news

Am I the only one tired of turning on the t.v., radio, or opening the newspaper to nothing but doom and gloom? The economy is so bad we are all going to be living on the streets unless we can afford an old refridgerator box to live in. Mr. Obama walks on water. Or not, depending on who is being interviewed. We all need to run around in a panic because someone forgot to get their pig immunized.

Whatever happened to good news?

Last Saturday and awards banquet was held for LDS books released in 2008. The book I nominated did not win, but I was happy about the winners that I had read because I loved them all. Here is a picture of the winners.

You can go here to read more about this award and the books, their authors and how to nominate books for next year's awards. And even though it is not out yet, this will be my pick for best historical fiction. This year's winner in that category was my top pick when my first choice was not a finalist. She is the only author that I have read that has come close to evoking the same emotional experience when reading as David does. Deep, gut wrenching, soul touching experiences that engulf my entire being as I read. If I could choose only 1 author's works to have in my house, they would be David's works. If I could pick 2, H.B. Moore's would be my second pick to go along with them.

Our stake president has asked every home in our stake boundaries to have a garden this summer. I need to get my garden area tilled and planted. I hate my garden area and want to move it. I have been toying with the idea of tilling up most of the back yard and turning it into garden space, but mine is not the only opinion on the matter and the other opinion is saying no. Don't ask, it gets really complicated really fast. Since I don't plan on being in this house much longer and he can have it and all it's flaws, I am not going to argue. What I am doing is planting every space I can.

The other day Brandi, Ethan, Jacob and I pulled weeds. And pulled weeds. And pulled weeds. And I think I pulled something in my back, I don't think backs are supposed to hurt like this even with Ankylosing.

Last year I cleared an area in the front yard for a fairy garden. I took out the grass, fixed up the pond, Matt built me a waterfall for the pond and I made and area for the swing. Brandi and I planned what plants we wanted in there for the fairies to use for their homes and dresses and playground and what would invite them to live there. We made a path from the sidewalk to the porch and spent the winter dreaming of this summer and sitting in the swing on warm nights enjoying the flowers.

This spring about all that came up were weeds. Note to self: if you are going to use weed barrier cloth, buy the expensive heavy duty stuff, not the wimpy grey flannel stuff.

So after all the weed pulling, we planted. Again. This time we decided that we would add something besides flowers. We put flowers in, but I went to my favorite nursery and got some rhubarb and a currant bush to add. I was going to add a couple of boisenberries but they didn't have any. I'll have to order them from my other favorite nursery. (After I got home I realized that I meant to ask Noelle about crab apple trees but we were so busy talking about other stuff that it slipped my mind.) Brandi and I decided that we are going to put some melons in the fairy garden, some more berries and maybe we will even put a couple pea or bean plants in there as well. Then we can sit on the swing and snack at the same time. Brandi also wants me to get a couple of those topsy turvy things for tomatoes. Any thoughts on that? If we do that, then the small backyard space can be used for other veggies. And instead of petunias in the porch pots, I think we will fill them with strawberries.

While doing some research on the no sugar eating I ran across this


Dr. Stan Gardner's website

And speaking of no sugar, I made some caramels the other night. I used butter, Agave nectar and coconut cream. I don't particularly like coconut, but found that it lends itself well to caramels. I also found out that when the recipe says "stir constantly" it means stir constantly. I also found out that when the biggest ingredient is butter, you don't have to butter your dish to keep it from sticking. If you do you just get greasy, slippery caramels. I feel like I am having to learn how to cook all over again. At least so far everything has been edible and the kids even ask for me to make things a second time.

I think that just about uses up all my news items. Feel free to go back to your regularly scheduled gloom and doom.

---

Indeed.

And the doctor said....

No More Monkeys Jumpin' on the Bed!!!!

Photo taken from www.spectronicsinoz.com

Actually, what the dr. really said was this:

"I think that you are among the small minority that this test gives false positive results. For some reason the test we use to determine kidney disease is wrong for women in your age bracket- 40-50 yrs old. It is a formula and it just is not accurate. So, to be accurate, we need to do a couple more tests and then we will compare them and come up with a correct answer. However, because you have high blood pressure- that is a marker for this disease. You have rhematoid arthritis- that is a marker for this disease. You have ankylosing spondolitis- that is a marker for this disease. You use Enbrel- that is a marker for this disease. Your dad had a kidney disease (though it is a different one) Yep, you guessed it- a marker. So lets do this little 24 hr. collection test and then we'll talk. But I am sure it will all be negative because you have no symptoms, just reasons."

So I am still in the let's wait and see part of knowing, but I feel that it will be fine.

In other news, I had my interview this morning and I feel that it went well. There were a couple of times that the principal said, "Wow, good answer. I really like that, hadn't thought about that." so here's hoping. Then they had me write a letter to a parent as if I needed a record that the parent had not provided the school with. The registrar at the school that I am currently at told me that I put in my letter basically what is in the one she sends out. The principal told me that it would probably be towards the end of next week before he made a decision.

And that is the news. Now I am going to go put those monkeys to bed.

Some Good news and Some bad

It's been that kind of day. Yesterday I got an e-mail from Pier 1 telling me of a 50% off web only sale. I went over and checked it out. Wonder of Wonders, the plate I wanted to go in my living room was on sale, for 50%0ff!!! But the shopping cart wouldn't work properly. So I called customer service this morning. It didn't work because they are all sold out of most of the merchandise that was in the sale. Shelly at Pier 1 told me that they had people online ordering by 4:00 yesterday morning. What!! I didn't get my e-mail telling me of the sale until after noon yesterday! Ah well, I will just go into the store and pay full price for it. Bummer, but I had already budgeted the full price, I was just excited that I could have some extra decorating money.

But there was good news today as well. As I have already told you, I really really want Covenant to publish David G. Wooley's next book in his Promised Land series. Well, to that end, every once in awhile, I call or e-mail Covenant and ask about the status of the book. I do this with the impression that if I bug them enough they will do something about it. (that could be any number of things: *ideally they publish the book *they tell me to go away and leave them away * or they just ignore me, but publish the book already). So, after I blogged about "Secret in Zarahemla" by Sariah S. Wilson, and so rudely interrupted the blog with a rant about the Promised Land series (sorry Sariah, please forgive me for not giving your book the attention it was due. If you haven't had a chance to read this book and want to, do it for your next book reading. It really is a good book and Sariah does the story justice), anyway- this morning I sent an e-mail to Covenant again asking about the status of book #4. This is the reply I got this afternoon:

Hello, We do have the 4th installment of this series in house. We are hoping to release the book in the spring of 2008.
thank you for your interest.
Linda Olsen,
Covenant Communications

Now, I used to work for a publisher, so I know that there are all sorts of things that can change, go wrong, go right, make a difference etc. between now and the spring, but still. There is a light at the end of my waiting tunnel!!