The Call!

At the beginning of February, E submitted the paperwork to serve an LDS mission. Yesterday, the letter we've been eagerly awaiting arrived in the mail, telling him where he would be going and when he would be leaving.

There aren't many moments in life I've dreaded and looked forward to at the same time, but this was definitely one of them.

Drum roll please..................he's going to the Florida, Tallahassee Mission (also covering parts of southern Alabama) and he leaves on June 1. He'll be gone for 2 years! And I'll only get to email him once a week and talk to him on the phone twice a year. That's the part I've been dreading. Who will remind him to take his medications?

But of course it's such an exciting time, and so wonderful when your child decides he wants to go and do something challenging to serve other people.

I'm sure you've seen Mormon missionaries out and about in your daily life (and probably hoped the didn't come knocking on your door). You can learn more about the whole process of getting a mission call and serving a mission here.

But here's what I really want you to know. Whether or not you care to hear the message they have to share, somewhere out there those missionaries have a mom, or a dad--someone who is worried about them, and praying for them, and hoping they are healthy and happy and well. And that people are being nice to them.

So just be nice to them. And if you happy to run into that missionary pictured above, could you also remind him to take his medicine?

Thanksgiving 2015

Happy Thanksgiving! I realized today, as I was preparing our Thanksgiving feast, that this could be the last time we are all together for Thanksgiving for awhile. E is in the process of preparing his application to serve an LDS mission, with the hopes of leaving soon after his spring semester of college. And he'll be gone for TWO WHOLE YEARS! Luckily, today was a great day for some emotional eating.

Of course, when it comes to being thankful, this is the thing I'm most thankful for in the world.

And as much as I hate being in pictures, the whole "we might not be together on Thanksgiving for awhile" thing made me reconsider.

After the picture taking, we sat down to a fabulous meal, if I do say so myself. Has anyone else noticed that Thanksgiving dinner takes 3 days to make, 2 hours to clean up, and approximately 27 minutes to consume? Or is the person who makes Thanksgiving dinner the only one who notices this?

Also, we really like mashed potatoes. Pretty much the only time I use that enormous bowl is on Thanksgiving day for mashed potatoes.

In other exciting news, T found out he is getting his braces off on December 31! It's a few days too late to enjoy my homemade Christmas caramels, but I'm planning to stash a few away for him to enjoy on the first day of the new year.

And if that's not something to look forward to in 2016, I don't know what is.

Family Photo 2015

We headed out a few weekends ago for a family photo shoot. By which I mean, I put the camera on a tripod and set it to rapid fire mode while I ran in and out of the shot.

Which means I literally took about 800 pictures, with at least 10% of those being of my rear end. In the other 89% of the photos, someone is closing their eyes, talking, or making some other type of unsavory looking face.

But we did get this!

And as my husband says, you only need one good one.

Colorado Cares Day

Yesterday, in conjunction with Colorado Cares day, we went out with some church friends to clean up one of the natural areas in town.

Colorado Cares was created in 1999 as a day of service in recognition of Colorado’s statehood. Volunteers from around the state focus efforts on the needs of Colorado communities, varying from school supply and food drives, to environmental health and disaster recovery.

Ethan went with a separate group to Catholic Charities to help unload donations of food and supplies. They take care of most of the homeless people in our area, so we thought it would be good to help them in that endeavor. He declined my request for photos, so you'll have to settle for pictures of the rest of us picking up trash.

Also, when you have a lot of teenage boys around, there tends to be a bit of goofing off.

T must have been in a generous mood, because he agreed to a selfie. You can't even tell that while the photo was being taking, he was saying "I hate selfies."

And I have to say, good work people of Colorado. You keep the place pretty clean. We planned to spend two hours picking up garbage, but left after one because there just wasn't anything left to do.

How do I feel about spending a hot Saturday afternoon picking up garbage with these good people? 

"This is something more than boys’ clubs or civic associations or political affiliations offer, worthy as those may be. It is more than house parties and welcome wagons provide, as kind as such expressions are. This fellowship is ultimately of the Spirit, and comes because Christ is our eternal head.....When public problems or private heartaches come—as surely they do come—I will be most fortunate if in that hour I find myself in the company of Latter-day Saints." ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

Boy's Best Friend

So.....we got a dog. You should know I'm not a dog person. Allergies prevent me from appreciating anything with fur. But C has been begging for a "real" pet for years. And the goldfish wasn't really cutting it as a fun, friendly companion.

Although I can't complain about getting a cute, well-behaved, house-trained thoroughbred Australian Terrier from the Humane Society. That was definitely a stroke of good luck. I guess I should also be grateful C didn't want a cat. Because then the allergies would literally kill me.

Still.....the things we do for our children.

Spring Break 2015

Since our Spring Break is coming to an end, we though we should get out and enjoy the beautiful weather. Because it's March in Colorado, which means 70 degrees today and snow next week.

So we took a little walk along the Poudre River Trail. This particular stretch has an awesome bridge.

We had a pretty low key Spring Break this year.....some movie watching, reading, and of course, video game playing. On Monday it's back to school. Although we're all skipping Thursday and Friday for the Denver Robotics Tournament. Because we really need to ease back into this whole school thing. Stay tuned.....

Cooking for Three

It's been pretty quiet around here lately. Literally. We've been down two children, more or less, since the first week of January. I blame the robots. This year they've taken two of my children.

With E and T both staying after school this year for Robotics, things feel kind of strange. But with 2 teenagers eating dinner away from home most nights, my grocery bill will certainly be smaller for the next 6 weeks.

Although I do have to feed all of these people at some point during that 6 week period, so there goes all my grocery savings.

In other news, wearing these clothes to church did nothing to help Peyton Manning and the Broncos.

I'm pretty sure some of those pictured are secretly happy about the our devastating loss to the Colts. Because at a certain age, dressing up with your family in coordinating Broncos outfits is just humiliating.

And by "a certain age" I mean 17.

Picture a Christmas

I was going to let the photos tell the story of our Christmas day. Then I realized.....I at least need to explain that my husband got a Stormtrooper helmet for Christmas.

CSU Homecoming 2014

Way back in 1999, we packed up 2 year-old E and all of our worldly possessions and headed off to Fort Collins, Colorado so G could attend grad school at CSU.

Fifteen years later, we're still here. So when CSU Homecoming rolls around, the best part about it is that we don't have to come home. We are home.

Of course, little E isn't so little anymore.

Although, I suppose that's relative, isn't it?

While we were waiting for the parade to start, I couldn't help thinking that it seemed like we'd just moved here, when in reality, E could very well be a student at CSU himself less than a year from now.

But parades aren't supposed to make people cry. Unless you're a kid who doesn't get any candy. But they're not supposed to make grown-ups cry. So let's get off this nostalgia train and enjoy some parade highlights.

Like this year's grand marshal, 6 time Olympic medalist and CSU Alumni Amy Van Dyken. She was partially paralyzed in an ATV accident this summer. Under the circumstances, I think everyone felt pretty honored and grateful that she would show up to this little parade.

Another highlight....this little kid on a little horse. I mean, you really can't beat that in terms of cuteness. I don't think he had any idea what all the fuss was about, but he seemed to recognize that the crowd loved him.

Also, this race car, built by students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

And of course, you can't have a parade without a marching band.

You're probably wondering what honored parade guest gets a big, fancy trailer like this one all to themselves.....

The university mascot, of course! Cam the Ram!

And we won the football game in nail-biting, last-minute-field-goal fashion! You can't beat that for an awesome homecoming weekend!

Random Goings On

Goodness! From the looks of things, you'd think nothing's been going on around here for the last few weeks. The truth is, I've been so busy with important life events that I've hardly had time to write about any of it.

And by important, I mean things like.....shopping for giant backpacks.

Then there was perusing the newly opened Costco for giant boxes of Frosted Flakes and 300 count packages of toilet paper. Surprisingly, Costco does not carry giant backpacks.

Celebrating Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving with a gourmet hot dog dinner. And by gourmet I mean hot dogs we cooked at home on our own grill, not the $1.50 hot dog and soda deal at Costco.

Last Friday there was volunteering at the school Walkathon.

Okay, that actually was important.

Also, buying new pillows, getting T's tooth pulled so his braces will work, going to the movies.....



.......parent teacher conferences, and finishing up E's college applications.

And last but not least, working on this year's Christmas card photo.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

You guys! Tomorrow I'm heading to Seattle for the International Food Bloggers Conference. I am equal parts excited and anxious.

First, let's talk about anxious. Having a kid with a seizure disorder kind of makes going places and leaving him behind a tad scary. But he's a Senior in high school. Which means it won't be long before he's going places and leaving me behind. So I'm telling myself this is good practice.

Now let's talk about excited. For starters, here are all of the sponsors for this fabulous food-filled event.

There are going to be some great classes and workshops offered, and I think I've narrowed it down to a few I'd really like to attend, like The Art And Science of Local Season Cooking, and Know Your Beef: Know You're Butchery. Seriously, I want to learn about butchery. And not just in case I ever get to play Know Your Cuts of Meat on Dave Letterman.

The best part? Girard's Dressings is sending me (all expenses paid) as part of their new Culinary Collective. They're part of the Marzetti family of brands, who I did some videos and recipe development for recently. The conference doesn't start until Friday night, but they're bringing in a group of bloggers tomorrow for even more food related fun!

We're supposed to bring an apron for a surprise activity Friday morning where we might get "a little dirty" but it will be "in good fun." If you have any thoughts on what the surprise might be, I'd love to hear them.

Stay tuned....I'll share more when I return and recover from eating for 3 days straight!

Turning 10 is Totally Terrific!

Oh, to be 10 again! I mean, at my age you just can't get away with making your own super tall paper birthday crown and wearing it around all day. But it's perfectly normal when you're 10.

C's 10th birthday was yesterday, but we started the festivities last Friday with a party at the local fun center with some of his friends. Looks like his dad mistakenly thought it was a party for him (see bottom right).

Remember the Bungle Suit? Trust me, if you've seen it, you would not soon forget. Well, one of his awesome friends gave him something to go with the Bungle Suit. A Bungle Suit cape! Now that I see it, it's so clear....the Bungle Suit was missing a cape. And a headlamp, apparently.

A friend who encourages your Bungle Suit wearing is a friend indeed! (I think). Also, just for the record, Bungle suit wearing is even less acceptable past a certain age than super tall paper birthday crown wearing.

C has been looking forward to his birthday gift for several weeks now. And he's used it every waking minute that he hasn't been at school or soccer practice. Thankfully, he's pretty good. Because this gift is LOUD!

Please take note of the Pink Floyd guitar strap, chosen by C himself, and appreciate the great effort we have put into instilling a sense of coolness in our children. True, we may have encouraged him to choose the Pink Floyd strap because it was so much cheaper than the one with flames. But he knew who Pink Floyd was. I promise!

We finished off the day with a delicious dinner at Jim's Wings and came home and ate birthday cake made out of crepes and spray-can whipped cream and Nutella.

Turning 10 is definitely terrific at this house! Mostly because the kid turning 10 is totally terrific! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!