VOTE FOR ME!!

Wow!  I just now found out about this, when I was watching the news.  I hope you all will support me... It's all kinda overwhelming, as you can imagine!

Back to Quilting

Wow, I haven't thought about quilting for the better part of the summer. I've still been doing a block each month for the "quilt block of the month club" that I signed up for at a local quilt shop, but I haven't started a new project for several months. The other day I went to the site for a quilt shop in Salt Lake and looked at their upcoming classes. This is the class that caught my eye:



It's only $15.00 to take the class, a kit to make the quilt (minus batting and backing) is $74.00. I called and signed up to take the class, it will be held on Saturday, October 25th. If there are any other quilters (or wanna be quilters) out there that would like to spend a few hours with a room full of fun people (of course, I would be one of them) you can call & sign up too!

Kimball Rides

I'm sitting here tonite trying to learn a few new things so my blog can be fun like Andria's.  (The saying:  "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" keeps running thru my head)  I have learned two new things so far, Woo hoo for me!!!

Anyway, Kimball wanted a couple of things for his birthday last June:

#1  a unicycle

#2 a banjo

Terrell bought him a unicycle about a month ago.  It took him several days of practice but he can actually ride it now.  We tease him that all he needs now is a clown outfit & he will be set.  (Kimball HATES clowns - they freak him out!)  Anyway, this is the end of my mommy blog... watch the movie of my talented kid:

He has been taking his unicycle to school - there are several others that bring their unicycles and they ride them around at lunch time.  He says they are thinking of starting a unicycle club.  How fun!!

On the Day that YOU Were Born

I came across this kinda cool web site the other day. You click on the month of your birth, then day and then the year of your birth, and it will tell you the #1 song the day you were born.

http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm

Now, I can't remember that far back, but I was surprised to find out that I did know the song. On September 19, 1957, the #1 song was: "That'll Be the Day", by The Crickets (Who the heck are "The Crickets" anyway?)


What was the #1 song on the day of YOUR birth?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Congratulations to my fine brother Gary, he was the winner of my blog contest. He correctly identified the mystery picture I posted as a 'Quilting Bee'! Here is Gary, happy to be receiving his grand prize, a package of flat flower head quilting pins.

It's Contest Time!

What is this a picture of? (Don't give me an obvious one word reply) I will award a prize to the first person who can come up with the correct answer. You may be wondering what the prize is, but I can't tell you because I haven't decided yet. But it WILL be a prize worthy of several dollars!

Three Red Marbles

I read this story a few years back. It remains one of my all time favorites:

By W. E. Petersen
Ensign Magazine, Oct 1975



During the waning years of the depression in a small southeastern Idaho community, I used to stop by Brother Miller’s roadside stand for farm-fresh produce, as the season made it available. Food and money were still extremely scarce, and barter was used extensively.

On one particular day, as Brother Miller was bagging some early potatoes for me, I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily appraising a basket of freshly picked green peas. Upon paying for my potatoes I moved to leave, but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes. Pondering the peas, I couldn’t help overhearing the conversation between Brother Miller and the ragged boy next to me. “Hello, Barry, how are you today?”

“H’lo, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus’ admirin’ them peas sure look good.”

“They are good, Barry. How’s your Ma?”

“Fine. Gittin’ stronger alla’ time.”

“Good. Anything I can help you with?”

“Nosir, jus’ admirin’ them peas.”

“Would you like to take some home?”

“Nosir, got nuthin’ to pay for ’em with.”

“Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?”

“All I got’s my prize aggie—best taw around here.”

“Is that right? Let me see it.”

“Here ’tis. She’s a dandy.”

“I can see that. Hmmmm, only thing is, this one is blue. I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?”

“Not ’zackley—but almost.”

“Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you, and next trip this way let me look at that red taw.”

“Sure will. Thanks, Mr. Miller.”

Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me. With a sly smile, she said:

“There are two other boys like him in our community—all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever. When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn’t like red after all, and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble, or orange, perhaps.”


I left the stand, smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later I moved to Utah, but never forgot the story of this man and the boys—and their bartering.

Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one. Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and, while there, learned that Brother Miller had died. They were having his viewing that evening, and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them.

Upon our arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased, and to offer whatever words of comfort we could. Ahead of us in the line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore short haircuts, dark suits, and white shirts, obviously potential or returned Mormon missionaries. They approached Sister Miller, standing smiling and composed by her husband’s casket. Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket. Her misty, light blue eyes followed them as, one by one, each young man stopped briefly, placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket, and left the mortuary awkwardly wiping his eyes.

As our turn came to meet Sister Miller, I told her who I was, and mentioned the story she had told me about the marbles. Eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket.

“This is an amazing coincidence,” she said. “Those three boys that just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim ‘traded’ them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about color or size, they came to pay their debt. We’ve never had a great deal of the wealth of this world,” she confided, “but right now Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho.”

With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three magnificent, shiny red marbles.

Food! or The Law of the Harvest

I hate planting gardens. Well, let me re-phrase that. I hate having to plant a garden with someone. I just get so frustrated. My family learned long ago that it is their job to till the soil, dump the peat moss & steer manure, till again, then disappear. Just leave me with all those little plants and let them plant them where and how I want. I really have to watch Terrell when we go to buy the bedding plants in the spring, because he tends to get carried away. One year I think I had like 60 something pepper plants that he had bought that I was supposed to find a home in the ground for. I was not a happy camper out there digging the holes for those pepper plants that spring.

Fast forward to August. I do so love this time of year as we begin to reap the rewards of what we planted in May. There 'ain't nothin' better than a home grown tomato! This is also the first year I have had real success with my herbs. I moved the whiskey barrels that I plant herbs in, up closer to the house, and it has been a lot easier for me to remember that they are even there this year. Thus, I have a wonderful herb garden this year just past my back yard gate.


One of my herb pots. About all you can see is the basil from this view.

Tomato + basil = Bruschetta. I could eat this every day. The tomato/garlic/basil/balsamic vinegar flavors literally explode in your mouth!

I signed up on this cool web site: http://www.tasteofhome.com/
Several times a week you get an e-mail from them with tasty recipe ideas. Lots of times I think: "Well that looks good, I should save that recipe and make it some day." A nice feature of this web site is that you can create an account and when you run across a yummy recipe, you just click and send it to your recipe box. Then you can come back at a later time and find all the recipes that you have saved. I did just that the other nite, I made this wonderful recipe called: "Bruschetta Chicken". Best of all, I had all the ingredients and didn't have to go to the store for anything. (oops, I did have to send Terrell for a clove of garlic). Anyway, this recipe is "A KEEPER"!! The chicken was moist & tender, with that great bruschetta taste on top. It was an instant hit at the Hill house.


Bruschetta Chicken
Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup egg substitute - (I just used a couple eggs instead)
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 pound)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped
3 tablespoons minced fresh basil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Directions:
Place flour and eggs in separate shallow bowls. Dip chicken in flour, then in eggs; place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Combine the Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and butter; sprinkle over chicken. Loosely cover baking dish with foil. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes. Uncover; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until top is browned.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Spoon over the chicken. Return to the oven for 3-5 minutes or until tomato mixture is heated through. Yield: 4 servings.

p.s. If you have tried to post a comment in the past & not been able to do it because it said you needed to set up an account, you can post a comment now and you will not get that little annoying message. :-)

Those Little Comment Cards

Ok, so I have a habit of filling out those little comment cards that you find on your table when you dine at a restaurant. My sisters will remember me filling one out at a Wendy's in Nephi several years ago. I was so angry with the service I received that nite, and the comment card I sent in ultimately scored me a free meal!

Then there was the time I wrote to IN-n-Out to tell them how fond I was of their food. I even volunteered to come work for them for FREE- cutting french fries, if they would just open an In-n-Out in Utah County. I received a nice reply from them, but I am still waiting for them to take me up on the offer.

When we were on vacation last month, we dined at Bob Evans. Their home style food was so good, that we went back a couple more times to enjoy it again. The last time was in Festus, MO, just before St. Louis. Guess what? There was a 'comment card' on the table. Of course that was my invitation to tell the folks at corporate know how much we enjoyed their food, and to put in a shameless plug for Utah and to tell them how well one of their restaurants would be accepted here. I never expected that I would hear back (I never do) but I was surprised to get this letter from them last Saturday:

"Those Vampire Books"

The book that started it all!

You've probably been living in a cave if you haven't heard about and/or read all of Stephenie Meyer's books. I was introduced to them a couple of years ago when I was reading the blog of a friend. This is what she wrote:

So there's this book I've heard sooo much about for months and months from everyone. "Oh, it's so great." "It's amazing." "It's the book of the decade." "I think you'll just love it." And on and on. "It's about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire." Ohhh...thanks but that's not really my type of book. Glad ya liked it, but yeah, not my style. So, I sit through book club (I know, know, why go to book club when you didn't even read?) about the sequel to this book still thinking to myself, yeah yeah yeah. Sure glad I didn't bother with the first one because amazingly, the second one is about not only vampires cont'd, but werewolves. Yes, that's right, werewolves. Riiight.

She continues on, telling how she starts reading "Twlight" while at her mother's house during the holiday's. She stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish the book, in a room with her two small children, using a wind-up flashlight as a light. Needless to say ... she was hooked & couldn't wait to start the sequel, "New Moon".


After reading her post, I decided I would put "Twlight" and "New Moon" on my list of books to read. I checked them out from the library and have to admit, I did enjoy them, but not to the point where the characters became a part of my life.

I remember being at the Corn Wagon Quilt Shop last summer, and overhearing the conversation of a couple of middle-age women talking about the book being made into a movie and which actor would play each role. I remember thinking "how silly", that they would be into the books that much.

The third book (Eclipse) came out last summer. I once again got it from the library, there was quite a waiting list. I think it was October-November when I got my turn to read it. Once again, it was a good read. I kept coming back and picking it up as often as my free time allowed, and finished it in a couple of days.


"Breaking Dawn" - I went to my online account at the library and put a hold on the book last Thursday. I think I was 104 in line, but figured that would go pretty fast, because the library showed 20 copies of the book.


Last Friday nite, Terrell and I went to Walmart about 9:30 p.m. to pick up some things that I had been putting on a list all week long. I had something I needed to return when we first got there, and I noticed people lined up along the wall in the front of the store. I thought it was a little weird, then I noticed a sign on the wall - about lining up for the book. Ah yes... this is the night. We were walking past the line and someone called my name. I looked over to see the sister of one of my good friends. She was hanging out in the line with her teenage daughters to get the book. She was as excited to be there as the rest of the people in the line.

Sunday nite we went to visit some good friends that live in Lehi. She was telling me about how her husband got hooked on "those vampire books" last summer, and has read them all. He has tried & tried to no avail to get her to read them also. She has teased him relentlessly about him being a grown man and reading those books that were written for teen age girls. Then she admitted to me that she secretly started reading them last Friday, and had finished the first three books by Sunday. She was now waiting for him to finish the 4th book so she can start. It was hilarious!!

So there you go, I'm still waiting. Unless someone drops by with one for me to read, I'm fine to wait until my number comes up at the library. How about the rest of you? Where are you in your Stephenie Meyer fandom? Leave a comment and tell us your story too!

Going Back Before We Can Go Forward. . .

Yea!! A new month. There are only two more weeks until school starts. I always feel like summer cruises by too fast, but this year it is especially true. I came home from vacation and my flowers and the garden had tripled in size. It's amazing what can happen in 17 days, but first, I need to return to the St. Louis area and finish up the trip:


This was Randy's condo that we crashed in Farmington, MO. It was pretty posh - still smelled brand new.



Randy had a total of 4 - 1 bedroom units. More than ample for his family. Katie was living in this unit, and graciously moved out for the night so we could have a place to stay. Thanks Katie!!

Here we are the morning of July 22nd. Getting ready to load that van up for the very last time.


There were a couple of sites to see near the condo, so we visited them before heading north to the airport. First to the town of Pilot Knob. In 1864, this valley was the scene of one of the largest and most hard-fought Civil War battles waged on the state of Missouri's soil - the Battle of Pilot Knob.


The mound of soil in the background is all that is left of Fort Davidson. There was a nice *free* visitor's center there, it was interesting to learn more about the Civil War.


A couple miles away was another fun place, Elephant Rocks State Park.


One of the most curious geologic formations in Missouri is found at Elephant Rocks State Park. Giant boulders of 1.5 billion-year-old granite stand end-to-end like a train of circus elephants. Many of the elephant rocks lie within the seven-acre Elephant Rocks Natural Area. There was a one mile paved trail that looped around the park. Kimball, Cheryl and I walked the trail and got up close & personal to the rocks:




Last stop before St Louis:

Bob Evans- Festus, MO

The flight home - This was cool. I always wish I had a map on my lap when I fly, but this is even better. Are you listening Southwest??


That's the end of the Trip!!! Thanks for coming along!

And now a shameless plug - but it's free for you if you wish to take advantage...
Remember this picture from last spring?


Well. . . . this is what the tree looks like now:






My apricot tree is so loaded this year that the branches are breaking. (There was a wind storm that blew thru last weekend, and I think that may have also contributed) Anyway, the apricots are reaching their peak ripeness, and if you want some, PLEASE come on over. They are not as big as they have been in years past, I don't know why. But they are about the size of apricots you would buy in the store, and they are very yummy, and good for you. Hope to see you all with a container.