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Deep in the Heart of Texas!

Jason, Michal and I went to Fort Worth, Texas for 3 days for the next part of my teacher of the year competition. It was Michal's first time flying! It was fun to watch her face as the plane took off. She decided she didn't really like the feeling of flying because she felt so out of control.



We stayed at the Fort Worth Hilton and enjoyed roaming around downtown and trying out some of the local restaurants. Thursday evening I had an interview with the committee for the Teacher of the Year. Thursday night we ate at Mi Cocina, a popular Mexican restaurant. It was very good. I just couldn't handle the salsa because it was too hot. But I'm a baby about that anyway.



Friday I had workshops all day so Jason and Michal did some more exploring except when it was time for the luncheon and the awards were presented. There were six candidates for the Southwest Region Teacher of the Year.


Yo Azama from California won the award. He teaches Japanese. He was super excited about winning and will now be a candidate for the National Teacher of the Year. It was great to meet so many wonderful foreign language educators and learn some new teaching ideas for my students.


On Friday night we took a cab to the Stockyards and ate at Cooper's BBQ. We couldn't believe our eyes when we were shown the choices for meat! They just slice off a hunk of whatever you want, dunk it in their famous barbecue sauce and slap it on a cafeteria tray! Then they weigh the meat and you pay for it by the pound. You can get baked potato and fixin's, drinks, cobbler, and there's this giant pot of beans that has whole jalapeño peppers floating in it, plus a giant jar of jalapeño peppers on the picnic tables! The cashier hands you a piece of freezer wrap and says "This is y'all's plate. Y'all eat on the shiny side." It was a hoot!


We explored the Stockyards some more. It used to be a slaughtering place for cattle but now they've turned it into shops and restaurants, etc.

Check out this cute, old couple singing "You're Cheatin' Heart."


There was also a guy there with his longhorn steer offering photo opportunities.
It's easy to start saying y'all when you're in Texas! Everywhere we went it was "Hi y'all", "Bye, y'all", "What would y'all like?", "Wher're y'all goin'?". But my favorite was this cute gramma lady who rode with us in the shuttle from the airport to the hotel the first day we were there. She was from Indiana! She said, "Wher're all a you'uns from?" I wrote it down and she asked me if I was accusing her of being a redneck. I said absolutely not! I just love language. It's fascinating!

Another one-year anniversary

Johnny's temple endowment day was one year ago today. It was a beautiful day. We needed to be at the temple by 5 am. The guests were invited to the 7 am session at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.
I'll never forget watching his face as he experienced the wonderful Spirit of the Lord in the temple. We were grateful for the friends and family who got up so early on a Saturday morning to share this day with Johnny.



He has now been on his mission in Indiana for 10 months. Can you believe how fast that has gone by? He is serving as a district leader in Muncie, Indiana. He loves everything about being a missionary and is so excited about sharing the gospel. This is a picture of him with his companion Elder Bijou.


God is the best!

One year ago today

My daughter Michal got a phone call at 7:30 pm saying that her best friend Maquelle had been in a car accident. She picked up her purse and ran out the door saying "I have to go to Idaho." Then she said "How do I get to Idaho?" I told her to just hold on a minute and I would drive her there. We picked up Maquelle's mom on the way and drove for 4 hours. We stopped at a little hospital in a town just south of Mallad. It was there that we found out Maquelle had been thrown from the car and killed in the accident. Maquelle's mom and my daughter both fell completely apart. It was horrible to watch. I couldn't think of anything to do but pray in my heart that somehow God would bring them comfort. I told the doctors that we wanted to see Maquelle. They said we'd have to wait because they were still working on her at the mortuary. We were finally able to go there after what seemed like hours. I'll never forget feeling my daughter's heartache as she looked at her best friend lying there in the funeral home. Maquelle just looked like she was asleep and if you shook her she'd wake up. Her face was perfect. She didn't even look like anything had happened.
As we drove back home, Michal was calling and texting all of her friends to meet at our house to support each other. We got home at about 4 am and Michal's friends and my mom were there.
God bless them all.



Michal and I spent today together and kept busy with LaCinda's baby shower, some shopping and eating lots of garlic at Chinese Buffet:) Tonight, we went to Maquelle's grave to light some candles and remember. It was raining and cold and the wind was blowing so the candles didn't stay lit but Michal just said that was Maquelle having her way.
It's going to be allright. It's just hard to see my daughter still hurting so much. She is strong, though and she knows that Maquelle is OK.

Bird Man

Here's my cute husband feeding 'his' birds. He loves to watch them out in the back yard. He doesn't want them to go hungry in the snow. I'm sure he'll have them named soon. Isn't he so darling!:)

Double Deuce

Look at this cutie pie! 2 days old. All that dark hair. Perfect fingers. Sweet, heart-shaped face:)





3 months old. Doesn't she just melt your heart:)






10 months old. What a dainty little princess. All dressed up and loving to be in front of the camera.




Now she's Twenty Two! Look at all these shoes! Can you believe how fast time flies? She still has a mischievous look in her eyes. Happy Birthday Michal! You are loved!

The Great Pumpking Massacre

Over the summer, my husband helped our cute neighbor with her garden. This is one of the pumpkins that was grown there!

I wanted to cut it open, keep a few seeds to plant, then cook the pumpkin down and freeze it to use for baking.


Well.....
After the giant pumpkin sat in the garage all fall and most of the winter, getting frozen and thawed over and over, I had finally had enough.


So last week, we cut it open and tried to salvage what we could. Jason had to use a saw to get the thing cut open! Then he had to punch it to get to the middle!

Michal took out the seeds. (about 100) We kept 5 or 6 of them to plant next year and cooked the rest with some salt. They tasted yucky because they had been frozen. The pumpkin was also ca ca poo so we had to throw that away. I was mad at myself for wasting it. Ugh! I just can't do it all!