Garden Fresh Salsa

I LOVE to garden. It is amazing to me to watch a seed being covered by dark heavy earth, emerge from the ground and grow into immaculate bushes that offer so many tantalizing treats.  What's even more rewarding is stepping outside your own back door, walking a few paces and picking this marvelous bounty.  It is such a rewarding hobby.

This past Sunday I did walk out my back door and picked these beauties:



Yup, those are PURPLE bell peppers


The green ones are called "Salsa Peppers", and of course Roma Tomatoes.



I chopped the vegetables, layered onions, peppers on the bottom.  Then the Cilantro(no salsa is complete without it) and on top of that the tomatoes.  I splashed some red wine vinegar on top along with some salt and pepper.  I would have used some lime but I had none.



This was the result.  I know my chip is pathetic but it's all I had.  We ate the salsa on Navajo Tacos!  DIVINE!!!

First Day 2011

Ahhhh, the first day of school. It kinda snuck up on me this year. Emotionally I was completely prepared for it to begin. But I was not prepared any other way. I didn't have myself organized enough to get a whole lot done that first day they were gone. Which is okay. I have all school year to accomplish many amazing goals.

The kids on the other hand, were prepared to go to school emotionally and physically. They all had their outfits picked out. If they didn't have a backpack they dug one out of the storage closet downstairs. It's so great to have older kids who help each other and don't make a big deal out of a back pack. 


Jaren and Hannah
It was hard getting a good photo of the both of them.  They couldn't keep their hands to themselves and had to keep making each other giggle or move or what ever.  This year Hannah started 7th grade, on to Junior High.  Wow, I know have two in Junior High.  Ugh!!  Hannah did great her first day. 



The Wind
One of the only decent pictures of their faces and the wind has to blow Hannah's bangs straight up!!  Yes, she did her own hair, and her own make up.  Double Ugh!!  Hannah loves wearing mascara.  The only make up, aside from lip gloss, that her mother will allow her to wear.  I didn't mean ugh about her hair.  Hannah does a great job with her own hair.  I meant about the make up.



Tradition
For Seven years now, my Mom has trekked out here to walk the kids to school.  They look forward to it EVERY year. 


Isabel
She insisted on an individual photo.  She didn't have the best first day ever.  I think that was due to her teacher giving her home work the very first day.  Isabel also claimed that no one liked her or wanted to play with her.  Which surprises me.  Isabel goes out of her way to say hello and to be friendly.  Well, I told her, your school year can only get better.  If it was in deed the worst day ever.




Annika
Loved her first day of school.  Loved her teacher.  Loved her friends.  She was, dare I say, giddy when she got home.  Which is so unlike her.  I am more then relieved that she had such a great day. 



Beckham
Came home sick.  He had a fever and camped out on the couch most of the afternoon.  I pumped him full of essential oils and ibuprofen and he perked right up.  He was off to school again this morning.  He didn't say much about the first day.  I look forward to hearing more about his teacher today.



Grace
Dreaming of the day she gets to start preschool next year.  She tells everyone she sees that she gets to start preschool next year.  As Hannah was listing off all the things she did  to prepare to go to, and as she paused, Grace whispered , "School".  Oh my gosh, it was the cutest thing EVER!!  Grace can't wait to go to school.  My Mom said she would be teaching the preschool by the time she gets there.

First day of school is always filled with so many many different feelings, thoughts and emotions.  I am so grateful that I could be here to help my children work through them all.  Or at least the ones that they shared with me.  For me, the first day of school is the beginning of the unknown.  Who knows how this school year is going to turn out.  What events will change my children's lives.  Or will there be no such events.  Will we have a "smooth sailing" kind of a year.  With two kids in Junior High(one of them being female) I highly doubt that will happen.  I literally pray every day to know how to help my kids.  They need all the help they can get!!

Education Week Day 1

Today was the first day of Education week, for me.  I usually tread the beautiful campus of BYU in the evenings.  This year, I decided to leave behind the children and tread the morning hours.  I'll let you know if I like morning or evening best.  My dream is to one day go all day long.  When the kids are older.  The most powerful quote I heard today was from Bro. Bratholomew:

How different our world would be if we would shun what is true and embrace the truth.

Awesome Fall off of Tramp = 13 Stitches!!

Sunday after Girls Camp continued to be an emotional roller coaster! After dinner I was sitting in the living room resting my weary body, gearing up to prepare for family to come over to Finally celebrate Hannah's 12th Birthday. I remember seeing Beckham and Grace out on the Tramp, enjoying themselves and exerting some pent up energy. Shortly after my observation Isabel comes running into the house all in a panic, "Mom! Grace just fell off the Tramp and she's bleeding!!" I pointed to Brent and asked him to go check on her. In the mean time I was trying to calm Isabel down(and myself for that matter). I tried explaining to her that head wounds bleed A LOT. As I rounded the kitchen table to head outback I see Brent walking toward the house with Grace in one arm, and a huge towel pressed against her head. As I opened the door Brent quickly told me she was going to need stitches. Well, my heart sank. Brent and I quickly left the house, girls crying, almost in hysterics. I made a phone call to a friend to have her go over and calm them down.
I was privileged to sit next to Grace in the car on the way to the hospital. I always thought I did better with blood then broken bones. Ya, well, I was wrong. I do better with superficial head wounds, not gaping ones. As we pulled up to the hospital Brent instructed me to carry Grace into the hospital. I forcefully declined that request and told him that HE could carry her into the hospital and I would go and park the 'burb.
Luckily for us, it was a slow day at the Emergency room. We were there for a total of an hour. We got home just in time to quickly clean up the house for the arrival of our Birthday guests.


Grace's hair is in a high pony tail.  When we arrived at the hospital Grace's hair was down, bloody and getting in the way. The nurse insisted it be pulled up.  She grabbed a huge rubber band and did the best job she could.   You can also see Popsicle all over Grace's mouth.  That was her reward.  



The simple band aid on her head does a great job at hiding the hideous stitches behind.  It took a total of 13 to pull back together her flesh and skin. 



What the band aid doesn't tell you is that it took 1 papoose and 2 doctors to hold this baby girl down while the Dr. Stitched her up.  While the Dr. was stitching up underneath the skin he accidentally nicked a vein, hence all the blood in her hair.  There is an extra stitch inside making up the the Doc's mistake.  AWESOME!!!  I put Grace in a quick bath after arriving home. The bath water quickly turned a dark pink color, there was a lot of blood matted in that hair of hers. 



The Stitches.  Grace was a fighter.  I'm surprised the stitching job doesn't look worse.  The Doctor informed us that she can not get this wound sunburned for the first year or it will be bright red for the rest of her life.  Again, AWESOME!!  Grace as been sporting some kind of fun band aid for over a month now.  She realizes, as well as the other kids, how important it is to keep the wound covered.  We tried hats for a while and it's almost impossible for a 3 year old to keep a hat on.  So band aids it is.  If Grace is scared for life, at least it's high enough to be covered by strategically placed bangs.
In case you were wondering, No, she has not been on the tramp since the accident.  And neither has any of her siblings! 

Is there a lesson to be learned from all of this?  "I guess that's what you get for jumping on the Tramp on a Sunday", said the Brother-in-Law.  Ya, well, we'll see about that.

The Details

Where do I begin? Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you plan for Stake Girls Camp, you plan 10 months in advance. You come up with a theme. We decided upon Value University. Each Ward was assigned a Value, plus a few Pres. Hinckley's "to Be's". Planning continued, a menu was formed and numbers started to come in. 350 people were planning on attending. More numbers started to roll in and at 350 we stayed. Food was bought, stored in my front room. Details were hashed out, more food was bought. Food was briefly stored in the fridges of several churches, and homes. Food was gathered and off we went up the Mountain. Not once did I have a break down, melt down or become a hot mess. I thought I was pretty darn prepared to prepare and serve 350 people.

And so began my week. The first meal was dinner, our first night up there. They came in shifts and the food quickly disappeared 3/4 of the way through service. What? How could this be. I planned, bought and prepared for the right number. We quickly threw together more food, salad, rolls and lunch meat meant to be used for another day was gobbled up by hungry girls and leaders. Then it happened, the tears began to burn my eyes and I realized that we didn't prepare for enough people. As we went through dinner service we figured we fed about 425 people. 75 servings short. What a catastrophe. Who could have imagined? We've never had this many people up at Camp before. It is what it is. Several more trips were made down the Mountain to purchase more food. I think in total 4 more trips were made.

I wish I could say that things got better. In some respects they did. The one thing I could never prepare for was unintentionally hurting peoples feelings. My crew and I managed to feed 425 people in a 30-45 minute period. During that period my stress level was through the roof. I was unaware of my voice, the tone among other things. I was mean, I yelled and had no idea I was doing so. Until it was too late and too many peoples feelings were hurt. I apologized, and still apologize for my behavior.

Girls Camp has experienced many different calamities over the years. Lice, Bears, and Fire. I just hope this year wont be remembered for the Mean Kitchen Staff.

I hope I am not banned from cooking for Stake Girls Camp. Now that I've been racked through the coals, I would like the opportunity to dust off the burns and try again. I see where I failed, and where I can improve. I LOVED every minute of preparing food for those girls and leaders. What a huge learning opportunity it was to figure out how to prepare and make food taste good for that amount of people.

It took me a whole week to recover. It was not only a physically draining week, but emotionally as well.

No on really knows how hard leaders work behind the scenes to make sure huge events like that run smoothly. Until you become one of those leaders yourself and experience the hard work. It's all worth it in the end. The planning, the tears, the sweat, all of it. I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to work hard, make mistakes, learn from them and move forward.


This is what my front room looked like 2 days before camp.


That's a lot of food!!


This is what 425ish people looked like in the lodge.  This was a super fun activity where every Ward came dressed in their Value Color. 



My cute daughter, Hannah.  See how cute her hair is?  So fun.  The first day of camp was Hannah's 12th birthday.  She was pretty pissed that I didn't plan a celebration for her before hand.  Hannah was sure this was going to be the worst birthday ever.  Later that day I went down to say good night.  I gave her a big hug and asked how her Birthday was.  She exclaimed, "It was the best birthday EVER!!"  I knew it.  So many people went out of their way to make sure she felt loved on such a special birthday.



Kathy Terry, decked out in her blue.  She's beautiful even with blue hair!!



Since I was part of the Stake I was privileged to wear the tie-die shirts.   All the value colors meshed into one.


 All the Stake Leaders.
Back Row: Leslie(kitchen), Jen(music guru), Jodi(Stake Pres.), Leslie(Stake Counselor) , Michelle(Stake Counselor), Me(Kitchen), Pat(Hike specialist)
Front Row: Melissa(Kitchen), Wendy(Faith Walk), Becca(Stake Camp Director), Amy(Certification specialist)

I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to work with such amazing women. 

Images of Freedom

There's no better way I could be spending this Thunderstorming day then to blog a little. It's been a while since I've blogged a "meaty" post.

This area is a wonderful place to be when our Country's Birthday comes around. My kids and I have so many traditions we keep each year. Unfortunately, we missed out on a few of those due to unforeseeable circumstances. But that's alright. We made the best with the time we had and the activities we went to.


Of course, the Balloon Launch.  We didn't leave in time to watch them go up this year.  It seems like every other year I forget how early you have to arrive to actually watch the breath of fire bring these ginormous balloons to life.  It's still so early that my kids have swollen sleepy eyes and awesome bed heads. 




This year Darth Vador decided to join the party.  Jaren was so excited about this he ran ahead, followed by Beckham.  We lost them for about 15 minutes.  Jaren had no clue that he was lost.  He swore he told me what he was doing.  Really?  And where were you planning on meeting back up with us?  Teenagers.  I guess this is just the beginning.



Clouds make for much more interesting photos.


As I looked at this photo again,  I compared myself to this lone Balloon.  Sometimes I feel like that single balloon, surrounded by clouds, yet alone, wondering where the winds of life will take me next.  So far, the winds of life has blown in directions I never imagined for myself.  Sometimes the direction we think we should be going really isn't the right one for us.  That's what's so fun about life.  Looking back at the path already traveled, and looking forward to what's ahead.



The American Flag.  This symbol conjures up all sorts of emotions.  Right now, I feel mostly gratitude.  Even though our country finds itself in turmoil, I am grateful for the freedom I still have.  I put a lot of faith in the leaders of this country and I pray that they will have softened hearts to come together to bring us out of the mess they got us into. 



Sisters.  There is no other relationship built around more fierce feelings then that of being a sister.  One moment you hate each other so much you want to claw each other's eyes out.  And the next, your giving such beautiful compliments you never think another cat fight will happen.  Until it does, because we all know the happy moments are fleeting.  Then again, the fights are fleeting as well.  I barely survived with one sister.  I don't know how my 4 girls are going to do it.  I hope they have a lot of love and even more forgiveness. 




Sparklers.  AWESOME night time entertainment.



My Brent.  Such a kid at heart. 



My Grace.  Over coming fears isn't always easy.  It's taken a lot of coaxing and encouraging to get her to wave this magical wand by herself. 

I love how each year is different in the same tradition.  I always seem to look back and think "I should have done more."  I think I feel like that more often then not.  Getting places with 6 children, doing activities with 6 children isn't always the easiest thing in the world to accomplish.  When it does happen, it's a miracle.  Every single time.