Colorado on my mind

Most of you know we are from Colorado. We lived in San Diego for 10 years, so that was home too, but we are originally from Colorado. The kids and I are taking a trip in a couple of weeks to go visit. Grandpa called a few weeks ago and couldn't stand not seeing the kids any longer, so we are going for a visit. I have been pretty good about not counting down the days yet, then it will seem like it will never come, but my dad emailed me some pictures last night and I am so excited to get home now! I had to share them. These are of my parents backyard and orchard. The orchard is one of our favorite places to just go eat whatever we want right off the tree (if it's in season). The last picture is one I took a few years ago and entered it into a photo contest, of course if didn't win, and I am not a professional photographer at all, but I think it's just gorgeous.

For the record...

For those of you who have been watching the news and may have wondered....
Some Mormon women sing...

Some Mormon women dance...
Some Mormon women write scary stories...

Some Mormon women have lots of money and really great hair...

I know hundreds of Mormon women.

They do all kinds of different things and live all different kinds of lives.

This woman served as a leader in the Mormon church. She recently spoke to teenage girls worldwide. She encouraged them to stand up to peer pressure, strengthen their families and serve others. (Click here for more.)
None of the Mormon women I know look like this...

None of them are marrying off their teenage daughters and-- although some may joke about wanting a sister-wife (preferably one who is really fat & ugly, does bathrooms and changes diapers)--none of them really want to share their husband with anyone.


Furthermore...


Some Mormon guys can throw a ball...


Some Mormon guys yell at the ball...

Some Mormon guys make scary movies...

Some Mormon guys have a lot of money and really great hair...

I know hundreds of Mormon guys. They do all kinds of different things and live all kinds of different lives.


This is one of the leaders of the Mormon church. Last Sunday he spoke about honoring women, especially mothers, and gave advice to husbands and children about how to treat the women in their lives. (For the whole story, click here.)


None of the Mormon men I know look like this...

The Mormon men I know are honest and hard-working. They don't cheat, smoke, drink or gamble. And TRUST ME....the last thing any of them want is another wife.

Strawberry Pie as promised

I got a strawberry pie made Saturday night. It is now gone. In my defense, I have to say I only had one slice. TJ ate the rest. Apparently he doesn't worry about his butt being too big to fit into his flight suit - or the cockpit for that matter - I've seen that cockpit - it's really small. I on the other hand have to worry about things like my butt being too big to fit into my swimsuit - another thing he doesn't have to worry about - arrghhh! Ok, so here it is and my favorite part of this recipe is that you just dump the stuff for the crust into your pie plate and mix it up in there. Preheat your oven to 400.


Dump 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup oil, 2 TBS sugar, 2 TBS milk, 1/2 tsp salt into your pie plate (I don't grease the pie plate). Mix it all up and press up the sides of the pan like this:

Now, in a saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, 3 TBS corn starch, 2 TBS white karo syrup and 1 cup water. Heat to medium high stirring constantly. It will turn into a thicker, clear substance after it's been cooking, that's when you take it off the stove and add 3 TBS of strawberry jello to it. Let it cool completely.

After your pie crust has cooked for 15 minutes, take it out of the oven and let it cool completely.

Slice as many strawberries as you want into your pie crust until there is enough strawberries in there for you - we like a lot of strawberries in our pie. Then dump your glaze over your strawberries. I set mine in the fridge for a while, to let it set up a little. Then we slice it and serve it with fresh whipped cream - yummy!! Enjoy :)

Strawberry Pie

Crust

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup oil

2 TBS sugar

2 TBS milk

1/2 tsp salt

Mix and press into pie pan. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

Filling

1 cup sugar

3 TBS corn starch

2 TBS white karo syrup

1 cup water

cook over medium high heat stirring constantly until thick and clear. Remove from heat and add 3 TBS strawberry jello. Mix and let cool. Cut up berries and put into pie, pour syrup mixture over strawberries.

Beach!

Today was absolutely gorgeous! You couldn't ask for better beach weather. We took a picnic lunch, ate and had fun playing in the water. Of all the beaches I've been to, I truly believe that Pensacola beaches are the best anywhere. Blinding white sheets of quartz sand meet the clear emerald water of the Gulf of Mexico (I didn't make that up, I read it somewhere :) ). The white sand is just like sugar, and there's no yucky stuff floating in the water, you can see right where you are stepping at all times the water is so clear and blue. Hope everyone else is getting beautiful weather! Kim - I am sure it's snowing at your house right now - ha ha!!

Strawberries!!!! Yum-O!

We went to Alabama today to pick some strawberries. They were oh so big, red, juicy, sweet and YUMMY!!! We were all in strawberry heaven! We picked about 18 pounds - not as much as last year (didn't want them to go to waste if we move). It was such a gorgeous day, the kids ate way too many strawberries (at least we didn't have to stop for an emergency bathroom break on the way home!) The only bad part of the story and why we went today is TJ still hasn't been on the flight schedule. He is bummed, but they said either tomorrow or Sunday for sure he will be. And, I have the BEST strawberry pie recipe ever, ever, ever! I really want to share it, so I will share that in the next day or so after I make one. Now, of course you have to look at pictures of my adorable children :)

So busy!

I couldn't figure out why I have been so busy lately, not getting ANYTHING done! I figured it out, there are two reasons: 1 - I can't stop reading Stephenie Meyers' books! 2- I have to help TJ study ALL the time - I swear I know all the checklists, safety procedures and I can talk the lingo to the towers too! I could be qualified to be a NAVY pilot! TJ is upset because he was supposed to have his first flight of Primary on Tuesday, but he didn't get put on the schedule, same for today, he wasn't scheduled. So he is crossing his fingers for tomorrow and so am I! Monday night there was a wife meeting at the airfield where TJ works and we wives got to go hear from the CO/XO's, go in the planes, and go into the sims - it was AWESOME! I really enjoyed myself. TJ really wants to fly P3's - here's a picture:
I found out if he does get to fly the P3's we would move to Jacksonville, FL when he is done with Primary - in 8 weeks! Here is a website to learn what the P3's do and see more pictures of it http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=1100&tid=1400&ct=1 The sims were so cool, there is two sims there that cost just as much as a real plane! You walk in and there is a screen like an I-MAX and there is the cockpit in the middle of the room, the screen turns on and Google Earth is on the screen, so it really looks like you are flying. They let the wives fly too, but as soon as the screen turned on, I was getting motion sick and had to leave (I can't even swing too long on a swing, or I get sick - so I guess I really couldn't be a NAVY pilot!). It was neat hearing all the info they gave us and just meeting other wives in the same boat (plane) as me. Keep your fingers crossed for him to fly tomorrow!!

Milk

I am convinced more and more each day that there is really something wrong with my brain! Yesterday I had to go to the store to get a couple of things. Since TJ says I always find way to blame him for everything, let's go for that approach here (he knows I am just teasing him). I was out of milk and he has to go right by the commissary on the way home (NAVY grocery store). Milk is very cheap there at $3 a gallon, so I usually have him pick up the milk if I'm out of it. We have always drank (drunk?) fat-free milk, I don't like any other kind of milk. I can handle 1% if I have to, but I don't like anything but ff. So, he got milk and came home. I went to get the milk out of the fridge for some cereal and it was 2%!!! YUCK!!!!! And there were two gallons of it!!! I called him and said "what the heck did you buy 2% for?" He didn't know he had, he just grabbed some milk. I guess I can be grateful that it wasn't whole milk! Anyways that leads me back to my original story. I had to go to the store and get me a little bit of ff milk, I couldn't stand not having milk anymore. I got the milk and few other things and went home. I got home about 2pm. I was making dinner at 5pm and realized "oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!!!!" I forgot to bring in the groceries from the car - milk included!!!! So I went out to get the milk, it was just slightly cool - so would you still drink it? And that half gallon I had to get cost the same as an entire gallon at the commissary!

Ramblings

This post is going to be lots of me rambling on and on. I have had a few things on my mind lately and I couldn't sleep last night thinking of them all, so I figured it might help me if I write it all out, deep breath, here goes. I have finally decided I have a problem with commitment (no, not like marriage) but with things that have to be done. Let me explain - Tyler has Piano on Monday nights, I have piano on Tuesday nights, I have YW every Wednesday night, Thursday night is either: YW Camp meetings, visiting teaching, girls night out, or book club (not every Thursday, but between those things, every Thursday night is usually taken up). So that leaves me with a free Friday night and Saturday, and we usually get a babysitter and go on dates on either Friday or Saturday - so there really is never a free night. We also have had in the past Tyler's soccer and now I was going to start T-ball for Tyler. Ok, I had a little break-down, and yes, I realize I only have two children, one of whom is not even involved in any extracurricular activities yet. I don't know how moms of more than two do it with all of the children involved in something - aaaawwwww!!!!!!! SO, I don't know if this is a good thing or not, we will see. I stopped Tyler's piano lessons (it was like pulling teeth to get him to sit at the piano and I have been pulling his teeth since September of last year!) although I really, really didn't want to - I want him to love playing the piano - it runs in the genes, his Nana F. is a very good pianist, his Gigi is is great pianist (not to mention all of his Landes cousins are all music protégés), but I know he got it from me, I remember sitting at the piano and crying because I had to practice and go to lessons. Finally my mom let me quit and here I am again taking piano every week and paying for lessons so I can learn to play the piano...sigh... So that leaves Monday nights free - very good- right?? Well I still wanted more. So I am now paying a girl in my ward to watch Brena every Thursday morning so I can go to piano lessons while Tyler is at preschool and Brena is at playtime. So that freed up Tuesday evenings, I am feeling SO much better at this point! Wednesday nights are not going to change anytime soon, being the YW pres I HAVE to be there every Wed. night. Thursday nights are only changing a little - I need some time to myself to enjoy being by myself so I will keep the girls night out once a month on the schedule. I have no choice about the camp meetings or the v.t. either, but camp meetings will end after June when we go to camp. So I will have to can the book nights for a little while. I am feeling oh so much better! And, we are not playing T-ball. I can't tell you how much better I am feeling about everything. We can go to the library and I don't have to worry about hurrying home, we can go to the park and not worry about hurrying home. If you read through all of that, thanks for hearing me out :) I feel much better and I am so happy it is Tuesday night, nothing to do but sit and watch The Biggest Loser and eat ice cream!!!

Spring Break

We have been on Spring Break this week and today we went down the Naval Aviation Museum with some friends. The museum is great, the kids love it and it's free. We spend a lot of time down there in the summer because they keep it nice and cool in there. They have lots of cockpits you can climb up into and just fun things for the kids to see. Usually we also see the Blue Angles practicing when we go down there, but we didn't get to see them today.

The little girls couldn't make it home, they were just too tired after a fun day of running around!

Trying to be like Daddy

TJ got all of his flight gear today so he tried it on for us and to practice putting all of it on. That stuff is really heavy! He weighs about 200 lbs, but when he weighed himself with all that gear on the scale said 225! He has his g-suit, life preserver (where his parachute attaches to) and other things I don't know what they are. The kids wanted to try his helmet on. They look so funny, all of them!