Not one, not two, but three flat tires!

Did I jinx myself in the last post when I talked about cell phones and flat tires on the freeway?
It almost seems like I did.

Well....
I promised more details about our Thanksgiving, but
I didn't say they would all be good details. Here goes:

My husband and I had picked up his 91 year old parents to drive them to Provo for Thanksgiving dinner. We were happily driving along I-15 in the HOV lane when we heard a pretty loud noise. A big trailer had come up along side us just then and we assumed it was making the noise. The trailer moved on but the noise stayed. About this time a passing motorist gave us that warning-pointing-worried look that usually means something on your car is falling off, on fire, or going flat. We realized that we needed to make it to the shoulder, but getting out of the HOV lane was not an easy feat. We illegally jumped over the solid white lines (don't tell!) and dodged traffic to get across to the shoulder. As we got out to survey the damage we saw that the back tire was pretty much destroyed. We can change it and hurry on to dinner. Right?

Well, it was about this time that we noticed that the front tire was also flat. Our spirits were starting to rapidly sink, but as we discovered the third flat tire we pretty much felt as deflated as the now useless collection of Michelins.
Nobody carries around THREE spare tires!

And that is where the cell phone came in and saved the day.
We were able to catch our children who luckily were behind us. We also called a tow truck.

The story does have a good ending:
♥We made it to dinner.
♥We enjoyed spending the day with our loved ones.
♥We gave thanks for all our blessings (including some new ones- being protected from danger).

The mystery still remains:
Did we run over something?
Were the brand new (two weeks old) tires defective?
Is the freeway haunted?


Thank goodness the day held some relaxing moments as well!
Thanks little Brooklyn!
♥
JoAnn

The great hot roll experiment.....

Remember how I told you that I made hot rolls for our Thanksgiving dinner- for twenty-four people? Well, I didn't tell you that I only make them about once a year and haven't always perfected them.
(Yes, I did make a batch of Rhodes rolls, too, just in case......


I even had a little helper.
Maddie had a great time rolling out her dough. She and I worked side by side.

We watched and waited......

and worried a little.....


They looked pretty, but how would they taste?

Delicious! (Whew!)
They actually turned out pretty good this time.
(At least we ate them all!)


My version of Peggy's Hot Roll recipe

4 cups warm water (I used 2 cups warm water and 2 cups warm milk)
1 cup shortening (I used 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup shortening)
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon salt
4 eggs
3 tablespoons yeast
12 cups flour

I melted the shortening/ butter in the warm liquid and let it cool a bit before adding the yeast.
Stir in the yeast and let it dissolve.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
(The dough will be slightly sticky.)
Cover and let it raise (about 1 hour).
Punch the dough down and let it raise one more time (about another hour).
(The dough can be covered tightly and refrigerated at this point and rolled out later if you want.)
Roll out into a big circle and spread with melted butter.
Cut in triangle pie shapes and roll up like a croissant.
Place on cookie sheet and let raise again (around an hour).
Bake at 350 degrees for 12 - 15 minutes.

♥
JoAnn

Stay tuned for more Thanksgiving Day adventures!
(I told you I was thankful for my cell phone!)

Giving thanks.....

Today is Thanksgiving!
I'm up early and the house is quiet (my rolls need some "raising" time).
My family is still sleeping soundly.
This gives me some time to reflect on things I'm thankful for:

My family
My religion
Friends
My job (I complain, but I really enjoy it and I'm thankful for the paycheck.)
My house (And our ability to host the family and friends who came by last night.)
Our health
Our freedom (Thank you, thank you, thank you to those who serve our country!)
Our heritage (One of my students was asked where his ancestors came from. He said he didn't think he had any ancestors!)
Food, clothing, and material blessings
Nature

I'm even thankful for some of those little things we often take for granted:

Rhodes rolls (My back up plan if the home made ones don't turn out)
The fireplace (Oh, the warmth it gives as I snuggle in front of it on a cold night!)
My cell phone (Yes, I was once stranded with a flat tire on the freeway- pre cell phones.)
My computer (How would I be doing this otherwise?)
My camera (Which I have a LOT to learn about.)
ETc.

I hope everyone has a great day today!
We will miss those who are far away!

♥
JoAnn

P.S. Don't you hate it when you get full too quickly and you can't eat all the delicious food you want? (That's kind of a mixed blessing!)

I'll soon be dancing.....

The carefree joys of childhood.....


In twenty-four hours I will be dancing and shouting for joy, too!
After another LONG night of parent conferences...
I have a five day weekend ahead.

And plenty of reasons to be thankful!
Yeah!

♥
JoAnn

P.S. Thanks for letting me borrow these pictures, Liz!

Multicultural Christmas trees....sneak peek

Disclaimer: I am not quite ready for Christmas to start yet.
(Not until we celebrate Thanksgiving.)
However....
We went to the West Valley City Cultural Center tonight and saw some pretty amazing Christmas trees representing a lot of different cultures.

(Click on the pictures to see them bigger.)

I think the display goes through the end of December.
It was free and well worth the visit.
(Their web page gives the hours as 9:00 a.m. to 6 p.m.)
They often have free concerts and other events at the Cultural Center. We like to go to the outdoor summer concerts and have enjoyed groups such as the Utah Symphony. If you are interested check it out.
Who doesn't like FREE entertainment?

Thanks, Candee, for inviting us to your jewelry show!
(Hope you sold a lot of jewelry.)
♥
JoAnn

P.S. Guess who's having a baby?
Yeah!

Beautiful sunrise....

Sunrise special.....

As I was driving to work a few days ago I almost ran off the road while admiring the sun coming up. Luckily, I had my camera with me. Too bad I couldn't quite capture the moment, although maybe you can imagine how pretty it was.

(Isn't it sad that some days we go to work as the sun is coming up
and return from work as it is going down?)

♥
JoAnn

Elementary arts.......I love them!

(All of the art on this page was created by students at our school.
Some of it was done last year.)

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."
-Scott Adams

Our school has a wonderful arts program. The students get to spend time each week with an art, music, and dance teacher.
We recently had a Math/Art program for parents and it was quite amazing.
(Over 1800 pieces of art are now hanging in the halls at our school!)

The kids sang songs about gravity, fractions, and subtraction.
They did a rap about probability.
They told stories about the planets and other science concepts through dance.
It was impressive.

Many of our students have never had any artistic training. Most have never had any kind of private music lessons. Dance lessons are a real luxury. Some don't even have crayons in their home.

Beverly Taylor Sorenson has generously donated millions of dollars to give low income schools like ours, and others throughout the state of Utah, a wonderful exposure to the arts.
The grant only pays half of the cost and cutbacks may mean the end of the program. This could be our last year to have this opportunity.

If you have a chance, please let your local legislator know how important the arts are to our educational system!

Thanks,
JoAnn

(The Beverly Taylor Sorenson link is to an article in "The Salt Lake Tribune". It was written by Brian Maffly and Julie Checkoway. I hope I'm not violating copy right laws. It is a great article. Check it out.)

A Little Tale of Thanksgiving.....

Heroes.....don't forget their service

Today is Veterans' Day.
A day to remind us how much we appreciate all those who have served in our armed forces.

I love these quotes:
"The price of freedom is never free."
(I don't know who said it, sorry.)

"Courage is fear holding on for a minute longer."
-George s. Patton


Here are some of my heroes:

My dad served in the army near the end of World War II.

My grandfather served in the medical corps during World War I.

My nephew Shane served in Iraq.

and...
My father-in-law served in the navy.



Thank you to everyone who has served and sacrificed for our country!

♥
JoAnn

A recipe for potato salad....sort of

My daughter Liz has been working on a family cookbook.
She has been updating the one we already have and has been asking me for recipes of some of our favorite family foods that were missing in the first version.

The problem is....
I don't have recipes for some things.
I like to throw things together and cook by trial and error.
I know what ingredients to put in, but I always guess at the amounts. Usually, I just taste things and see what is missing or needed.
(I inherited this trait from my grandmother, but she took a lot of her delicious recipes
with her when she died. My kids want our recipes to survive!)

We grew up cooking by adding a pinch of this, a dash or that, or a glob or something. Pretty hard converting over to a recipe!


(Just for fun my daughter Michelle found these measuring spoons for me!)

This weekend we tried to come up with an actual recipe for our potato salad. It was pretty interesting as we tried to measure and figure things out. It is close, but it still might require the "taste test" to see if the balance is good.

Here goes:
Potato Salad

14 to 16 potatoes- about 18 cups diced (cook until tender, peel, dice into small cubes)

1 cup chopped celery or about 3 stalks

3 or 4 cups Mayonnaise (This depends on how creamy you like your salad.)

½ tablespoon Lemon Juice

1 tablespoon onion flakes (or several green onions diced)

2 tablespoons Hot Dog Relish

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon paprika

½ to ¾ cup milk (or more if the dressing is too thick)

6 hard boiled eggs

1 hard boiled egg to cut up on top of salad

Salt and pepper to taste

Dice cooked potatoes, celery and hard boiled eggs. Mix together everything else. Pour mixture over potatoes and stir. When salad is the consistency you want it to be, slice a hard boiled egg to decorate the top. Sprinkle with Paprika.

How do you make potato salad?

♥
JoAnn


If you are looking for some easy, low cost Christmas gift ideas check out the "party"
at Just a Girl.


At the bottom of today's blog she has a list of sites to check out.

A perfect fall day.....

(Norman Rockwell painting....from Google.com)

It's a perfect fall day!
(Who doesn't love Saturdays?)

Remember those old family excursions going to visit with relatives, or heading off on a little scenic drive? Maybe it was a trip to town to take in a movie or have an ice cream cone. The whole family gathered together. Excitement filled the air. The day held so much promise.

I have some great memories of time spent with my family.
(I wish my parents were still here!)

Today we got together with some of my husband's relatives to pay respect to Aunt Maxine, who recently passed away. She lived a good life. Her family paid her wonderful tributes. She is now with her husband who passed away six short weeks ago. Life moves on.

While funerals are a somber occasion, they are also a time to reconnect with those you just don't get to see very often. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and old friends you shared great memories with. Aren't we lucky to have our family traditions?

On another note...here are some more reasons why this is a perfect fall day:

I am lucky to have most of my family here for the weekend to help me celebrate an early birthday. (I get to spend my real birthday at school for Math Night.)
I have enjoyed rocking my new granddaughter and playing with Maddie.
We are now looking out through some sparkling CLEAN windows (only 2, but still).
The patio furniture is put away for winter.
The air has that great autumn crispness.
Golden yellow trees line the street.

Well, I'm off to see what other adventures this day has in store for us.
I hope the day is a good one for all of you, too!

♥
JoAnn

***************************
PS. The rest of the day ended up being just as nice.
We figured out my recipe for potato salad for our family cook book (it was just in my head) and we enjoyed a spiritual stake conference meeting with Elder Curtis of the Quorum of Seventy.

My first mosaic.....I'm still learning

I know- Halloween is over, but I had a lot of pictures to work with and I wanted to try to make a mosaic, so "Halloween" it is. I found out that you can go to flickr to make them, but my husband tried to teach me how to do it myself- the hard way!
(He promised it will get easier with practice.)

(If you are a perfectionist you will notice that my borders are not always consistent, and I probably could have been more artistic organizing the pictures.)

However,
I am sort of proud that I was able to create my first one.

Now I need to learn to take those breathtaking photos!
I guess the learning process never ends.

P.S. I could probably improve my photography skills at some exotic place- like Hawaii.
(If anyone is interested!)

♥
JoAnn

I linked this to Mary's mosaic party at Little Red House. Check out all the fun ones people have come up with.

Mosaics.....

Last night I fell in love with the mosaics on The Little Red House.
I don't know how to make them,
but
I intend to learn.
They are so cool!

I mentioned to Liz that I wanted to know how to do them and
tada....
she whipped up this cute one.

I guess that is one more thing she will have to talk me through over the phone!

Thanks ahead of time, Liz!
And thank you for the cute mosaic you made!
Now I need to take some interesting pictures!

P.S. Don't you think her kids are cute?

Home made apple cider.....yum!

This weekend my husband and some of our family went to spend a little time with our new granddaughter and her family. We traded places!
Her parents are "house-sitting" at a home with a few apple trees on the property, including a Golden Delicious tree.


The house includes a lovely big yard and lots of room (something their little apartment lacked) which they all enjoy.


However, the best part of the whole deal would be the neighbors who live nearby.

They have been greeted, fed, helped with yard work, and welcomed into a tight little community of caring neighbors. On Saturday they were invited to bring their apples and come together for neighborhood apple cider making party.

They all brought their boxes of apples, some jugs, and a lot of energy.

Ken enjoyed being part of the process, too.

Now they have some delicious juice to enjoy!

Wouldn't it be nice if all the neighborhoods in the world looked out for each other?

♥
JoAnn