*Monday Memos*

*MONDAY MEMOS*

    

 (If pictures are too small, just click to enlarge) 

dear monday run, or attempt to run!  I figured it was time for me to get out and back at it.  I did run almost 7 miles on Saturday (with a few walk breaks in there) and it wore me out.  Today felt a lot better.  Best part was I hit the jackpot with heart shaped rocks!  Not to mention a quarter and a dime.  Can you find the dime in the bottom right photo?  Not sure how I did!

These cows were so friendly. I think they thought I was there to feed them.  Sorry guys!  Can you find the snake in the photo on the right.  I ALMOST stepped right on it!  Eeeeek!

dear mr. cat, you sure do love to be outside, but I hate to break it to you, it is going to be short lived.  Of course, once that happens you'll just go into hibernation mode. Life is rough....

dear pinterest fail, I wanted to make THIS ↓ for the fam Halloween party...

But it turned out like THIS instead ↓

It actually looked really good until I transported it for 45 minutes which caused the top of the coffin to break off and it was a little hard to repair once I got to the party.  Plus I needed a smaller skeleton but I couldn't find one.

dear family halloween party, can you guess what we are?

We needed S'more peeps to make it work but since Taylor and Bryce couldn't attend, Dave had to do double duty as the Hershey Bar AND the graham cracker.  I am a marshmallow, not a ghost!  :)

Spooky treats

The whole Fam Damily!  Well, those that were able to attend.  We are still missing quite a few!

Attempted funny photo

A few candids

It was a riot!  We played a funny game about "your story".  I was "chosen" as a volunteer.  It was hilarious actually.  Lots of fun.  Dave had to release a missionary when we got home at 11:00 pm.

We came home and I loved looking at my framed Halloween photos.  I had to add this because I love to look at these and they are only up for a short month.

dear taggarts with the fun bunch,  the day arrived! No blizzard this time!  Last time we came, we got caught in a blizzard on the way home.  The weather has  been amazing this year!  We have been blessed with an Indian Summer!  The high for today was 81!

A FUN bunch indeed!!!

We do have a lot of fun together. 

We ordered treats because what good is it to go all the way to Taggarts and not get their yummy desserts!?

I moved Mr. Indian Chief for the photo.  He's gained a few pounds since the last time I moved him.

If you look really close at this laughing photo (I think I am about to pee my pants!), you can see an Orb right on my head.  We decided it was Davaleen. I am 100% positive it was! Pretty cool!  We all really miss her!  It's so unbelievable to me that she is really gone.

When I got home and opened my "leftover" boxes....I discovered I had Kathy's instead of mine!!!  She got three of my cookies and my turkey sandwich and I got her carrot cake and BLT.  Oh well. I am not a huge fan of carrot cake and I really wanted those cookies, but the frosting was good!  Guess this means I will have to go again!

My Sista's do this ↑ for me.  We had a long discussion about how we can help one of our Sista's who is really struggling right now. I hope we can.

dear runs this week, I found some great heart rocks this past week.

And this little guy was just so dang cute. He was on my route towards Honeyville just tied up by the highway.  He was so friendly.

Hahaha!!!!

dear apple juice mass production, I was not really wanting to do apple juice especially when I saw how tiny the apples were this year. I felt it was a waste of time because we had no time this week to add even one more thing to it, BUT....

We still did it!  Bryce picked ALL of the apples!  5.5 bushels worth!  That kid is the THEE hardest worker!  He never stops and is always helping us out around the house and does things even before we ask him to.  He is amazing.

THIS was the end result!

THIS was the process.

It was a lot of work, but kind of fun with the cool contraptions Dave's bros came up with.  The worst part is always the mess.  But happily it was all done outside!

YES, I am even smiling!

All in all we got 84 quarts!!!  NOW THAT'S A LOT OF JUICE!

I pray we drink it before it ferments into beer!  ☺

dear randomness, and because of all the apple juice we made, we found ourselves needing THIS again....

This is the BEST fruit fly trap on the planet my brilliant husband figured out.  It catches them almost instantly.  Just a piece of cantaloupe, some water, some apple cider vinegar and a few drops of Dawn dish soap covered with plastic wrap.  Place several small holes in the top of the plastic wrap.

Dave's friend gave him this shirt, I thought it was "cuke".

Bryce's adventures

This is part of the wood he chopped up....a TON of work!

Taylor's adventures

Taylor headed off to Hawaii before us

He had a SEVEN hour layover in LA after a short one in San Diego.  Total travel time is almost 17 hours. POOR KID!

What Taylor had to pay for lunch at the LAX during his 7 hour layover!  YIKES!

Our son Skyler helped catch all these TUNA.  They are HUGE.  Hard to tell by the photo.

Taylor's buddy CJ sent me this photo from San Fran at the Golden Gate bridge.  What are the odds!!?  CRAZY! I told Dave now we have to go there on this date and find it!  It's only six days after our anniversary.  COOL!

Speaking of Hawaii, this is going there to Jeremy and Crystal's new babe Navy! 

Our home teacher sent me these amazing pictures!!

dear missionary mckay, here is the weather forecast where you are right now.

Brrr....

This week's photos.  Mostly of his apartment and their General Conference feast.  Not sure where that was.

His entire District

dear past marathon...I forgot to post my training plan on my marathon post.  So I am posting it here. I ran 617 plus miles this training period.  I tried really hard to keep up on the plan, but didn't follow it quite as religiously as the last one, but still did okay.

CHEESE!

dear best banana bread EVER!  It's my chocolate swirl banana bread and it's to die for.  I tweaked a couple recipes and came up with this version.  This photo was taken before I baked it.

Here is the recipe:

Jo's Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5-6 ripe bananas mashed well (about 3 cups)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk*
• 4 large eggs, beaten lightly
• 3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) melted and cooled
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a 9-inch loaf pan with parchment paper then grease the parchment paper with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla.
4. Using a rubber spatula, lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients just until combined.  Remove 1 cup of the batter to a separate bowl.
5. Melt the chocolate chips in a medium microwave-safe bowl for 30-second increments stirring between each until smooth. Cool slightly then add to the 1 cup of batter.
6. Fill the loaf pan with alternating scoops of the banana batter and the chocolate batter. Using a knife, swirl the batters together.
7. Bake the bread for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. Allow the loaf to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer it to a cooling rack to cool completely. Slice and serve.

Makes 3 large loaves or 6 small.

*If you don't have buttermilk on hand, add 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to the 1/2 cup of milk. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.

I WANT TO MAKE THESE!  How cute are they???

dear power of moms conference, I was able to listen to a few of the online speakers for this great webinar conference.  I wish more conferences would hold them online so you could learn at your own convenience.

I have always loved the Eyres.  They were the keynote speakers at my very first American Mother's Summer Survival Camp for Mom that I put on in my community way back in around 1995 or 1996.  I have worked with Linda in AMI a bit since then.  She is amazing.  Her daughter Shawni Pothier was the AMI National Young Mother of the Year and I got to meet with her when our national convention was held here.  

 At the National AMI Convention in 2011

With the Linda Eyre and Shawni Pothier

 Speaking of conferences, our annual Women's Forum is coming up soon!  I have missed the last two planning meetings but I have been working with the three speakers I acquired for it this year.  We have had a few glitches and this week I spent a lot of time on it.  We have a lot of great speakers this year.  It is going to be one of the best.  If you are interested in attending, here is the brochure:

dear friday run, I headed out west and even though I was only supposed to go four miles, I accumulated a lot of burrs and sticky briers in those four miles!  I had to run through this horrible prickly sagebrushy stuff where the trail ended in order to get to the other trail and I  missed the trail and was literally screaming into the brush at the snakes to not come out!  I was a little freaked out I was going to see one and step on it.  I KNOW there are plenty of snakes in that stuff because I have seen SO many dead ones on the road.  But, I survived and it only took me 15-20 minutes to pick off all the briers from my shoes and socks.  UGH!

I thought these were beautiful!

dear dinner and play with these funsters!

 My Mom invited me to go with her to see Young Frankenstein and even though things were really busy at that time, I love spending time with my Mamma and so I was looking forward to it.
We ate at the old Maple Gardens, now called China Star.  There weren't many peeps there which was worrisome but the food was actually good. 

 We had some good laughs reading the menu because it had SO many typos in it!  

• Pesi for Pepsi
• Mt. Dwe for Mt. Dew
• Roodt beer for Root beer
• Fried French for French Fries
• Server with rice (there weren't too many servers we wanted with our rice though)
• A few more I can't remember

We were joking about it and having a good laugh. We then headed to the Ziegfeld Theater to see Young Frankenstein.

 It was well done, but oh my!  I had forgotten how many innuendos and how raunchy the movie was.  However, it didn't compare to the stage version.  I was a little surprised!  Probably not a play I would recommend.  But it was fun to be with my Mom and we laughed about it on the way home.  We took her friend Jean Bell with us too.

My Pops with my witch hat on.  I snapped this before we headed to dinner.

dear saturday "long" run, long is relative.  I went eight miles but post marathon, that is what I am supposed to do.  I met Robin and as we were heading out, Sherri joined us.  We ran around the city.  I was feeling it about mile 6 ish.  But glad to get it done.  

Dave wanted me to stand by the wood to get a better idea of how much there really is.  Kind of like when you put a penny next to an object to give perspective.  He put someone who jogs next to the logs.  ☺ Bwhahaha

dear bryce, I really am constantly amazed at what a patient and kind person you are.  Your life is basically one of service.  Sadly, you don't get paid for all you do in your job and that is just plain frustrating...but you take it in stride while making plans for a solution.  This weekend you headed out on a seven hour round trip commute to fish with your boss in the rain (he can't drive himself so you go to drive) and then you will get back on Sunday night and get up the next morning to go to Idaho with him for your job.  You will get back that evening and head to Wyoming to help your grandpa winterize the cabin (a six hour round trip commute to Wyoming so a total of six hours on the road) and return the next day to turn around and head back to Idaho that week to work.  You are kind to a fault.  I am glad you are such a nice, generous and giving person.  I just wish you wouldn't get taken advantage of so much because of that.

dear quotes,

Gotta love this one!
  

My contribution to humanity

So very true!

We MUST ask!


A few quizzes: