*Monday Memos*

*MONDAY MEMOS*

   

 (If pictures are too small, just click to enlarge) 
Weekly recap of my rather crazy, insane, but fun and rewarding life!

dear monday, oh man, my run was hot!  But I guess it IS July so that should be expected!  I found a Brigham Rocks rock but left it there for someone else. I didn't really want to run with it.  Hah  

I tried to get a bit of sun after.  Sky, Sarah and Carson headed to Lehi.  Actually, everyone was gone but me. I took advantage of the time and tried to make a dent in catching this blog up.  I hate being behind.  I also ran to the store and did some cleaning.  For FHE we played Farkle...or as Carson calls it Sparkle.  He was pretty good at it.  I am amazed at his attention span for things like that.

Today is also my Mom and Dad's 59th Anniversary!  I have been blessed with two of the greatest parents on earth.  They truly are the cream of the crop.  I am very grateful for them.

This was taken on their 50th 

dear 4th of july, it started early for me.  I headed to Honeyville to run my traditional Honeyville Freedom Run 5K!  Dave went and played Pickleball for a while but was there when I crossed the finish line.  Lots of peeps! :o)  I wore my lucky shoes that Sky put the motivational tags on at Boston because I was not feeling like racing today.  

The course this year was a bit treacherous (soft soil) and I almost went down twice.  Luckily, I caught myself.  It was also one hot day!  Even so early.  

 Coming into the finish line.

I took 1st place in my age division even though I was exactly one full minute slower than last year.  I ran it in 25:20 last year and in 26:20 this year.  I came in 8th overall woman and 46th overall runner out of 167 or so.  My pace was slower at 8:28.  8:09 last year.  It was the heat.  I think my PR is 24:52. and a 8:00 pace.  I talked to a lot of people who said they were all slower this year thanks to the heat (even the winner who also won last year), but he was only a few seconds slower. Hah  I just hope that's why.

I won a quart of Honeyville honey for my prize.  If I came in 2nd or 3rd, I still would have won a quart of honey.  Hmm....  The lid top did have a 1st place on it though. Some peeps turn those into medals.  :) 

I also won a door prize! $10 gift care to the Rusted Spoon.  I'll take that!  I chatted with cute Colleen.  She is one of my favorite peeps.  We stayed and had breakfast.  It was okay, but since I got it for half price for running and some other runner gave Dave their half price off, so that made it worth it I guess.  

 

I love the shirts this year and I especially love the mini bear of honey!

I rushed home and showered.  Oh, that felt so good!  A nice cool shower!  Then I made food for our picnic.  I made this yummy salad! ↓ And then some no bake oat bars. Both were hits!   Recipe's below. 

Red, White and Blue Cheesecake Salad

 
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1 (3.4-ounce) package instant cheesecake pudding, unprepared
1 cup International Delight French Vanilla Creamer
1 pound strawberries, cut into bite-size pieces
2 (6-ounce) containers blueberries ( I used blackberries)
4 large bananas, sliced
juice of 1 lemon

In a medium tall bowl (I use my 8 cup measuring cup), using an electric mixer, whip cream cheese until it becomes smooth. It may bind up in the beaters, but continue as is and it will loosen up. Add the dry pudding mix. Beat until well combined.

With the mixer on low, slowly add the creamer to the cream cheese mix. Add it about a tablespoon at a time and then mix until it becomes a smooth mixture and all of the creamer has combined into the cream cheese, repeat until all of the creamer has been added to the mixture. Whip until smooth. Refrigerate while you prepare the fruit.

In a large bowl, combine lemon juice and bananas. Stir to coat bananas completely and pour off any excess lemon juice. Add strawberries and blueberries. Gently stir to combine. Fold the cheesecake mixture into the fruit.

Chill until ready to serve or serve immediately.

DONNA'S NOTES: Do not pour all of the creamer into the cream cheese at once. It will get clumpy and no matter how long you beat it, it will stay that way. Trust me on this one.

To make this ahead: prepare the cheesecake mixture and refrigerate in a bowl. Mix all of the fruit in a large bowl and refrigerate. Before serving, drain any excess liquid from the fruit and then fold the cheesecake filling into the fruit. Serve and enjoy!

http://www.theslowroasteditalian.com/2017/05/red-white-and-blue-cheesecake-salad.html

No Bake Chocolate Oat Bars

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter 

 Directions

Grease a 9×9 inch square pan.
Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla. Mix in the oats. Cook over low heat 2 to 3 minutes, or until ingredients are well blended. Press half of mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Reserve the other half for topping.
Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture over the crust in the pan, and spread evenly with a knife or the back of a spoon.
Crumble the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate layer, pressing in gently. Cover, and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours or overnight. Bring to room temperature before cutting into bars.
These are very yummy!

The Toone's came over and we headed to camp Mantua.  Dave's parents came up later.  The Hendricks were there.  We felt bad for crashing their party but they said they were there all weekend and leaving in a bit to go back for a BBQ.  They are so nice.  They let us borrow their game Kan Jam.  We ate and then played it.  It was a lot of fun.  

 Me and Karen DO have a good time!  We like to be silly!  Barry asked her why she is so happy when she's around me.  She said because we get each other. haha  We do have a lot of laughs!

Carson got really warm and feeling sick.  We laid him down on the table on some soft blankets. He is the most amazing kid.  He didn't complain once.  We came home and gave him some medicine. He seemed to start feeling much better. We headed to Pioneer Park to go watch the fireworks.  Dave and I walked aorund trying to find McKay and Maddie P.  We did find them as well as a million other peeps we talked to. Nothing like a small town event.  It was fun. McKay and Maddie looked so cute.  

 You don't see THIS everyday! (The snake -  not me touching it - well both!) Especially at the fireworks!  I ran and grabbed Carson so he could touch it.  He wasn't too keen on the idea, but did it and so did I!  I kinda screamed, but I did it!

 It was creepy, especially when I went to touch it's tail end and it's head turned and came after me to sniff me!  Eeeeek!!!  I was pretty brave.  Mickey was as well. 

I finally got to meet Aubrey's boyfriend.  I basically grabbed his leg as I went falling over.  Always a nice way to meet someone.  lol  

 FUN FUN FUN!

The fireworks were amazing!  They always put on a great show in our little town.   

dear wednesday, TODAY is the day McKay was supposed to be arriving home from Russia.  I am SO glad he is already here and we got to spend these extra six weeks with him!  What a huge blessing it's been!

  

It was another hot morning.  Check out the forecast.  We have had many more than normal triple digits this summer.  I saw some cows and I tried to Facetime Carson so he could see them.  I also saw some baby goats.  

I headed to Tony's Pizza for our group lunch.  We planned it since Shauna is in town for a couple weeks.  Sadly, only three of us showed up. Pretty sad when about 32 were invited.  Summer is hard I know, but still.  Unfortunately, Tony's was closed for two weeks!  So we headed around the corner to the ice cream store and ordered sandwiches.  Dawn brought her daughter as well.  After we ate, we shopped in the cute little store.  It was a fun time and sometimes it's nice to have a small group.

 We still had our picture taken in front of Tony's.  It was our high school hangout. 

I then headed to my group harp lesson.  As I was going in, Mickey was leaving and Karen showed up to pick her up.  We talked for a bit.  The lesson was tough. I was not prepared for the songs we played.  She also gave us several new pieces that we had to sight read.  The traffic was really bad on the way home.  I prefer my lessons in the morning for that reason.   Sky was gone camping with Sarah and Carson.  

I keep stealing pix from Sarah's posts cause she gets Sky to be in pictures. Something I have no success with 99% of the time.  So, I have very few pix of him.  I LOVE this one of all of them.

We went to our new Carl's Jr. for first time. I just shared Dave's.  I can't remember the last time I was able to actually eat a burger.  I would gain 3 lbs over night if I did.  Very frustrating.  The joys of getting old!  Ugh.  I helped McKay pack for his Hawaii trip to go see Taylor.  We went to Shopko to get him some swimsuits and other things he needed.  I was up way late. 

dear thursday, I was SO grateful Dave got up early to take McKay and Natalie to the airport!  I am glad he gets to reunite with Taylor after two years!  Almost to the day.  It was one hot run!  I got out too late and it was 82 before I got home.  I used to love running in that heat, but not anymore.  I did my PT. I haven't been keeping up on that lately, but my injury has been doing a bit better.  

It was weird having no one here at home.  Pretty quiet.   My injury wasn't hurting, but for some strange reason my hips were.  That's a new thing.  If it's not one thing, it's another!   I made tacos for dinner but we just had Bryce home.  As we were finishing up dinner, the Parrishes stopped by to tell us goodbye.  It's really sad they are moving.  They are one of my favorite families.  Maddie came with them.  I learned that her and McKay had gone crayfish hunting and that he caught a snake in Kotter Canyon that she showed me a picture of it.  I feel bad for her because she is basically going to feel homeless since she will be going to Snow.  She is in Texas now for a month.  Then she will come back here before going to Snow.  She is a great gal! 

The crazy manikin is back.  Not a good photo. 

dear friday, I got out early and got in my run.  I was on the fence about whether or not to go, but I decided to head to my AMI meeting in Layton.  My phone took me to the wrong house.  Luckily, I didn't knock on the door.  I noticed the address was not the one I added but it had some random one. Crazy. The house was gorgeous that we met in.  

I didn't know anyone except Deann and LuAnn (who is our MOY from here). Jenniece and Diane got there later.  I was glad to see them. The meeting got a bit heated over the budget.  I also tried to get info from the young mother who was there what the needs are now of young mothers.  With the internet and social media now, their needs are not the same as ours were.  They don't need to "meet" as a group for answers to parenting issues or the social.  It seems a lot of them like to do service. It was interesting.  I feel like I need to start a FB page for them in our area and in other areas.  What to do?  Jenniece called me on my way home to talk about the money issue.  We are both sick about how much has been spent.  Very confusing to us.  I ran to a few stores.  It was 104° outside today!  

Sky was home from camping. I took Carson with me to go feed Trixie.  Dave and I went on a date to the Maddox drive in.  

Glad to have this little guy back.  We went outside and swang.   

dear saturday, I got out at 6:00 a.m. and met Robin, Sherrie and Sherry.  We had fun chatting as we ran.  We ran 14.5.  But actually went 16.  Part of it walking. 

  We stopped by the Farmer's Market to check it out.  There was a booth selling the cutest puzzles and they had a panda one they could make. I ordered one for Carson's birthday.   

 My Mom and Dad came to see Carson.  He goes home Tuesday.  Waaaa!  Sky and Sarah were wave running in Mantua and so we drove up there to see if we could find them.   We stopped and got ice cream at the little store.  My Dad got a cheeseburger. It was a lot of fun.  But VERY hot! 

 We found them but they didn't see us.  These are pix from the first wave running trip.

These pictures of him and my mom make my heart smile!

My very talented niece Aubrey was opening tonight for the Backward's Piano Guy.  Sky and Sarah went and I stayed and watched Carson.  Pretty much the whole fam went to support her.  I heard she did a great job. She is so talented as well as beautiful inside and out. I just love her. 

dear sunday, I was planning on going to Bountiful to Tanner's homecoming but ended up not going.  I also didn't make it to McKay's bud's Kaden's. I did make it to our block.  Sacrament was really good. Dave and Carson played as well as him and Bryce.  I made panda cupcakes with him.  He is a delight to be around and so much fun.  

 Panda cupcakes.  He liked them!

 We then painted some more rocks and finished the ones we started at the cabin. 

Even Mr. Cat likes hanging out with him.

Okay, I may have taken that statement a bit too far!  LOL

dear boys, a few pix from McKay's trip to Hawaii.  Some of Taylor and Bryce as well.

This is from Seven Brothers.  Taylor told me that McKay ate it all and fast.  Looks like a heart attack on a plate to me!  

 

Taylor

Bryce

dear random, 

Okay, when I saw these pix, I thought this was a fake little mini model.  Nope.  It's photos taken from above.  Pretty cool!

dear throwback, I came across a lot of oldies this week that popped up on my FB memories.  I couldn't resist some of these.  

These chickas are all teenagers now!  CRAZY!   Boy, time flies!

Mr. Cat as a little baby.  Okay, maybe a toddler. ;)

SIX years ago!  Skydiving on my 50th!  I love this picture!  Sky looks so proud of himself that he got me to do this!  hah

 Vegas baby!  This was at least five years ago!  I am supposed to be going again on the 17th, but I am going to Bear Lake instead for a family reunion with my fam.

 I had to find these for Carson because he is obsessed with 101 Dalmatians and Cruella Deville.  He sings it all the time.  He always says, "Blast this wretched, wretched pen!"

dear quotes,