Young Love... ah!

Thought I'd share some cute pictures of my sons and their girlfriends...

Michael and his girlfriend, Ashley Yoshikawa

Grant and his girlfriend, Alyx Clark

What cute couples, huh? Here are some more of Michael and Ashley(first), and Grant and Alyx(second) that I found on Facebook (yep, I have to go to Facebook to find out what my kids are doing!)

Michael and Ashley watching a Disney show with cousin, Ellie

Michael and Ashley in New York with their best friend, Garrett

It's been a CRAZY week - I had surgery on Monday, and it wiped me out! I haven't done anything on this blog for a whole week. Last weekend I went with my husband, Rick, to Las Vegas. He rode his new bike, with some of his high school friends, on a 100 kilometer ride through the Valley of Fire. I drove one of the support vehicles. The ride was named Carma's Cin City Century. It was an interesting day. Saturday started out just fine - a big breakfast at Carma's house - lots of eggs, waffles, bagels, etc. Here is the group picture before we started...

Left to right - Rick, Lori, Jill, Carma, Phil, Shari and Jeff with their son and nephew, Rick, Torsten, and Angie.
I'm so impressed with these guys - they are in such great shape at 46 years of age. Seriously. Wow. Look how great the guys look - and the women are gorgeous! (Angie - far right - is NOT 46, she is much younger!)
Here is one of the vehicles, loaded up with bikes...

The most exciting thing that happened that day involved this truck. See all of those bikes in the back? They were covered up with blankets - to keep them from bumping into each other. Rick and I were in the Pilot - driving behind this truck - and noticed that the blankets were whipping around. We worried that one of them would fly out. Jeff, who was driving the truck, stopped and tucked the blankets back in, and took off again. All of a sudden, a semi truck passed Jeff's truck, and the updraft from the semi caught one of the blankets and sucked a bike right out of the truck! We watched as the bike went airborn - about 20 feet, and then came crashing down - bouncing on one wheel (that busted in half) and crashing to the ground. Thanks to Rick yelling "Holy Crap!" (NOT his real words - haha!), I slammed on my brakes and swerved, avoiding being hit by the bike. Rick jumped out of the car and picked the bike up before someone hit it. We threw it into the back of the truck and drove the 1/2 mile to the exit. We had no idea whose bike it was. Here's a picture of the bike - it's amazing, but the frame wasn't really hurt that much...

The bike was Lori's and we were actually able to make a call and borrow some wheels to put on the bike. She was able to ride - but it put us behind a couple of hours. It was around 12:00-12:30 when we finally got started. Here are a couple of pics of the riders getting ready and then Carma riding out in front...






The ride was good, the hills were tough, but they all did well. At about 43 miles, it got too dark to ride, so we called it a day - we then went to a place called Warm Springs, an LDS church camping area with the nicest pools. The riders got to swim and soak in the warm water. Everyone had a great time!






Thanks to Carma and Phil for putting the ride together.

Rick loves doing stuff like this, and I was so inspired by all of the bikers. Torsten asked me if I'd be riding next year - yeah. NO. But, maybe I'll be in better shape, thanks to the examples of everyone there. LOVE these guys!

Thursday Book Review - THE EYES OF THE DRAGON by Stephen King

Most of you who personally know me, know that I would never read a Stephen King novel. He's too scary and weird. However, last year, while I was recovering from a surgery, I had tons of time to read. Michael's girlfriend, Ashley, sent me a few of her books to read. One of them was THE EYES OF THE DRAGON by Stephen King. Believe me, it sat there forever - because I refused to pick it up. She tried to convince me - "Trust me, it's not like his other books - it's really good". After reading most of the other books she sent me - and realizing that she has REALLY GREAT taste in books - I decided to try reading it. And, you know what? It's a really great book! Seriously. Nothing like any of his other books. I loved it. Last month, my book club (Hi, ladies!) read this book, so, because I remember practically nothing during that crappy time last year, I decided to read it again. Loved it again!

I guess the genre of this book would be Fantasy Fiction. The story takes place in a kingdom called Delain. After the King of Delain dies, the kingdom is in an uproar, as the successor to the throne, Prince Peter, is imprisoned in the Needle - a four-story high tower, and Prince Thomas takes the throne. Could the evil magician, Flagg, have anything to do with the state of affairs, as the kingdom plummets into darkness and despair?!

I love the way that Stephen King becomes a storyteller - literally talking to his readers as if they are present. It's delightful. This is a book for young and old. There are a few descriptive words about body parts and actions in the first 10 pages of the book, but after that, it is a clean read.

Be prepared to be swept into a kingdom of worthy princes, puppet kings, dragons, and wizards... will good triumph over evil? Will all be right with the world again? I'm not telling - you have to read it for yourself!

Illustrations by David Palladini

Meatloaf and Microwave Potatoes

Here is my second family recipe (I'm trying new recipes for a cookbook I'm making) - I made my Aunt Anna's Meatloaf. Now, what you probably need to know is... I've never made meatloaf for my family. Seriously. When I said I was making meatloaf, my kids were, like, "What's that?". My husband said that the meatloaf he's had has always been dry. So, NOT ENTHUSIASTIC, is pretty much how everyone felt. But, I trust my Aunt's recipe so, here it is...

Meatloaf by Annemarie Anderson

2 lbs. ground beef
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
(I added about 2 T. Worcestershire sauce too)

Mix all together and put in a loaf pan.

Sauce
1/3 cup catsup
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. prepared mustard


Pour sauce over the top of meat and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

For side dishes, we cooked frozen peas, and I tried a recipe for potatoes - from my Grandma Evans:

Slice potatoes (I used red potatoes). Put in a bowl (I used a pie dish). Top with mushroom soup mix and sliced onions. Add a small amount of water. Top with cheese. Cook in the microwave until vegetables are tender. I had to adapt this recipe a little - I ended up layering all of the above until the dish was full. They turned out kind of like Au Grautin Potatoes. Mmmmm... yummy.

I have to say, this dinner was GREAT! My family raved about it. The meat was soooo tender, the potatoes very tasty, and the peas were... peas. The only thing a few of them didn't like was the sauce - but I thought it was yummy. Here's the finished plate of food...


So, now you've got my Aunt's meatloaf recipe, and my grandmother's potato recipe. Don't say that you've got nothing to cook for dinner!

Falling for FALL

I worked on my Incredible Women blog for an hour yesterday, and wrote a post - and even though it was scheduled to come out today, the 2nd, I'm counting it for the blog post on the 1st - why am I telling you this? Because this month is known as NABLOPOMO - National Blog Post Month (or something like that), and that means I'm going to try to post EVERY DAY. SO, as I said, I'm counting that post for the 1st.

The rest of my posts (one every day) will be on this blog (although I will be posting on my other blogs, too). *sigh* OK, I'm tired of explaining - and you probably don't really care anyway - haha - so, here's today's post...

10 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT FALL
I'm really excited Fall is here - it's my second favorite season. Last week I thought Fall was going to slip quickly through my fingers, because it was freezing, and it snowed. AND most of the leaves on my beautiful Japanese Maple trees fell off - before I could even enjoy those bright, gorgeous red colors. Bummer. But, the last 3 days have been PERFECT Fall weather - a little bit cool, leaves falling all over, wonderful colors, etc. So, in honor of my 2nd favorite season, here are my TOP 10...

1. Because it's so hot here in Utah during the summer, I LOVE that it's only in the 60s here right now. Just cool enough to wear a jacket.

2. Leaves changing colors. Yellow, orange, red, mixed with the green of the pines - so beautiful.

3. Decorations - this season starts my love of decorating. I had lots of fun Halloween stuff that just got exchanged for Fall decorations. Here are some of my favorites...



4. The color ORANGE. I used to hate this color - but now I love it. It makes everything so warm and inviting. I'm just so happy when I get to change all of my candles to those wonderful shades of orange!


5. And speaking of candles - my next favorite? Pumpkin Spice candles! I wish I could burn this "flavor" all year long - but it isn't quite right in the Spring. I found a new flavor this year - "Farmer's Market" by Yankee Candle. It spells like apples, pears, and other fruit with a spicy scent. Mmmmmm....
(You can tell I love it - there is hardly any left. I need to go get another one!)

6. FOOTBALL! - High school, College, PRO! I love all things football. I'm really sad that my son, Alex, isn't playing this year, although he did play on a Flag Football league for a few weeks. Just NOT as fun to watch as tackle football, though.
(This is Alex from a few years ago - I just LOVE my football boy!)


7. Falling leaves. Even though there aren't as many leaves here as there were in Pennsylvania (where we used to live), it still looks really neat - leaves everywhere!

8. Fall clean-up. There is such a sense of accomplishment once we've done the yard clean-up (although I don't always help). It took me 3 hours this last week to cut down all of the greenery from the dead flowers - irises and lilies. Rick blew out the sprinklers and turned them off. No more lawn mowing!!!! We still have to rake up the leaves on the lawn - and then we are done for the season.

9. FRUIT. The fall brings a harvest of fruit from my in-laws' trees. Plums and apples! I love the smell of my house during the fall, when I am making jam, and drying apples.

10. Mums. I really enjoy these flowers in all of the beautiful Fall colors - deep red-orange, yellow, purple, orange. My goal for next year is to buy several mum plants in deep red-orange, and deep plum colors, and spread them all over my flower bed. I can't wait to see it!

11. One more - my fall ceramic collection. I started collecting these beautiful pumpkin and leaf containers. One of my favorites is the the leaf vase the my parents brought filled with flowers last year!




Enjoy your Fall!