Monopoly in Atlantic City!

One of Mike's favorite childhood boardgames was Monopoly. So we braved a very rainy morning and drove into Atlantic City to drive those famous streets: Atlantic Ave., Pacific Ave., St. James Place, Park Place....So, of course, when we returned we had to play a game of Monopoly in celebration of being here. We had hoped to find a great spot to buy a souvenir set in Atlantic City but weren't successful. Maybe on a drier day we will return and walk the Boardwalk and find our souvenir game!

PS: Right now Grandma is actually in JAIL - isn't she dressed appropriately? And the real life banker is the one with the most cash right now! We'll have to see how this game turns out!

I am a Patriot

The Liberty Bell by H.R.H. Moore

Ring out that hallowed Bell!
Ring it long, ring it long;
Through the wide world let it tell
That Freedom's strong.

When I Pledge the Allegiance, when I hear Lee Greenwood sing, "I'm Proud to be an American," when I see the Liberty Bell, when I hear stories of the founding fathers and patriots, when I go through Independence Hall and the National Archives and see the flag fly in a parade...I become very emotional. I am so grateful to be an American and I love my country. I love reading in the Book of Mormon how this land is chosen for freedom and the restoration of the gospel. What great men under the guidance of God, established this nation for us. Thank you!

3 Days and 2 Nights!

We did enjoy a 3 day, 2 night delightful stay in Phoenix last weekend. We even went to two different locations within Phoenix and the cost was right! Mike, Brent, and I drove out to Phoenix and helped to finish packing up Tamara and Jack's apartment for their move Sat. into their home. They have been working like crazy to have an electrician replace lights and fixtures, wiring, drywalling and repairing holes in walls, gutting out the kitchen in both the house and the guest house, painting the entire inside and getting engineered flooring in. Today the tiler comes and in two weeks the cabinets and counters in the kitchen will be installed. I guess I should let Tamara and Jack tell you all this - but I am so excited for them to have a home! It will be exciting to see pictures when it's all done! Congratulations Jack and Tamara!

A Mind Tickle

I loved the quote I heard decades ago about memories are paintings on the walls of your mind. Fill your mind museum walls with uplifting memories. When I travel I try to soak up everything I see and do to paint great memories in my mind. Andrea came home for a few days with an ambitious project for the two of us. In three days we scrapbooked our week vacation last March in Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. My job was to go through the thousands of pictures from all of our digital photos on my computer and pick out just the highlights for each day's activities. It was a huge challenge - how do you select only a few of such great sights and activities? But we did it! We had the book totally completed by the time Andrea left last night (23 two page layouts). It was so fun to relive those great times. But sadly I have to admit - some of those great paintings on the walls of my mind must have fallen to the floor (old age, you say?) Good to have the pictures to tickle my mind.

Organizing

Last week, the ward organist, asked me to fill in for her today. She is such a GREAT musician that I am in awe of her ability and talent. Though I am a poor substitute, I am willing to serve the Lord, giving what I have. I played the hymns at home a few times in preparation and then this morning I went to church early to practice and it went well. I made just a few mistakes (I am intolerant of my mistakes but whadjagonnadue?) in the opening song. But today, there was no cranking up the volume right after the hymn introduction and over shooting the volume and then hurriedly cranking it back down too low, then back up - can you get the picture (you'd feel seasick by the time the first verse was done). This time I just got it right (just leave it up before the intro).

So, time for the Sacrament hymn. I never feel cocky when I play - it is still pretty stressful and I am pretty humble and prayerful. But today, I knew the Sacrament hymn well, had practiced it smoothly on the organ and I was grateful to be able to play it well. So, I start the introduction feeling confident and good when I realize I hadn't skipped to the end of the intro at the bracket and so then abruptly did so. So much for getting things right. But I am sure there will be a next time. Maybe I'll get organized and get over to the church to practice and get so I can do the pedals too.

Fond of Fondue Chapter 2

Tamara and Jack drove out Friday night for a quick weekend and Jocelyn came down as well. What fun to have so many of us together! While grocery shopping yesterday, I thought how much fun it would be to have a fondue dinner with everyone on Sat. So while in the store, I called Tamara to see if she could bring out her electric fondue pot (Brent and Chelsea gave me a great electric fondue pot for Christmas).

So I'm shopping for dips and sauces, shrimp, beef, chix, breads, vegetables, fruit, chocolate...and cheese for the fondues. I asked the "cheese" lady at VONS for the best cheeses to use for a nonalcoholic fondue. She had lots of opinions and advice on how to make cheese fondue. I took the cheeses she had selected for me and listened to her advice. I think she was concerned about my ability (rightly so) and her last suggestion was to look up a recipe on foodnetwork.com! Well, I didn't look up a recipe but tried to follow her advice for the cheese fondue. It was a little thick and then clumpy - but it still was very tasty.

Everyone was given something to cut or chop for our fondue dinner. How wonderful to have a lot of counter space so that everyone could help! It was fun to cook slowly one bite at a time, eat and visit. We were glad Grandma could come down and join us too!