Spring Break

After spending a weekend away at stamp camp with my BFF Jill, I am back home and enjoying spring break with the kids. The sun is out but it is COLD until mid afternoon and then it is only warm IF the winds doesn't blow up a gale.

We went to Wenatchee and saw How To Train Your Dragon on Monday in 3D. It is a fun time and the kids LOVED the movie. It is a loud movie with some scary dragon fight scenes that I would not recommend for kids under 4 or 5 years old but the 3D is great and neither of my kids (5 & 7) complained of being scared. It is 1 hour and 38 minutes long and the first 20 minutes is a little slow in getting started but think Lilo & Stitch relationship only a Viking Boy and a Dragon. After we saw the movie, we went to Wok About Grill (a favorite when we go to Wenatchee).

Yesterday the kids and I spent a couple of hours at the park until it got too cold to be there. We took our picnic lunch and Rylee came along. We met up the the Dames, Yorgasons, and Schoenwalds and the kids had fun. Adults wouldn't have complained about the cold if we were moving about like the kids were.

Today . . . began with making German Pancakes (thanks Jill for recipe) with homemade Buttermilk Syrup (YUM). Kids were thrilled that breakfast was not cereal! Had to share the recipe as it turned out well and the syrup is definitley worth the time and effort.

German Pancakes

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

1/2 stick butter

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place half stick butter in 9 X 13 pan and place in oven until butter is melted. Mix eggs, flour, salt and milk in blender until well blended. Remove pan from oven and pour egg mixture in pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm with warm syrup.

Buttermilk Syrup

1 1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup buttermilk (or 1 Tbsp vinegar + enough milk to make 3/4 cup)

1/2 cup butter

2 Tbsp corn syrup

1 tsp baking soda

Combine in saucepan (make sure it is a bigger pan and this grows while it boils) and bring to boil of med low heat. Boil for 7 minutes. Remove from heat and add 2 tsp vanilla. Stir and serve on pancakes, waffles, french toast . . . The mixture is foamy and cloudly while on stove and once vanilla is added and it cools slightly, it will turn a translucent carmelly color.

Heavy Heart

Every fall I attend a wonderful scrapping retreat that is so relaxing and inspiring in many things. Jane and Deb do a great job of making it a weekend for us. Over the years, you become a part of the family of DJ Scrappin Retreats. I am dedicating today's post to part of the "family". I know that several others of the "family" are doing the same.

Jane is a God-fearing, inspiring Woman, Mom, Wife and Grandma to be who is having to send off her oldest son Abe to Iraq today (pictured about dancing at Cali's reception). He has served a mission for the LDS church and graduated from West Point. He has had his training and has gotten married. He is leaving today to embark on the journey he has been preparing for over the past several years. He is leaving behind a wife, Grace, who is expecting their first child in the fall. May God be with Abe and his family while he is away in the unknown territory of war. May God hold Jane close today as she says one of many goodbyes she has had to say but undoubtedly one of the most difficult.

We love you Jane and pray for you all!

A Fun Story From Erma Bombeck

I have always enjoyed reading Erma Bombeck as sometimes my life seems to be in the "pits" while others view it as a "bowl of cherries". I got this Erma Bombeck story from a friend of mine on a piece of paper that had clearly been copied a few times. I enjoyed it and thought I would share it today.

Our Family Jewels Sparkle on Film

by Erma Bombeck

There is a small closet in our house where we store the family jewels. There is no safe in the wall and no lock on the door. There are just boxes lining the floor and stacked on the shelves. They contain picture albums, home movies, slides, and packets of photographs.

We hoard them as if they are going to support us in our old age. To five a single print away is unthinkable. It would be like giving up a child. Our entire family had always treated snapshots with a reverence reserved for icons and cars that run.

My Aunt Mildred (God rest her sticky-fingered soul) used to lift one or two pictures every time she was permitted to shuffle through them. She never took anything else - only photographs. When she died (and her pictures were obviously out of probate), her sisters went through her albums and screamed "So this is where the picture of Dad riding a horse went!" Families have split over lesser altercations.

My mother, who is in her 80's, is taking no chances. A couple of years ago, she started dispersing her photos. (We wouldn't want a picture of me, naked at two months, to fall into the wrong hands, would we?)

I am not ready to distribute my wealth until my children show a little more responsibility. At the moment they're too busy living in the present to sift through their past. The longer they live, the more they will need to know who made the trip with them.

How strange that burglars who invade our homes and steal guns, TV sets, VCR's and jewelry, leave behind the only things that have any real value to us - images of our past.

There isn't one of us who wouldn't pay ransom to get back baby pictures of our children. Ask any mother what she would risk her neck to save if there was a fire. The answer is never a piece of silver or a family heirloom. It's always an album or a canister of 8 mm film. Some jewels tarnish with age. These seem to get only brighter and more dazzling with each year.