Banana Loaf Blues

Well, I think I get the loser of the day award...Yesterday I made a double batch of banana loaf and was going to take some loaves to the neighbors but didn't want them to think I was a horrible cook. This is why...

Banana loaf gone bad...This is what happens when you forget to add the baking powder and soda. I was soooo dissapointed...I wasted so much ingredients on these bricks. Kelly's gonna laugh at me but it was a whole cup of butter and 4 beautiful large eggs not to mention the 6 perfect bananas and sugar. I guess I'll just chalk it up to a lesson well learned. I did make some yummy coconut pie and helped blaze make chocolate pudding (much to his dismay) but I told him girls love boys who can cook so...too bad...you're learnin' how mate! I think he was quite surprised when he tasted it how yummy it was and that HE made it! Also, my Candace girl wanted to make supper and so I guided her in making a delicious pot of Chicken Dumplings. She was quite proud. Sorry no pics of those...

It appears as though I've got an easy to please hubby as he has eaten almost a whole loaf of this stuff...he seems to like it! Oh well, to each his own...

Uni's, black eyes and yummy muffins

Ok, well Mesa's goose egg has turned into 2 black eyes now and the bridge of her nose is all swollen. That never happened to me when I got them but maybe she hit her head harder than I did. So this morning I took some pics of her and the other 2 kids all together in their school uni's because some of you have been wanting to see them in their uni's. So this one's for all of you!

I've come up with a nickname for her...she is now my little black eyed pea...ha ha ha















Another thing is that I want to share a recipe with all of you. I made these muffins and they are divine. They are just plain poppy seed muffins but when you spread this really nice maple butter on them it just is oh so mmmmmm...



Poppyseed Muffins

1 1/4 c. milk
1/4 c. poppyseeds
1/4 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 c. flour
1 T. BP
1/2 tsp salt

Combine milk and poppy seeds in small bowl. Let stand 10 min or so. Meanwhile, cream butter sugar egg and vanilla together. Add milk mixture. Add dry ingredients and stir till moistened only.

Maple Butter

butter
maple syrup

Cream together however much of each you want. I did about 1/2 c. butter with about 1/3 c. syrup. Spread on warm muffins....be prepared for a tastebud sensation!

okay, one last thing is that today was a very exciting day for me as I now have an Australian Driver's license! How cool is that?! And the best part is, I didn't even have to take a test...written or otherwise! I had to take one for California...both written and a driving one and we drive on the same side of the road...but come over to the other side of the world and you drive on the opposite side of the road, forget about it! Whatever, I'm not complainin'. Here's the proof...

Goose bumps and the best day...

Hi! Today I finally got a look at some of the pics that Steve took of Rick and I's special sealing day almost a whole year ago! I can't believe it's been almost a whole year since we were sealed to each other in the San Diego Temple! What a great year! Today I gave a lesson in YW about temple marriage and I have such a testimony of the importance of that. It's the greatest thing we can do to get back to our Father and have the highest degree possible. So here are a few pics of the family on that great day. May 27, 2006...

Rick and his crazy faces eh?! What a cracker! That's one of the things I love about him so much! We sure wish the whole family could have been there but we are happy that those who came did.


Also, the goose bump part...well, yesterday Mesa was running around outside and decided to have a fight with the telephone pole. The pole won I think...what do you think?

Yah, these pics don't really do the bump justice. She was none too happy as you can see and she cried for quite a while. I was reminded of my childhood days when I remember getting at least a few of those suckers! Ouch! She's ok now though. She wrote her friend Cindy this letter and I thought I'd post it cause its so cute the way she spelled things...

Dear Sindy how are you doing?
yesterday we were playing all around the world and I bumt into a pole and I got a big goose egg on my for head and it really hert. but im OK

Also, a funny story...so we are on our way home from church today and Blaze is feeling really ill cause he hasn't eaten for a long long time...It seems like both Blaze and Mesa are hypoglycemic...and so I'm telling him I will make him a milkshake as soon as we get home and he can even have a coke to help his sugar level. (that's the only kind of pop I have in the house) This has happened to him before and if we get some sugar in him he gets better real fast. So Candace says, "can I have a coke too?" to which my reply is, "NO!" (I NEVER let my kids drink coke) and she goes, "ohhh! I wish I had problems too!" I just cracked right up and Rick says, "you do...take a look at your room when we get home!" Too funny. I complimented her on that one!

The kids all want to learn to play piano which I am thrilled about. It's so nice having one after all these years.

Sick and tired

Well, the kids just went back to school today after being home for 11 days for Easter holidays. The funny thing is is that I wanted them to go back yesterday but it didn't quite work out that way. I was running late getting out of the house yesterday morning and nearly ran out of gas so stopped to put in a few bucks before taking them to school. Then when we got there all the kids were in their classes already...or so I thought. So out they got and I continued on to do some errands and within a few minutes I get a call on my cell..."Hi Chely? This is Carol from the school?...Well, I've got your kids here in the office and this is a pupil free day!" to which I responded, "How come I didn't know about that?!" and she says, "well, it would've been in the Wavelengths newsletter." and I'm like..."Yah right! like I ever read that!!" So I turned right back around and picked them back up laughing all the way at my stupidity! Ha ha ha ha ha.

So today I was almost kid free until Mesa decides she's feeling like she has to throw up and I thought I should leave her here at home with me today. My feeling was right cause she has thrown up 5 times today. Poor little monkey. Makes me think of a time when Candace was a baby and she had the stomach flu one day and just wanted to be held aaallll day long and she was pukin' on me ALL day. No joke. I didn't even bother doing anything but change my shirt several times that day! Yuck!

The weather is be-utiful here...absolutely picture perfect. I did some yardwork yesterday too and the kids helped. It looks pretty. I love it here. Nice and peaceful. And Blaze's milkshakes are goin' real well. He absolutely loves them! No big surprises there! I get to do a little taste test every time too so I kinda like em too! Oh, and Candace ready Harry Potter 6 for the second time and read the whole thing in 24 hours! How did she do that? I don't know. I'm wondering if any of it sank in!

The whole fan damily!

Ok, Jeni requested a full size pic of the one that's on my profile so here it is! Too easy mate! Here's another one that is kinda funny...it's like he's saying..."Hey, too close! What are you doing?"And then there's "the boys"

Just some news...

Hey, no new pics today guys, but there is some interesting news...Jason and Angela are going to be having a baby! Don't know when though. We've heard that she's a couple months along but that's all the info we have. I'm very excited for them though!

In our neck of the woods not much new is happening. We have been eating at our kitchen table alot which has been so fun! And the kids are off school for easter holidays. I made a ham dinner for easter Sunday and then last night we had some friends over for dinner and had chili and biscuits and salad with the yummiest apple crisp for dessert. Oh man, I had 2 helpings of that apple crisp it was so divine! I better watch it or I'm gonna start looking pregnant! ha ha ha

I took Blaze to the doc today ( pediatrician) to have a check up as he is on meds and needs to have that checkup every so often and found out that he has actually lost weight and also has not grown as tall as the doc would like so Blaze is now on a high calorie diet which as per doctors orders will include a milkshake nightly before he goes to bed. Bummer! I bet this is going to change the way Blaze feels about doctors!!

I've decided that I just can't post a blog without some pics of something or another so I've decided just to post a few that I already have on my computer. These are just a couple of pics from the last time we were in Utah at Pop's place. They are a couple nice ones of him so I thought I'd share since he's on our minds alot lately. We love you and miss you Pop's and Betty Jean!

The latest addition

Well, after 4 months of sleeping on a 3" thick air mattress which really did serve us well so I'm not complaining, I felt like a queen living in the lap of luxury on my old king size bed with a super soft duvet underneath me. I have never been so thankful for my bed. Rick went and picked up most of our belongings that have been in storage and in a container on the big blue for the last 6 months. We actually have a story about that too...

We were on our way to Brisbane last Thursday for our quarantine inspection (routine) and our LandRover was overheating. So we stopped at a servo (Aussie for gas station) to put some water in the rad and continued on. Much to our dismay it kept getting too hot and so we stopped again and Rick was cessin the situation out and we thought maybe he had added too much water (this according to the owners manual) so we had a spray bottle in the car which we used to spray excess fluid out with...Have I ever told you that Rick is the king of ?...well, anyways so we get going again only to find it over heating again and so Rick figures that the thermostat must be bodgy so we pulled over again and lucky us there's a trucker right there working on his truck and so Rick used some of his tools to take out the thermostat and we were on our way once again. Well, not so lucky again it was overheating still. So Rick was at a total loss as to what could be the problem now and so we called RACQ to the rescue. Like I figured, they couldn't help either except to show us to the nearest mechanic shop where we slowly drove to in a little po dunk place called Narangba and that is where our car sits awaiting a final diagnosis and a price total. (minimum $1200) So after several hours and $450 in rental truck charges later, we arrived back at home without even making it to Brisbane. What a dissapointment, but I amazingly enough had a positive attitude throughout our ordeal and still do. Rick took the rental with the rental trailer the next morning to get as much stuff as he could.

Yesterday I had lots of fun unpacking and doing 6 front loader size batches of laundry. Here are a few pictures of one of my favorite things that we recieved.

We had this table and chairs made in Mexico for a super sweet price. My first ever real nice dining suite. Its quite rustic and the table is counter height and chairs are taller to compensate for that. Really comfy. The little bench, well theres 2 of those and so if we can have as many Miller's over at once and fit everyone very comfortably.