A little taste of Fiji

Whomever has not tasted our cook in Fiji's Lolo Buns has a good reason to make the trip over. Margaret is our good friend and cook and she cooks and bakes lots of yummy treats for us when we are over there. Among my favorites are a Fijian treat called Lolo Buns. They are a coconut tastebud sensation and so yesterday I tried making them and they were a great success. I think Margarets are better though. After all, no one can make better Fijian food than a Fijian woman right?

Some cool pics & stuff for my Rick

Here are a couple cool pics I've taken recently...

Pretty Candace Bear

I took this pic at the beach and the sun was behind her and made it look so cool.

As you all probably know Rick loves wheat grass juice and is a firm believer in its healthy properties and would drink it everyday if he could. Well, he hasn't been able to drink it daily since we moved out of our house in Poway back at the end of August last year. Well, now that we have a new house he has been begging me to buy some wheat so he can get started on it again. So after several weeks of him asking, I finally did it...not that I didn't want to or anything, but I just really didn't even know where I was going to get any. Then as a surprise for him, I started it for him and didn't tell him till he got home the next time. He was surprised...and happy! It was a labour of love! I keep laughing because of when Rick had wheat grass at Steve n'Lynne's...How patient Lynne was with him and his grass!

Immediately after planting

Kissing the wheat grass

Finally, these are pics of this cool contraption Rick bought online from a surf gear shop. He took his board down to the servo (aussie for gas station) and he said he was quite the attraction. People couldn't stop staring and pointing. There was even a kid who said to his mom, "Look mommy! Look at that guy!" Too funny. My funny guy...

Happy 11th B-Day to Candace

I can't believe I have an 11 year old! Shockin! Well, 2 birthdays down, 1 to go. I made 2 cakes for Canny's b-day. One for her to take to school and one for her party here at home. She's also convinced me to let her have a friend birthday party which will be on Friday. I should just say no to friend parties forever cause I hate putting them on. But this one will be a sleepover and then off to the beach on Saturday morning. Well, I took Candace on a little shopping spree and she got a shirt and sweats, a watch set with earings and a little photo frame, a pair of emerald birthstone earings (from Mesa), some lollies (aussie for candies...from Blaze), some books from her good friend Ellie in California and something else I can't remember right now... Hey wait, didn't I say that on Mesa's birthday post as well? hmmm...seems there's a pattern here. Here are the cakes...

They were both really tasty. The one is a carmel popcorn cake. I remember my mom making me one of these one year and I loved it!

Here are a few other pics of her with her stuff...

Our trip to Utah

So we went over to Utah for Pop's (Grandad) funeral which was very nice. We had a beautiful time visiting with all the Miller relly's for a couple days. It was nice to catch up with some of the old faves and meet heaps of new ones I had never seen before. It was great to see Nick, Jes, Summer and Jillian too. Here are some of my favorite pics taken those 2 days. It was also great to meet Betty Jeans sons. They are some nice nice people and I feel lucky to know them.

What a cute pic. I just love Marilyn!

Me and my sissy

Brandon and Wyatt sure are cute little boys.

It was really great to see Jeni and Libby's cute little babies. I even got to feed Tay a bottle. Little Melia would have been the cherry on top!

Happy 7th Birthday to Mesa

Mesa celebrated her 7th birthday on Friday the 11th of May. I always like to take the birthday kid shopping and make them feel special so I picked Mesa up from school at noon that day and took her to the plaza. She got a watch, a pair of shoes, some new togs (swimsuit in Ozzie) and some new undies and something else I can't remember right now. But most of all she got her mother to make her feel special. Candace also made Mesa some heart shaped sammy's for her lunch which she loved. Then on Saturday we had a small family party for her and she got a soccer ball from Blaze and some games from Candace. Also, a can of pringles and a craft from Pops and Mama. I made Mesa make me a promise when she was 2 that she was gonna stay 2 forever and every year she keeps getting older even though at the beginning of that year she promises all over again to stay that old again! Crazy ol' me.

This is her birthday cake. Brownies with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Yah, what's up with that anyways? Well, I ended up making them for a YW activity that never happened. Two huge pans full of them! So we had to get rid of them somehow! Oh well, I'm not complaining.

The kids in action

Mesa has been practicing to become a gymnast for quite some time now and one of the things she practices is doing the splits. I think it's pretty amazing and I really am going to put her into gymnastics one of these days. I promise Mesa! Here is a pic of her doing the splits.

Her cartwheels have improved a thousand percent over the last few months as well. She literally just does cartwheels without notice and its quite funny. I've learned to just let her do them even in the house because it was way too annoying to have to tell her 10,000 times a day not to!

Then there's Blaze. He just loves going to the skatey park and riding his bike. I think that boys that spend all their time down there are a bunch of losers and I don't want my boy to be like that so he doesn't get to go very often, but the boys are extremely talented when it comes to doing all sorts of tricks I must admit. Here's Blazer the little beginner.

Candace loves to play her recorder and I have learned to let her practice pretty much whenever she wants to because I think it's so important to practice what you enjoy so you can become good at it. My parents NEVER told me to be quiet when it came to practicing my flute or the piano. I'm sure I annoyed them plenty with the same tune over and over and over again but they gave me my space and time. Thanks Mom and Dad! Here's Canny playing a good little tune.

The kids and Rick went for a bike ride to the beach yesterday and he took a couple of nice pics. Does it make you want to come for a visit? Good! Come on over anytime guys!

Happy Mother's Day!

Wow...it's sure been a long time since I blogged and now doesn't quite seem the right time to do it because I'm in a really bad mood. It's Mother's Day and for some strange reason...

Yah, ok this is how my blog started out yesterday. I had the whole thing typed out and was just putting pics in when somehow I managed to delete the whole thing even though I had saved it as a draft!! Doh! Well, I had gone on about our trip and seeing cute babies, feeding them, holding them, seeing heaps of family and enjoying every minute of it, chocolate sauce, brownies, and the list went on. Well, I'm not going to re type all of it cause it just frustrates me, but I will talk about my mother's day which started out bad but ended up real nice.

I had to give a lesson in YW about family history...I'm probably one of the millions who would be the worst at this lesson because I don't even do my own! So I was very unprepared and very nervous...you've got like 10 girls staring you down and you're wondering what the heck they are thinking about you. Do they hate me? Do they think I'm ugly? Do they like my hair? I don't know, but to me its quite intimidating and I'm only the secretary but our Pres has been gone for about 4 weeks now so that leaves me and one counsellor to do everything seeing as how our other counsellor is also away! I can't wait till she gets back. I hate the pressure. I'm just reading Pres Kimball's biography and how he was so extremely busy and stressed for years at a time and felt like he was going to explode. I admire him for being able to cope with all his responsibilities and be as good as he was. But anyways, I definitely am not like him. I'm really glad they only call men to be Stake Presidents and bishops and such! Anyways, back to my original story, well, after church and my extremely stressful time teaching the YW lesson I was so glad to have completed, my kids each gave me this cute little card with a poem on it...

Hat's Off to Mother

My mother's job is sometimes hard, and I have heard her say,

"The hours are long, and if I could, I'd like to change the pay."

Her profession has variety, and I will tell you now

About the many hats she wears-and why and when and how.

1. My mummy's a nurse who fixes and patches

All of my hurts and my sores and my scratches.

2. My mother's a chef who fixes each dinner

Fit for a king-a blue ribbon winner!

3. My mum's a chauffeur who drives pretty slow

But gets me to places where I need to go.

4. My mum's a detective, and no one is greater

At getting the truth from me sooner or later.

5. My mummy's a gardener and works really hard,

Planting and weeding and grooming the yard.

6. My mother's a maid-at least that's what she said-

'Cause she cleans the house and makes every bed.

7. My mother's an angel-a queen in disguise-

who teaches the gospel with tears in her eyes.

Today take these hats off, and please wear no other.

Let me do you work, to show I LOVE YOU, MOTHER!

Well, I took that last part very literally and said, "Oh, cool! I guess that means I don't have to fix dinner today cause you're going to do it?! Yay!" to which the response was, "No! It's just a poem! I didn't really mean that!" What lovely children I have eh? "Ha ha ha! I laughed and committed them to it and when I got home sat on the couch to read my book and watched for an hour and listened to the circus in the kitchen with Rick as the ring leader. Well, not only was the food good, but the entertainment was good as well and I think the kids learned some things. Oh, and Rick did too. He's pretty bad around the kitchen but now he knows how to cook rice anyways! And chicken! And he know how to turn the oven on to broil. Too funny. Here are some pics of the kids and him in action.

Candace has a major attitude problem and seems to be somewhat lazy so that picture of her pretty much captured her throughout the whole ordeal. I don't know where she got the lazy streak from but it sure isn't a reflection of me! No way.

Anyways, thanks for a great Mother's Day gift Canny, Blaze, Mesa and Rick! It was the greatest and the food tasted great! We had brownies with ice cream and choc sauce to top it off. Yummm! Here's my recipe for chocolate sauce. The best ever. Absolutely no contest here guys!

Chel's Yummiest Chocolate Sauce

2 c. sugar

1/3 c. cocoa

1 c. water

Boil for 10 min, cool slightly and add:

2 well beaten eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp butter

Mix really well. You may want to temper the eggs before adding them to the sauce.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mum's out there!