How to properly dunk an Oreo.

1. Purchase a package of Oreos.

2. Pour a glass of Ice-cold Milk.

3. Remove Oreo from package and find a fork.

(Plastic seems to work well for me.)

4. Gently insert fork tines into cream filling.

5. Lower cookie on fork into milk.

6. Keep going.....

7. Really dunk it!

8. Lift out of milk and place in mouth.

By Carly

Serves me right....

Samantha is reading "Half-Magic" by Edward Eager. It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid and so I recommended it when we were at the library last week. After school I saw her reading it and noticed she was at the beginning.

I remembered that when I tried to get Rachel to read it she couldn't get into it and abandoned it. I wondered, at the time, if some of the words and/or concepts were too dated since it was written in the 1950's.

So...

when I saw Samantha reading it today I said "That book was written a long time ago, when Grandma Carla was about 10 or 11, so if there are words or things you don't understand, ask me okay!"

and she replied,

"yeah.. I knew it was old because if YOU read it when you were a little kid, that's pretty old!"

Sorry mom.

Now, I know how it feels.

undyed easter eggs

We started doing our easter egg hunt on saturday a few years ago so we could focus on more Christ-centered activities Easter Sunday.

This meant we needed to get our eggs done tonight! It was a little difficult with Rachel at track practice until 5ish and Carly leaving on a pre-prom date at 6ish...

When I got home from work I boiled a dozen eggs and left for the store for more. Mason accompanied me while carly was in a whirl of baking at home. She decided to make bread for the family and for the sacrament for one of her Personal Progress goals and crepes for a friend's birthday and for the family. Believe it or not she said "I had a stressful day... I wanted to cook!" I think she may have taken on a little much because she was in a whirl when I got back from shopping. I helped her with the Raspberry sauce and the pudding but she was doing pretty well on her own. I dunked the 1st dozen eggs in ice water to cool and started the 2nd dozen to boil.

Rachel had gotten home at 4ish and Carly wasn't leaving til 7ish so that gave us a little more breathing room! I set the kids to putting away groceries, cleaning off the table, cutting up tissue paper and grating crayons.

I know those last 2 don't make a whole lot of sense when you think our objective was to decorate eggs but wait! It will makes sense momentarily.

I decided to try some nontraditional egg decorating this year.

Samantha grated several colors of crayons on separate plates and we set the whole tub of crayons on the table. You have to use really hot eggs so this wouldn't be good with real little kids and the wax can really make a mess.

You need something to stand your egg on. We used egg carton cups cut down to a small size. you either sprinkle your egg with crayon shavings and watch them melt and drip

or put some shavings on your disposable tablecloth and roll the egg around in them

use a regular crayon to draw right on the egg

or drop a few shavings on and smear them around in designs with your fingers.

The possibilities are endless.

There is a lot of melding of colors, dripping and so forth. You don't have a lot of control over what the colors will do and we learned a lot of "what to do's" and "what not to do's" if we ever want to do it this way again.

The eggs were really hot and they have to be to get the desired melting so that was interesting but the kids were all old enough to handle it. This was Samantha's "hurry and take the picture this egg is burning my fingers! face"

The 2nd kind of egg decorating we did was with watered down white school glue and tissue paper.

You start with cold eggs on this one.

Thank Goodness.

You just cut different colors of tissue paper into squares

water down some glue

get some paintbrushes

and start layering tissue paper

and "painting" the glue over each piece

I really liked the way these turned out.

There was more creativity this year

a little more mess...

and a lot more fun!

We had it all done & cleaned up when

he showed up to whisk her away at 7ish

Rachel, Running & Rome

I haven't had a chance to report about Rachel's play.

We went opening night.

It was a fun play, one of the cutest I've seen there. The only one I have liked better was Nifty Fifties which was Carly's 8th grade spring play.

Rachel had several solo parts in songs and she did a great job. In my humble opinion, she had great stage presence and was about the cutest thing up on stage.

She was the Princess' maid so she was in most of the scenes. She had several speaking lines. In her past 5 plays she's only had one line, if any at all, so this was a big change for her. She missed being in the big "townspeople" song and dance numbers but having her own speaking and singing lines helped make up for it.

Most of all she LOVED her costume. It came from one of the local playhouses and she felt very pretty in it. Because she had one of the main parts for this play she got to have her hair done by one of the parent helpers who always helps the main characters. It was more elaborate every night and she loved that attention.

All in all, it was a great ending to her Junior high stage career.

She's not thinking she'll continue with drama in high school.

She has joined the jr high track team this spring and went with the cross country class instead of the drama class in her schedule for next year .

During the last few weeks of play practice she attended track practice only a handful of times as they let her keep her commitment to the play but now that it's over she's had track almost every day after school. She loves it.

She had her first track meet last week and bested her personal records in practice for the mile and the 800 by about 30 seconds each and they haven't got the scoring all in yet but she thinks she took first or second in her age group for both her events.

When she got home she was so excited, on her own little personal high. I could tell she was waiting to be asked so I said...

"How'd you do?"

and she exclaimed (and I mean EXCLAIMED!!!!!)

I Was A BEAST!!!

and went on to tell me her times. She was very happy.

She has a very quiet competitive streak in her. I remember noticing it first when she played soccer. She wanted to be on the field all the time. She didn't say much but she hated when the coach took her out and she played so hard and so well they didn't' take her out much.

She has a track meet at her school this week so I'm excited to be able to watch her in action.

19 April 3rds

Nineteen facts for 19 years:

1. I was 19 years old when I met Mark. Actually I met him when I was 14 at youth conference. He drove me and 3 other girls around Palm Springs in his red Mustang. But... I was 19 when I met him again and we started dating.

2. He proposed to me in a restaurant called Bobby McGee's right off Waikaikai beach in Hawaii.

3. We talked on the phone every single day I was in Hawaii from the end of August until Mid December. Except for when he flew over in October to Propose and when he flew over for Thanksgiving. This was pre-cell phone and pre-competitive phone rates. His phone bill was more than his rent. I called him collect from a little payphone stall outside my dorm. It was one of those little plexiglass phonebooths with the yellowpages on a clip and everything!

4. Just for fun, I once recorded "Just can't get enough" by Depeche Mode on a blank tape and sent it to his condo with no return address, no note of who it was from. I figured he better know it was from me!

5. I sewed him a shirt while we were dating for his 23rd birthday. He still has it in the closet.

6. I worked at Sizzler the summer we were dating. He drove 45 minutes to my town and 45 minutes back home one night just to give me a white Rose. I was waitressing that night and it was the first day we weren't going to be able to see each other since we had started dating so he wanted to leave a Rose and note at Sizzler so when I came into work there it would be. He made a mistake in timing so I was actually there when he stopped in. Earned himself some big points that night. Big points! He also came in another night I was working with some friends. He sat in my section and left me a $20 tip.

7. Our 14th anniversary was also on a Monday, so we had a FHE family party. My friend Karen made a cake modeled after our wedding cake. I got out my dress and the girls tried it on and we took pictures and then we all went to Sizzler.

8. We got married in the Las Vegas Temple. My mom didn't want people to think we were "getting married in vegas" so in the newspaper announcement of our engagement/wedding she said we were getting married in the LDS temple in Henderson Nevada.

9. My wedding colors were soft pink and forrest green.

10. I arrived at the florist 30 minutes after they closed to pick up my bouquet. I am still mad that they didn't call my house when they closed to remind someone to come pick it up. I never did pick it up. All that $ wasted and I had nothing to hold.

11. My cake topper was a Precious Moments Bride and Groom.

12. My centerpieces were BIG brandy snifters with little pink and green pebbles in the bottom, water and a goldfish. I still think they were cool. One of our Groomsmen drank a gold fish in a toast to us. Ugghh. Poor fish.

13. I wanted a headband style veil after seeing the one Kimberly Williams Paisley wore in "Father of the bride" My friend Elly made it for me. I sewed the pearls around the bottom of my veil. A lady in my ward made my dress as a wedding gift. The fabric cost $200.

14. We danced to Bryan Adams "everything I do, i do it for you". We had no official song. Mark is not an "our song" kind of guy. I'm a little embarrassed. It's kind of a cheesy song. I wish I'd picked a better song. We had all the dances; Mother son, father daughter. We even had a money dance. That was fun. I hope my girls have dancing at their receptions. Forget the line! let's have a party.

15. I was the first kid in my family to get married. It was really stressful. My dad offered us $$ to elope and forget the reception. I wasn't ever sure if he was kidding or not. Mark was all for it. I wanted my reception.

16 Besides the bouquet debacle, the photographer didn't show. A miscommunication. My mom was scrambling to get someone there to take pictures.

17. Because of pictures.... Mark and I left our reception in a big fight. He didnt' WANT to TAKE ANY MORE STINKING PICTURES! Poor guy. Married since 8am and still not alone with the bride.

18. We had an hour drive to his condo where we spent our wedding night. Happily... we made up before we arrived.

19. We flew to San Francisco the next day for our honeymoon. Alcatraz. Lombado Street. Pier 49. Fisherman's wharf. Museums. Restaurants. Street performers. Ghiradelli chocolate factory. China town. It was perfect.

This anniversary is a little hard to celebrate with Rachel's play last night, priesthood session tonight, Conference tomorrow and 4H parent showcase Monday night. We're sandwiched by family obligations. The family we started. The family we love. It's all good. But Next year. The big 2-0. We better do something big. Just sayin......