YOGURT, A BLACK AND WHITE CAT, COOKIES AND RUN ON SENTENCES

I have added photo's to my yogurt recipe, here. It is delicious and cheap to make. All you need is a gallon of whole milk, two cups of sugar, some commercial yogurt--to use as a starter--and vanilla. Mmm. Wonderful with fresh strawberries.

And look at this darling kitty. He belongs to someone in my neighborhood. I think this window was built especially for a kitty to check on things in the kitchen. And this is what happens when you are making cookies and you have the directions for the regular size batch and the doubled size, and you are distracted and you add the salt from the doubled size, and so you double everything else EXCEPT you forget to double the flour and so the cookies spread all over the cookie sheet, they are brittle, and won't come off without breaking and so what you get are a few crunchy cookies and a lot of cookie crumbs. Ack!And so then you add more flour but you must have only needed ONE cup instead of TWO because this time the cookies don't spread AT ALL, and so you have to bake then four minutes less than the recipe says, and then they are so underdone that they sink down a bit into the cooling rack and won't come off. One cookie sheet full should fill this cookie cooling rack. I was going to take cookies to a friend who has had surgery but I can't take these pathetic things. ~sigh~ Recipe is here and it really is an excellent recipe--when it's made right.

WHO LOVES THE LITTLE LAMB?

My niece, Lezlie Evans, is an author. She mostly writes picture books--the hardest books to write, honestly, they are. And her picture books rhyme. That is also difficult. Most editors say, "don't send us rhyming picture books!" That is because it's so difficult to get the cadence perfect but Lezlie always does. She also writes Young Adult novels and has one under consideration at a publishing house right now.

This is her latest picture book, WHO LOVES THE LITTLE LAMB. It may very well be my favorite. It asks who loves--and then we see a "child" with a problem--such as being messy--"Who loves the messy pup?"

"Come on dear, I'll help clean up." Moma loves her little pup.Yesterday I was sitting on the lawn swings with Miss Ruby, reading Lezlie's book. This is a secret. Ruby is rather a messy pup herself. She takes after her Grandma, I'm afraid. Ruby is banished to her room on many occasions and told to "clean it up!" Ruby always finds other things to do. I do too. If I'm determined to clean the kitchen I clean part of the bar--or whatever--and then I find something delicious to make because making something delicious is way more fun than cleaning. Yup, Ruby takes after me, poor messy pup.

So we sat on the lawn swings and every time I read, "Who loves the..." She piped up, "Oooh, I love the messy pup/fussy lamb/noisy bird/bumbling boar/etc until we came to the hungry 'beest.

"Oooh," she said, "I do not love the hungry 'beest" (wildebeest).

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because, I don't like the way he looks."

Time for a "don't judge people by the way they look," lecture, I thought and was going to do that as soon as we finished the book. So we finished the book and she loved every other child/animal. When we got to the end pages--I can't for the life of me remember what they are called--maybe end pages--there was the 'beest and, looking almost exactly like the wildebeest was the little kid, only with not so messy of a hair-do.

"Oh," she said, "I like that one. She's cute!" She pointed to the little kid.

"You like that one? It's cute? How about this one?"

"No, I don't like him," she said.

They look so much alike, I can hardly tell the difference, but she can. And then it hit me. The wildebeest had messy hair and Ruby's mother is fussy about hair, she's a hair stylist. So, maybe Rudy saw messy hair and thought he needed a good comb, after all, she gets combed and fussed with every morning until she looks like a little fashion plate.

Here are a couple of other problems with the animals. This is the pouting calf.

This is the noisy bird and the bumbling boar. Lezlie has covered just about every problem a child can have--fussy, pouting, hungry, dirty, even sleepy. Moma always loves them.
Yes, this book is my favorite--her first--RAIN SONG--was my favorite for years and years. And if you are local--Provo, Utah--you can meet Lezlie and she will sign her latest book for you. She will be at the BYU bookstore on Thursday, April 22nd from 12:30 to 2:30. And if you are an author wannabe, she can give you tips of the trade. She is very generous and loves to help other authors.

Lezlie is in town to see one of her girls graduate from BYU. Congratulations to one of Lezlie's "little ones."

And congratulations to Lezlie for another great book. And to the illustrator who made almost all the animals lovable (David McPhail). And congratulations to Ruby, who loves so many of the little animals with problems and for loving her grandma, who passed on the "messy gene."

WORDS TO THE YOUTH AND THE REST OF US (WHEN OUR "STOOPID" GENE TAKES OVER)

Sunday was testimony meeting in our ward. One of my most favorite people bore her testimony and said "...years and years ago President. N. Eldon Tanner told the kids, (and I don't know exactly what he said, ) but in essence it was, 'Now go out and have a good time,... but make sure that it will still be good when you look back on it in five years, ten years, twenty years...'"

Good advice, no? When I remember some of the things I did and the repenting I've had to do to be able to live with myself I wonder why I didn't know this years ago.

Thanks, Maisel!

A NEW PLACE TO STASH DIRTY DIAPERS

This driver wanted to share her little darling's aroma with everyone on the road. Some people are generous in ways the rest of us--who are probably terribly dull and uninspired--would never consider.

SONIC THE DOG SLEEPS ON THE BED

This is not a photo of Sonic. Sonic makes this dog look like a pygmy. Sonic is huge. He does everything in a huge way. You ought to see him devour a rawhide bone as big as your arm. Twenty minutes, tops.

We have some friends who have a HUGE golden Labrador. He is a beautiful dog, and does everything with gusto. His name is Sonic and he loves to sleep on the bed with his master and mistress. He waits until they are asleep and then he sneaks, stealthily onto the bed, so stealthily that Mr. Successful doesn't even wake up. He sleeps in between them. He probably weighs as much as the mistress, who I am going to call Blondie. He might even weigh as much as his master, Mr. Successful. Blondie likes Sonic to sleep on the bed because he is like a furry heater and she puts her back up against him and is warm all winter. (Sonic sleeps on top of the covers.)

Mr. Successful is not so fond of Sonic sleeping on the bed. In the first place he'd like to be the one his wife snuggles up against. The second reason is that Sonic has the breath of a dragon. When he lays on his back his breath actually turns the ceiling fan. I'm not making this up, Mr. Successful told Phil. Can you imagine? A dog having breath so strong it will turn the ceiling fan?

The other night Mr. Successful was having a dream of the perfect storm--a storm that smelled like dog breath. He woke up and there was Sonic, with his hot-dog-breath, four inches from Mr. Successful's face. Mr. Suiccessful's eyebrows were wafting to and fro with Sonic's every breath.

So, if you ever have an annoying pet remember it can't be this bad--going to bed with a beautiful woman and waking up to an furry snout, breathing hot breath in your face. Kind of kills any romance you might have, doesn't it? Poor Mr. Successful. Happy, warm Blondie.

A LITTLE OF THIS AND A LITTLE OF THAT

The following came from Colette Amelia's blog:
Have faith...have patience...everything has its time.

sometimes boo boos are wonderful...

Everyone has function.

"It's a sign of wisdom that seeds don't squander their energy all at once, instead calmly waiting until the time is right. Seeds aren't stupid." ~ Midas Dekkers

(We have several oak trees out front and they do not leaf until there is no possibility of snow. Every spring I think they are dead. The trees that are in a hurry often get heavy laden with snow and lose branches. I guess the steady, slow oaks know something. We should take a lesson.)

Yesterday there was an incident in the neighborhood. Cop cars surrounded a house that has been for sale, no one is sure if anyone is living there or not. The police must have had a search warrant because they broke into the garage which contained a huge pile of clothing and a car in there sideways. Sideways! How do you get a car in a garage sideways? The neighbors have heard gunfire a couple of nights but thought it was their imagination, who fires a gun in the middle of the night in this neighborhood? Anyway, I was talking to a woman who is the next door neighbor.

"Don't you want to come to my house and stay tonight?" I asked her.

"No, I'll be fine. I have swords," she said. SWORDS? She has swords?

Today she send me an email: "My swords are still clean and bright!" so no one was "run through" in the night.

I had to close Phil's site off and this was part of an email he had up.

He's a funny one, that kid is. I don't know that I've done much urinal training with him, as they're usually higher and I usually only get him at Church for public restrooms. At least he's a "straight shooter" now that his dooder has been fixed.

Yup, Phil gets some interesting emails.

(This is Google's idea of a doodler. In fact this is a "super doodler.")

I went visiting teaching to Mrs. Bird today and will put her latest escapades on the blog soon. Have a great day, have faith, patience and remember, don't send your leaf's out when there is still a chance of snow. And if you doodler isn't a straight shooter, it seems that you can have it fixed. I'm so happy to pass on helpful information like this.

WORDS TO LIVE BY

I have an extremely smart friend who says profound things from time to time. This was the last two lines of her yesterday's email. I wanted to share it so you could benefit, like I did.

"Have a good day, my friend. We'll be brave, won't we, because what is our other option??"

So I hope you will have a good day today and are brave as lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

THE MOUSE IN THE BAG

One of my favorite people passed away last month. (This is the story I wrote about this family some time ago.) She was an amazing woman. She was afraid of nothing, not hard work, kids with bleeding wounds, teaching in front of a huge audience or most anything else but she had one vulnerable spot. Mice frightened her. She screamed every time she saw one or even thought she saw one. She set herself up for mouse-pranks with her children being the pranksters.

And her children obliged with mouse pranks. She found fake mice they kindly left around the house for her enjoyment. After she screamed, and held her hand to her heart, she tossed the fake mice in the trash, until the day the kids bought an expensive mouse. It had real fur and realistic beady eyes and whiskers. After she screamed she took a good look at it and realized her kids had spent some serious money on Mousie. So, being thrifty, she put him in a bag and put him in the very top of the closet. And then she forgot about him.

Until a year or so had passed and she was cleaning the closet. She saw the little bag, way in the back on the top shelf. What could it be? She opened the bag and screamed and nearly fell off the stool. Then she remembered. Since Mousie was such an expensive and realistic mouse she put him back in the bag and back he went on the top shelf.

You can predict the rest of the story. Every year when she cleaned the closet she saw a little bag and wondered what was in it. Every year she opened it and screamed and nearly fell off the stool. Every year! Until finally one year she had enough and Mousie went into the trash. And good riddance, Mousie.

Let this be a warning to you. Don't save your child's expensive mouse just because they spent a lot of money on it. You will regret it every year until you have finally have had enough and it goes into the trash. Or you die of a heart attack. I'm just saying it could happen. You've been warned.

MARK WON SECOND PLACE IN THE STATE SCIENCE FAIR

This is our grandson, Mark. His science fair project made it to state--held at the conference center at BYU.

He measured solar panel's collecting power by how they were positioned. It was more technical than that. I'm a non technical woman. Mechanical things rust out and quit working in my presence. Cars stall--but first they make funny noises that no man has heard before. Then they stall and have to be towed. Cars never stall or make funny noises for Phil. Mark will probably lead a charmed life, like Phil, because he might know what to do when cars make funny noises and stall and cars simply can't stand anyone knowing what to do. That's why they pick on me. Mark will be a genius of car noises and stalling problems, I just know it. Cars will stall for his wife. That's how it goes.

He found that it does make a difference how the solar panels are positioned! And when asked if he would install solar panels he said if they didn't cost so much he would.

Some of his important wires and measuring stuff. Way too technical for his grandma. I'll bet some of this stuff came right from under the hood of a woman's stalled car, right after it made funny noises.

Here he is conducting his experiments.

And indeed he was not only considered but he took second place in his division, which was: Physical Science--Physics. Congratulations Mark!

Mark is telling his grandpa something very important. I'm not sure his grandpa could hear over the noise of all those kids. They had neat things for the kids to do when they weren't manning their exhibits. Rock climbing, a magician, and here Mark is waiting in line for the Flight Simulator. When asked if he wanted to be a pilot after "flying" a plane he just shrugged his shoulders.

Congratulations to Mark who is redefining reality.

And besides all the technical stuff he's a nice kid and his grandpa and I adore him. Who wouldn't?

Maybe he will put himself through college by installing solar panels, who knows? Or maybe he will be able to diagnose car problems just by listening to the funny noises. That could make him rich.

ENCHILADA RECIPE ON MY COOKBOOK BLOG

Recipe here.

A HANDY EXCUSE FOR ODD BEHAVIOR

Here are a couple of photos of Taylor's new and improved ankle. Now, if one of the screws dislodge he can always say, "I have a screw loose." That will explain many an odd behavior, Not only that but he can blame it on someone else--the surgeon.

GOOD THINGS

Today our son, Taylor, who thinks he is sixteen years old and that jumping down EIGHT stairs won't be hurtful, had surgery on his broken ankle. The doctor put two screws--that look like they are three inches long--in his bone to hold it together. The good news: His ankle is going to be fine. The bad news, he can't walk on it for six weeks. Get well and heal soon, son. We love you.

PS Being sixteen years old is overrated.This is our neighbor, Boyd who is also our home teacher. The little porcupine is his eight-month old grandson who has had hair like this since the day he was born.

And how nice is it that Boyd came to share his grandson with us. Who else would do such a thing? Boyd would, who is the best kind of a friend. We love him and his little porcupine, too.

This is the amaryllis Boyd gave us for Christmas. It bloomed in early February. Now, in March it is blooming again. So far it has two flowers but two more are on the way. What a faithful flower it is. The first bloom is busy making seeds. The last good thing is that I've found a new fingernail polish that I love. It's called China Glaze and is way superior to O. P. I. I bought a red and it lasted five days before I had to redo it. Then I bought a pink and it lasted a week and four days before it needed redoing. The index fingernail had to have a quick redo after day six, not because it chipped but because it wore off the edge from constant dish washing and my repotting the geraniums that I had stored in the basement. Really, this is the best fingernail polish I've ever used. You should buy some. Unless you are a boy and then you should buy some for your favorite girl.

I hope you had some good things in your life today, too. If not, they are a comin', I just know it.

THE GRANDCHILDREN DANCE CELTIC

Tonight Trent called and said that Noah, Willow and Meghan were dancing their Celtic dances at the library. We flew and got there too late to see Noah but did see Willow and Meghan dance. I hardly recognized them. They had curly wigs on--well, not Noah. They did a wonderful job. I got a little teary eyed--as I always do when I watch children performing and since they were my grandchildren it was hard not to get emotional. I blinked a lot.

I wasn't up close so these photos are way too dark. When Willow saw us she grinned and waved. I missed it, of course. But I caught Meghan's smile.Getting dressed in regular clothes after they danced.
Their mom, Michelle in the background, making sure all the shoes and dress parts got packed.

Noah gave us a private recital.

He did a great job.

We are so glad we got to see the kids dance. They really put on a good show--in spite of the fact that some youngster pulled the fire alarm and we were told to evacuate the building. It didn't faze their teacher. "Dance on," was her motto. And they did.

FAREWELL MY SWEET FRIEND

Tomorrow I bid fond farewell to my good friend, sugar. It must be done. "Parting is such sweet sorrow. I hope not to see thee for many 'morrows."

Pam is going to go on this journey with me. Anyone else want to tag along? Come on, it'll be fun. Okay, it won't be fun but try to ignore that part for the greater good. Skinniness. A little skinniness is not only the greater good but lesser too. Let's do this.

SPRING BLIZZARD IN UTAH

Spring in Utah is very unpredictable. My tulips and daffodils are coming up but yesterday they were covered. In snow.

Kramer was very interested in seeing if anyone would come down the street in blizzard so he could BARK-BARK-BARK! After the snow everything was covered.

And then today? Sunshine. That's life in Utah in the spring. It was so warm today I just wore a sweater when we went out. No pants or shoes and socks. Just a sweater. Phil is so understanding.