Listening to Country Music

...and cooking for 150 people makes me happy.

A friend in our ward has a daughter getting married on Saturday. They came to Jake & Steph's open house in August...really liked what we served and asked me if I would duplicate that menu for their reception. Glad to do it!

So the next 3 days will be a cooking, chopping, setting and serving marathon...and I love it.

Right now I've got Cilantro Chicken cooking

and meat marinating for Pork Barbacoa.

Of course whenever I cook or sew I listen to country music.
Drives Karl crazy!
How can somebody that love Bluegrass hate country western music???
...they're first cousin, if not brothers.
But Karl's psychosis is another issue.

Anyway I discovered Pandora radio...it's wonderful! So now while I'm doing my domestic thing I just listen to my own custom radio station. All my favorite country music with a little Jack Johnson , Jason Maraz, Michael Buble' and a few other favorites thrown in the mix. Best part...if a song comes on that you don't like, you just click on the "thumbs down" icon and it won't play again. Oh did I mention no commericials. It's better than my Ipod.

Well I better get back to the kitchen.
Next on the agenda is making Tomatillo dressing for 150....so good.

Love, Mom T.

Friday night entertainment

Friday evening Karl's band had a gig in Boulder City. The folks in Boulder City have a monthly little concert there that they call "Country Spirit". The first hour is local folk invited to do "pre-meditated Karaoke." The second hour is a feature band. Aspen Ridge was the featured band. At the last minute their banjo player realized he had a class that night he couldn't miss...and the band isn't much of a band without their banjo player. So at the last minute Karl found a banjo player by way of the Bluegrass grapevine. He didn't know the guy, hadn't heard of the guy but he played the banjo and he was willing to fill in at the last minute. Turns out this guy was amazing! He actually made the band sound better. This guy was so at ease and had such a stage presence that he made the band look like they were have a great time...and they were!

Moral of the story: don't miss a gig ...you might not be missed.

Karl brother Clare was at the concert so Karl called him up out of the audience to play a number with the group. Karl's all time favorite person to jam with!

Next month Clare's band is the featured band...so we'll go back for a little more small town entertainment.

It's still raining...

and the water on the patio was getting deeper...so I fill a couple of garbage cans with water off the patio. That seemed pretty feeble. Then I did a little trenching (yes, I disturbed a bit of Karl's precious grass) so the water could run off the patio, through the flower beds (which was also turning into a swimming pool right next to the house) out the gate and down the slope that runs between the houses out to the road. That work quite nicely.

So now it can keep raining.

Now where the man of the house when the place is flooding? Aren't I just suppose to just stay in the house and act helpless when these types of calamities threaten?

Love, Mom T.

I love the rain...Hmmmm?

One more inch of water on my patio and I will be bailing water or digging a drain hole in my lawn...and it's still raining.

I love the rain

...at least if I don't have to drive in it. We are enjoying (?) our third day of rain. The most rain Las Vegas has had from one storm system in five years. And more days of rain are in the forecast. I need to do some shopping...but that can wait for a sunnier day. Baking cookies seems more suitable for the weather.

January showers bring desert flowers...so we won't complain.

Love, Mom T.

Here's Gretchen

...commonly called AWOL at our house.

She's one the reasons we went back to Arizona last weekend.

She is who Clark is looking for here.and here.
She's the one that went AWOL the day Clark and Rachel were moving.
Thank goodness for good neighbors that love cats.
Loly and Missy harbored her until we could retrieve her.

She's an under the bed type cat. She's the happiest there.
She spends 23.50 hours a day there. The other .5 hours a day she's looking for loving, rubbing and petting from her people.

She's the reason Clark and Rachel are coming to visit soon.
(We are so glad they are coming to visit.)
She misses them and they miss her.
Hmmm...Maybe they need children. I hope their children don't live under the bed.
Just a thought.

Love, Mom T.

Friends...no,they're really family!

It was so good to be able to be at John's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and reception lovely...
but the best part was seeing some of our Pasco friends again. It made me realize they are really more like family...hand picked family.

We knew they were our surrogate family when we lived in Pasco. All holidays and important events brought us together when there was no blood relatives close by to celebrate with. We raised our kids together, met at sporting events, carpooled to the temple, served in the church together and supported each other.Now that we've been gone from Pasco six plus years, to see them again is like we never left! I just wish we could see them all more often.

Can you still recognize those Wamsley men?

The next generation...who do these two belong to?

Definitely a little Lindee!


One of those beautiful Harker girls was there!

We wondered if someone would ever snag Chris...but Lisa finally did!



Thanks John and Riki for planning this Pasco reunion...in Mesa, Arizona!

A Good End to a Great Year!

Our New Year's Eve was just the way we like it...cozy, peaceful, and stress-free.We did have to do something to make it memorable...
sooo, we went to an early movie (to avoid the crowds).
We decided we needed to see what all the hype and talk were about. Not being science-fiction fans, we were skeptical.

But Avatar was amazing (we'd never seen a 3-D movie before)
and we really enjoyed both the special effects and the story.

After the movie we enjoyed a leisurely dinner at South of the Border
then we went home...
to peacefully say good-bye to 2009.
Grateful for a wonderful year fulled with so many opportunities to be with family and friends.
We have so many happy memories!

...and welcome 2010.
Looking forward to 2010 to try harder, be better,
and anticipating what the New Year will bring.

Got my last Christmas present today

A new tooth.