The List for August

It's been an interesting month.  It's coming to a close.  Here's "The List":

We had an open house/wedding reception here in Cedar City for our newlyweds, Nick and Kaylee.

I began hostessing at the Utah Shakespeare Festival on Fridays and Saturdays in the evening.  I will hostess four more times and get to see the last of the outdoor theater productions later this week, I think.  Yesterday, I hostessed twice--once for the matinee, and once for the evening.

I attended one play at the Neil Simon Festival before it ended this month. ("Driving Miss Daisy."  Not Neil Simon, but a great production, nonetheless.)

I hosted a "Because of Babies" luncheon at my home for two ladies I visit teach or go visiting teaching to.  They both had babies, so we had lunch together to celebrate the new little ones.

I presented some training in Salt Lake City with fellow committee members in my Utah Library Association committee.  That was a day-and-a half trip, and I even provided lunch for them.  (I'm seeing a food theme here.  Are you?)

I helped a dear friend, Cindy, with the food at her daughter's wedding reception.  We ate a LOT of cake after that.  Eric provided music for the wedding reception with a string quartet.  It was lovely.

Mike and I attended a seminar one evening on Social Security.   That was interesting.  Really.  I'm getting older and weird things interest me. ;-)

We've had rain and thunder and lightening so much that I have not had to water either the garden or the lawn in a very long time.  About a month, I would think.  We've had to dry off seats in the outdoor theater a time or two because of it, but we are glad to take the much-needed and wanted rain in our little desert community.

I've been training three new people at work most of the month and last month.  Whole new staff at the circulation desk these days.  I'm the "old one" now. (Well, I have been for a long time, actually.)

A bunch of people in my family had birthdays (David, Tandy, Damian, Laura), and Gail and Seth celebrated an anniversary.

My Dad had some surgery and complications.  That's been a roller coaster ride, he's on the mend but not totally out of the woods yet.  That was just on Monday, August 20th, so we've all been grateful for all the love and support of friends and family--especially all the prayers on his behalf.  Details can be found in Donna's blog (linked from mine).  Donna has been so appreciated by the rest of us siblings, as she is there with them and keeps in close contact with us all.

We had a fun ward party/dinner, attended a number of wedding receptions all summer long, a missionary farewell or two, I've taught my Primary class more than not this month (a major change from LAST month!).  Sadly, I've seen only three of the 6 USF Summer Season plays and the summer season ends on September 1. (We DO have tickets for Les Miserables in October, however!)

And I'm tired.  I start T-Fit at work tomorrow.  Fitness report to follow.

Has anyone ever heard of the movie "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen"?

 

How Doth Our Garden Grow?

 I sent this photo to a couple of my kids (via my phone!) and they were really impressed.  I sent some of the produce to another of my offspring via their aunt, and the other two got to eat in in my kitchen, lovingly prepared for them by Mommy Dearest.

And we've found homes for a lot of it because I just have neither the time nor the energy to preserve it.  Nor bottles or lids or space. (Well, I guess I could go get bottles, lids and make some space...I just don't feel an urgent need to do so right now.)

 This little guy decided that he was too shy to actually go through the fence to the other side, so he just stayed right there in the middle.  Mike unscrewed some of the slats on the fence to give it more room once we discovered this.  It's a little mis-shapen, but it is already turning orange, just one week after I snapped this picture.  And it's much bigger, too.

 Nope, Mike didn't pee in his pants.  The cabbage was full of water as he was trimming it up outside.  It's really kind of flattened, shape-wise.  But it sure made some yummy cole slaw to go with our Sunday dinner.  Actually, we gave this huge head away, gave a smaller one away to Mike's sister, and I made the cole slaw from the second half of another large one harvested earlier in the season that's been in my fridge.  We have several more in our garden, but they aren't doing so hot.  They don't seem to be making the heads as well as the ones we had last year.  These are lighter and less dense, besides being kind of flattened instead of round like a sphere.

Photos from our Puerto Vallarta Trip.

Dinner in Puerto Vallarta with Nick and Kaylee

Sunset on the beach

Sand Castle ... a BIG sand castle!

NOT the seahorse statue.  The "Malacon" is a boardwalk of sorts, lots of pedestrians, shops, street performer and statues.  It's quite famous.

This was the seahorse statue I was looking for.  It appears on many of the Puerto Vallarta post cards and tourism info. Those are total strangers standing in front of it, having their picture taken by another tourist.  I just wanted the silhouette of the statue.

One view from our balcony.  We had construction on the right (above), construction on the left (not shown), and a big HUGE thatched roof straight ahead.  Cobble stones on the roof right off the balcony, which was glass, so we wouldn't miss any of the view. ha.  We happen to really enjoy watching construction.  As a matter of fact, this photo was snapped because I was attempting to capture the very large birds that were perched on the crane mechanism.  They stayed while the crane moved--I imagine it was like an amusement park ride for them.  There was plenty of construction noises all day long, too.  If you went there expecting a quiet little tropical paradise place, you'd be sorely disappointed.  Trucks, cement trucks, back-up "beep-beeps", etc.  But, like I said, we really enjoy construction sites so we were fine with that. It was fun to see the progress of the concrete pours, back fill work, cement pumps, etc.  We're weird like that. :-)

A pyramid on the pool grounds.  We jokingly said it was the water slide.  But it's an authentic-looking pyramid with little bumpy steps that the water is falling down. Ouchies if it was the slide! ha.  the slide went out the other side and was a half tube.

Mike said to say that this was the "Lazy River"

And the flurry of water in this canal (I just turned around and took this picture right after the one before) is supposedly a crocodile fight.  Use your imagination--it could happen.  The ocean right by our resort was really muddy.  The Nayarit river emptied into the ocean right there.  Not a very pretty beach. But who needs a beach when you have your own private dipping pool?  I'm too old for that sand and stuff.

We had to have a "towel card" issued from our front desk in order to pick up a towel at the pool areas.  If we didn't return the towel cards, there was a very hefty charge added to our bill.  Like 400 pesos per towel.  But above are some swan-folded towels.  We spent so little time at the pool, we only used our towel cards once. I did hang out our bath towels to dry.  A lot.  They never really did, it was so humid.

Fun toys along the beach.  The Grand Mayan (we were staying in the Grand Bliss) had a kids club area with splash pad and organized activities for kids.  You can see why it is a good family destination.

The shark at the bar. Or a bar shark, or something.  We were just wandering around, checking out the different places along the beach.  This was at the Sea Garden resort.  They had nice pools, too and a lovely lobby area (below).

AND the lobby area had a great breeze, so Mike and I sat down to enjoy it for a while.

Jordan River Temple = Wedding = Happy

 The happy Bride and Groom

 One Happy Grandma (Autrey)

 One Happy sibling and her family (Gail, Seth and kids)

One very happy group of Nick's best friends from High School (and 2 spouses) 

who attended his wedding

 The little cousins from Vernal don't seem to happy, but their Great Great Grandma Liebhardt was sure

 happy to see them!

 I think the moving water in the fountain is very representative of all the motion and action that was going on outside the temple this morning.  Family chatting, playing in the water, taking photos, catching up. It was a HAPPY day.

Happy Damian

 Katie, Casey and boys.  What a trip they had!  We were SO HAPPY they finally made it!!

Two happy little grandson's, playing in the water of the fountain.  Who can resist a good fountain? 

 Not I! And not them, either!

Mexico

A "Dipping Pool"

Pease Porridge Hot

Funny story.  I picked a bunch of peas when we got back from Mexico, put them in a bag in my fridge.  Kind of forgot about them, but by the time we got some more picked and I shelled all of them last night, it was a good-enough sized bowl to make a nice side dish to go with dinner.  So I put them in a pan, added a little bit of water and was just cooking them on low last night while attempting to blog.  Then I became distracted.  I went outside and sat on the porch and visited with Mike.  Then some neighbors came out, and we chatted over the wall; another neighbor joined in.  By then it was dark and I came in, but only to avoid the mosquitos that would probably be finding me soon.  I came into a house that smelled of bacon, of all things.  I wasn't cooking bacon, I thought to myself.  How come the bacon smell? And then I saw my pot of peas on the stove.  Thoroughly burned to a crisp--and to the bottom of the pan!  That was probably the ONLY peas we will have from our garden, and now they were ruined.  I felt really bad.  But not so badly that I didn't appreciate the fact that I'd not burned up the kitchen!!

So, you know the nursery rhyme:

Pease porridge hot,
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot
Nine days old.

I think it will take nine days of scrubbing to get the black out of the bottom of  my pot.  Who knew burned peas smelled slightly of bacon cooking??!!