Conference Weekend and April Food

Yes, it's KIND OF a typo.  April Fool or April Food?  

Food First.  And last.  

For General Conference Weekend, we have eaten Cinnamon Rolls for YEARS.  Its our tradition.  We love Cinnamon Rolls.  Athena in Hawaii got us started by bringing real live Cinnabon from the Mall in Kaneohe when she'd come to our house to watch conference on our TV with us because she didn't have a TV. Yes, we generally save them for Sunday morning and then eat them most of the day, and now they are homemade, not from the Cinnabon shop.  (We have fruit and milk, too. Sometimes.)  Today is Saturday and the other night I had made some interesting little bars whose recipe I found on the internet.  I admit--it was on Facebook.  It was called something like "No Added Sugar" treat.  And I need things like that.  I have a giant sweet tooth.  I happened to have all the ingredients.  Well, most of them.  Ripe bananas, oats, almond milk (I did have to buy that, but we were going to the store anyway), applesauce, vanilla.  Interesting.  It just said to bake at 350 for about 15 to 20 minutes.  So I tried it.  I added in some flax seed meal, too, just for fun and nutrition.  They did set into bars.  They were....eh.  Nothing really special; however, they tasted MUCH better the next morning with Nutella on them!  So that's what I had for breakfast this morning.  Grapefruit, milk, and berries, too.

Can you tell we are attempting to eat better?  Hey, it beats cinnamon rolls or carrot cake for breakfast (which I had twice this past week--the carrot cake, not cinnamon rolls.)  I'd like to say it's helping my weight, but I guess the Nutella might have something to do with that little problem.  The milk is non-fat, just in case you wondered.  And these are made of all good foods and I don't intend to just throw them away just because it's not spectacular and cookie-like.  How COULD it be with no flour eggs and sugar??!!  Mike tasted one and is done.  Looks like this is my breakfast and snacks the next few days. Would someone like to calculate the calories in one of these for me? 

OK, that was Part One of April Food.  Now for April Fool!

We had a most exciting April Fool Day at OUR house!! Damian came for a visit!  We were so surprised.  He is on his way to take his Oral Board Exam in Chicago and stopped in Utah and California for visits and to take care of some business with their home in Temecula.  What a fun time he had, surprising his Mother-in-law, his Grandma Liebhardt, his Dad, and me!  He and his family did a great job of not saying anything about where he was or what he was doing.  Little secret-keepers!! 

Tuesday, I was leaving my office just before 4 pm to go to a meeting, but I'd had Facebook open (on the Sherratt Library page, initially.  Really.)  As I was closing out most of my programs before leaving, I looked at Pam's post that said, "I just got to hug my son-in-law!" It had been posted an hour before. 

Huh?  She has Damian as her only son-in-law. I wondered where Damian was...where SHE was? I tried calling her cell phone number, but it didn't work.  So I puzzled over it a bit with my co-worker who was at the desk. I did remember that Damian was supposed to be on the mainland the first part of April, so I just instructed my co-worker to call me if he came by!  Who knew I'd walk right out the door and just about into his arms?  It wasn't really quite like that, but close.  I went out my office door and saw Mike coming into the library front doors and went to him. He had such a goofy look on his face!  I knew something was up.  I said, "I have to go to a meeting right now! Why are you here??  Do you know what I just saw on Facebook!?" and told him, and that's when Damian walked up to me.  So fun.  Brief hugs and scruffing of his beard, more giggles, questions, hugs, plans made for dinner, finals hugs and kisses before I rushed, floating and grinning, off to my meeting. 

No other April Fool jokes.  We did enjoy having him here until Thursday. Katie and her family were able to meet up with him in Chicago and spent this afternoon with him!  I hope SHE or HE will post some photos of that fun excursion.

We hope and pray Damian will do well on his Board Exams in the Windy City on Monday, and have a safe long journey home to his far-away, long-suffering family. He's been gone 2 weeks!

Quite the beard.  Graying fast.  My baby's getting gray!!

The photo above was Damian talking to Eric on the phone.  He surprised Eric and Katie via phone on Tuesday night, as they had both called while he was there.  He is such an April Fool!

Also, Eric shared with us in Friday that he's done with training, finished FOURTH in his class, was assigned to work on the Coral Princess cruise ship doing 11-day western Caribbean cruises. YAY!  He ships out tomorrow.  Good Luck, Eric!!!

*******************

Now the ending of April Food.  Here's another FOOD and CULTURE  book I found on the New Books shelf.  My co-worker, Jill M. was raised in NYC and she can't wait to see what restaurants is mentions.  Jill also attended pastry school.  She has her Master of Library Science degree, too.  I'm tellin' you, I supervise some really smart and talented folks.

I plan to enjoy eating somewhat healthily the rest of this conference weekend.  Mike's mom took us out to eat at Applebee's this afternoon, along with Mike's sister, Gayela.  It was good. I just had a burger. Haven't had a good burger for a while.  Tomorrow I'm fixing veggie soup for our Sunday Dinner.  April Food.  It's all about spring.

And Conference. I watched the Priesthood Session on the computer with Mike this afternoon/evening.  I've never done that before, but I didn't feel like an intruder. The weather was just yucky, so Mike opted to watch it from home for a change. And I enjoyed it, too.  It was on TV, as well, but that station was all skippity, so I found it on the computer for him and it was nice and clear all the way through.

Enjoy the messages from Conference.  They have been great so far, and I know they will be tomorrow, too.

Two Relief Society Birthday Celebrations

MY ward had a Relief Society birthday celebration about the 19th of March.  It was just a very fun evening of food and fun.  We have quite a number of new, young families and couples in our ward, so it was great to have "getting-to-know-you" games.  We had taco salad, fruits platter, and ate the pretty cupcake centerpieces for dessert.  (Connie Weaver Donohue[?] made the pretty centerpieces. She used to live in our ward and caters now!)

We were assigned a color of table to sit at, determined by the color of name tag we put on when we arrived.  Then, part way through the meal, we were instructed to get up, take our plate and move to the table number on the BACK of our name tag, so we mostly had a whole new group of people to visit with.

Of course, I didn't think to take any photos while there, but the table decorations were cute and spring-y.  There were getting-to-know-you questions written on the paper on the table, as part of the centerpiece.  "Would you ever consider sky-diving or base jumping?"  "Where were you raised?"  "Tell about your first kiss"  Just a good variety of fun stuff.  Favorite books, oh, the list went on and on and we didn't have enough time to share everything and find out everything about everyone that we wanted! 

After that, we had a bingo game with more of those similar things. We got to find people who had done things them like "Lived in a foreign country"  "Been visit taught this month"  "Wearing Red"  "Served a Mission"  "Eaten sushi"  "Likes artichokes"  "Done their visiting teaching this month" "Read scriptures today"

And of course, there were a few fun prizes for the first few "Bingo's" and the first couple of black out bingo's.

THEN

My mother-in-law invited me to attend her ward Relief Society birthday celebration Thursday night of this week (March 27) with her.  It was a combination of the 19th ward, the Indian Hills Ward and the Greens Lake Ward--the three wards who meet in the Greens Lake chapel.  I went with her and figured I might see a few people I knew since we have lived in the 19th ward over the years.  . .Many, MANY years ago when we lived in Mike's parent's home.

Those women worked really hard and presented a very tradition Jewish wedding feast dinner, simplified and Americanized.  It was plenty of food and lots of fun.  They had a good turn out from all the wards and filled their little cultural hall.  We had time to visit with sisters around us.  Then they treated us to a really well-done presentation of the Parable of the Ten Virgins, a musical presentation written by Emily Freeman.  Beautiful music, beautiful costumes and voices and setting.  And I had a front-row seat.  It was really nice. I've never really noticed it before, but these newer little-er LDS chapels don't have a stage in their cultural hall! Hmm.  So it was good to have a front row seat. 

It did last a long time, but I'm very glad I went, as I have not seen a production of that before. I understand it is out of print now, but the ladies who presented it did a fine job. I could tell they had ALL worked very hard on the decorations, the food and the presentation.

Happy Birthday Relief Society!

Thank you, "Sesame Street"

I believe all my children grew up watching "Sesame Street" on TV.  I liked Sesame Street.  We also saw our share of Mr. Rogers and Barney.  But the letters in the alphabet have stayed with them in part, I believe, because of years of viewing Sesame Street.  Oh, I guess my reading to them, and 12 plus years of school may have helped a bit, too.

One day, I was pushing one of my younger toddler boys in the stroller.  He looked up into the pretty blue sky and saw something like this:

And the little toddler pointed up and said, "Look, Mom! An 'X' !!"  And so it was!  Only, I really don't remember if this was Nick or Eric.  Any memories of this, boys?

March Madness

No, I'm not really into basketball.  As a matter of fact, it's pretty amazing that I even know that March Madness has anything to DO with Basketball.  But sometimes I pay attention to what is going on around me.

I have been paying attention, and  the weather has been extremely dry lately.  Last weekend, I went to the backyard and distributed some organic matter across the dirt that will be our garden.  It was some compost and a LOT of grass clippings from last summer. I also trimmed  a LOT of limbs out of our two fruit trees.  The limbs are still laying all over the ground, but I will pick them up and pile them out front NEXT week to be hauled away by the city.  They offer a free spring clean up each year!  Isn't that a nice thing?  I truly enjoy saving a trip the dump. I mean, I like the dump and all....nah.   Pass.  They can pick it up in front of the house.  All I have to do is put it there.  I live in a great town, wonderful state and a fantastic country that provides us many freedoms and comforts.  I am not one to take stop signs and signal lights, police officers and firemen for granted!  Nope, I love this place.  I love to sleep peacefully at night, without fear.  There is much to be said for this wonderful place we live in. Even though I did sleep through our neighborhood caucuses the other night.  oops. I was tired.

I also spent a LOT of time cleaning out some flower beds the past 2 Saturdays.  I think I did a "Cryptoquote" from the newspaper that said in spring one should smell like dirt at the end of the day.  Well, I did! ha.  Happy Spring.  It is   SOOOOOooooo unusual to be able to be outside and digging in the earth so early.  It's only March.  I used to wish in years past to go out and play in the dirt, but then it'd snow or something on the Saturday we had it planned. We usually get our garden in by Mid May if we are lucky.  It helps that our former back-door neighbors lent us their nice roto-tiller to use while they are away at graduate school.  Gee, I miss those cute neighbors.  The renters are not nearly as fun, and have a yappy dog.  Our "real" neighbors (the ones who are away) took really good care of their yard and garden and inspired me. And we shared conversation, produce and greetings back and forth.  I have a feeling there won't be nearly so many raspberries to glean this year, darn it.  But I'll share my zucchini. :-)

I applied for some money from a fund at work to attend a conference this summer in Las Vegas.  It's for the AMERICAN Library Association conference.  They've never had that one in Las Vegas before, and I got the funding I applied for, so I get to go!!  Yay!  I'm so weird.  I really LIKE conferences.  I attended ALA only once before, and it was held in Washington DC that year.  To have it in Las Vegas is really convenient.  Only, there are no other ladies from my library interested in attending, save one. She is presenting (hooray for her!) but was recently diagnosed with a re-currance of her cancer (NOT yay for her!), so I really have no idea if she will be able to attend by the end of June or not.  I had so hoped to be roommates with her.  Delightful woman.  So sorry that she has to face that again. Her treatment course has yet to be determined, as diagnoses just took place over the last week or so. Plus some other, un-related surgery

Speaking of libraries, I have SOOOOoooo enjoyed having a fully staffed Circulation area this past year and a half.  Truly a blessing.  I've been able to take time off, use up my non-contract and vacation time, and just generally have coverage and can get stuff done.  I mean, really. It's been great.    I like my job.  And my student workers decorated the area with the most darling shamrocks this month!  Everywhere!  Dozens. I loved it.

Now comes the March Madness part:

Over the past few weeks, one librarian announced her retirement.  She and her husband are leaving on a mission in a few weeks.  She's in my ward and they spoke in church today (Janet and Keith Seegmiller).  One more person announced HIS retirement--he is the department chair/associate dean.   Yikes!  AND THEN, to top it all off, our dean announced HE is leaving at the end of June for a new job in Mississippi.  Three leaving. No leadership.  Interim dean to be appointed and very few qualified to choose from.  We're already short-handed in the faculty area, especially with the one female faculty being so seriously ill. Our poor stressed-out secretarial staff on that floor!  That's a lot of change in leadership.  A lot of search committees and very few people left to do the work, quite frankly.  Some of MY people covet the faculty position and will apply. I have no idea how that will fly and how that might affect my department.  I get to serve on one search committee, and I'm sure some of my staff will serve on others. It's going to be an interesting summer.  Glad we (Mike & I) don't have any major plans, like trips or anything.  We're just working around home, I believe.  Cleaning out sheds and yards and the like.

There are also two more of our faculty who are approaching retirement within the next two to three years, or less (one is already over 70 yrs).  How much change can one small department tolerate before we all collapse in a tearful heap?  Gee, I was so hoping to be retired and gone before all this sort of thing went on.  Alas, I have years to go before considering that. "And miles to go before I sleep..." Frost

But my tulips are budding, the peonies are popping up and the rhubarb is coming back.  Irises are taking over the back fence and daffodils are smiling out front.  What's not to be happy about?

Well, I do miss Eric sometimes. It's awfully quiet around here.  HE has been incredibly quiet!!

Does anyone have any good April Fool's jokes to share?

feb

I find it hard to believe that all of February has gone and I have not posted one photo, or made one entry on my paltry little blog.  Well, it IS the shortest month.

We had incredibly mild weather most of the time. So mild, I washed the car on the front lawn.

I think we ate some chocolates and enjoyed some lovely roses during Valentine's day (which I took off and stayed home to run errands, clean house, etc.)

Mike got the garage all enclosed and the door totally installed and functional.  It is nice to park our (now clean) car INSIDE the garage!  But there has been no snow to "protect" it from since the garage has been completed.  We did have a baby rainstorm here last week, but it was not much.  We are still very much in a drought.

The tulip leaves started poking their heads out of the dirt in our front flower bed, so I've watered them a couple of times.  I am hoping for some good blooms this year.  Although, the dirt is kind of hard  and the leaves rather small, so the flowers will probably be small, too.  We tried to improve the soil a year or so ago and failed at that.

Eric leaves on his "adventure" at the end of this week.  Mike and I will be empty-nesters once more.  That has happened a time or two over the years.  It's not a great thing, particularly. I mean, it kind of is.  But kind of not.  I don't know yet. I'll have to experience it and let you know.

I took quite a bit of time off of work, off and on.  Half a day here, whole day there, a couple of hours here and there.  I'd like to say that my house is spic and span and all my projects are complete, but that is not the case.

I went to a couple of concerts, I visited with my local legislators at our state capitol, I drove my MIL to a funeral in Provo, spent the night with Nick and Kaylee once.  I did a short presentation for one of our library faculty, and walked through an art exhibit or two (just on campus).

I did some inconsistent exercising, signed up to be a guinea pig for an exercise assessment student project, as well as the on-going nutrition assessment student guinea pig.  I have not outgrown my love of chocolate, but tempered it with some delicious carrot cake I made with "rainbow" carrots...from the extras in an Bountiful Basket I got in February.

Grated Rainbow Carrots

I went to one basketball game with Mike,
 as well as the alumni party before hand (won a tee shirt!), and I did my visiting teaching--even taking a treat this time ( a rarity).  I sent some correspondence I've been meaning to do for ages (a couple of get-well cards and sympathy cards).  And I've touched base with a few old friends.  Missed getting with another.

We were playing "Minute to Win It" with Oreo cookies before the Basketball Game.

Yes, it's all about me. ha.  Me, me, me...I, I, I.  Us, Us, Us.

Mike and I at SUU basketball game.