New Cookie Recipe

So there was a girl in my ward that used to always make me these cookies. They were very good. Well, this girl got a boyfriend, and for some reason she decided she shouldn't make me the cookies anymore. So I made them myself.

1 cake mix (the white sparkly one is best - I forget what it is called)
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs

Oven at 350. I've made the cookies kinda smallish. Cook for 6 minutes, NO MORE. They'll appear really soft when you take them out, but after about a minute of cooling, you'll see they're perfect (or overdone).

Give it a try!

WHAT??

Have pirates taken over me blog??

Apparently, I made my post today on the Payne blog!

So, here is a LINK. It will be fun, like a treasure hunt!

Back To Where I Stopped

Now I'll share pictures of Steven's birthday....there are lots, just so you won't feel like you missed anything!

Have you guessed; I am a saver! Why throw away a perfectly good box when it still can be used? The joy in wrapping gifts in these boxes is great. They might think they are getting some See's candy, but they are not; nor are they getting a new camera. It's all part of the unwrapping joy.

His wrapped gifts:

What's it gonna be?

Burt's Bee's lip balm

The "See's Candy" box

Notice Griffin's tongue



Some car wash certificates:

A Krispy Kreme donut box....

More socks

It's a book. I thought it would be "Strategies for Settlers of Catan". It wasn't. It was a novel about martians.

More gift certificates. They are good most anywhere!

Is he getting a camera?? No it wasn't and I have forgotten what was in that box.

His "cake" - Cool Whip Delight. He was happy to have it!

But did you notice his closed EYES again in the picture??

I can fix that. There, much better.

Oh, it was pants in that camera box.

(Blogger, bugging me today, you can't really move the pictures around and I tried to put them in the right order, but I guess I didn't!)

Then Steven invited Josh S. over to play THE GAME.

It was a lovely evening.

Enough of the PAST, we will be moving into the future now!

Hope you enjoyed all the catching up.

There Are Starving Children In China!

July 9th – our 28! Wedding Anniversary

Kerry and I were going out to dinner; very exciting!
I still had to make sure there was food for my children at home; Zak, Quinn, Kylie and Griffin. I believe Steven had his own FREE restaurant meal with his delightsome Deloitt “buddy”…oh and Ike Felix was there too.

I knew that they could easily make Top Ramen. To make it a better, more protein filled meal, I bought some flap steak that they could put in with the Ramen. I BBQ'd that during lunch and cut it up ready to go in their meal.

We came home from our most delicious meal (thanks to a saved gift card from a party at the Harmon's house) and saw this pan on the stove:

I guessed that they had just barely made it, but hadn't eaten yet. I inquired. Look inside the pan:

They wanted to be VERY careful to make enough ramen for everybody to really have their full. What you are looking at is their leftovers! I think it VERY funny. The noodles are only about 10 cents a package. They said they loved the meat so much that they all picked through their bowls and ate that. They made 7 packages. I saved all that meat...can't remember if anyone ate it later.

I did feel better knowing that all those children know what it feels like to try to make the right amount of food, and guess a little high.

Tomorrow:

pictures of Steven's birthday...posted early; don't miss them!

I'm A Winner!

Here is a picture (of the board) of the FIRST time I won at Settlers of Catan.
I am the RED little things.
It was quite exciting.
My opponents: Kylie (blue), Zak (white) and Quinn (orange)

Now play some champion music in your head!

4th of July, or Celebration of Our Independence

Every year our Ward (local church) has a breakfast to celebrate the 4th of July.

Here is the first picture - my children walking to the entrance of the park.

I wish that post was not there. I'm sure you are sorry with me.

Ward members helping serve the breakfast:

The Kimball family ALWAYS has their family reunion on this day. Here they are eating!
They also ALWAYS have matching T-shirts!

Our primary sang "Yankee Doodle Dandy"

Here is a close-up of Kylie

Griffin in the hat

The Primary singing; or just standing, you decide

It was a lovely morning.

LATER:

I went home to start cooking a delicious lunch/dinner

Sadly, I bought some different meat for our Carne Asada; it was yucky...Steven even put his back on the serving dish! At least I didn't burn it.

The potato salad was not quite right.

I was sweaty.

It was an "A" for effort kind of meal.

Then we went to see some big fireworks. They were nice, but the car alarm that went off with every fireworks display was a bit annoying.

All in all it was a nice day; we spent it together as a family!

Where Have All The Cole's Gone, Long Time Passing

Ok, here are all of my excuses:
It's seems it's GROUND HOG DAY here; we do the same things day in, and day out
OR
Someone else is always on the computer
OR
I am too hot and sweaty

GROUNDHOG DAY (You know, the MOVIE!)
Things we do most EVERY day:
Swim
Play the board game Settlers of Catan (a couple of times)
Eat
Sweat

Games we play in the Pool:
Horse: the basketball game, but in the pool. Sometimes we play COW
Boogers and walrus: you know the game, it is like sharks & minnows. Everyone loves it, including Griffin. We are very competitive. Steven has quite a wound on his arm, Zak and Quinn’s hands are scraped up pretty well and my toe is hurt all from pushing off and grabbing onto the side of the wall.
Marco polo: just started. It was fun with Kylie and Griffin. They loved it.
Volleyball: always fun
Football: I really enjoyed this. Zak made it up.



I will now try to slowly catch you all up.

We'll start with the pictures from the homemade chocolate ice cream:
I made this at 11:00 at night...read about it here.




It was delicious and we ate it all!

Tomorrow's posts:
July 4th pictures...shall post in the morning
Julie winning SoC....shall post at noon!
Funny dinner story....shall post at 6:00pm

Someone's Having A Birthday!

This is what he looks like: He likes to pose with dogs...not sure if he actually likes them:
He's happy to be 24!

Happy Birthday to you!

Glad you are spending it at home,

eating a roast dinner

and cool whip delight for your "cake"

Fun

Steven taught us how to play this game today. It was fun!

Happy Birthday, America!

We'll be celebrating by:

going to the annual breakfast at Eisenhower Park

homemade ice cream (vanilla)

yummy meal

watching fireworks

possible swimming

possible tennis

It will be a good, hot day.

I Pulled The Plug at 11:18pm

You know it's summer vacation when the whole family stays up until 11:18pm to eat homemade, chocolate ice cream. It took 2 hours to churn. It is good. Zak will LOVE it!

Zak isn't here, he is still at Magic Mountain at a birthday party.

An Interesting Discussion

I can't remember how I found out about this book, but it sounded interesting, so I got it at the library, started reading it and found it easy and funny. I was relaxing into a nice "read". Then things went awry. I was so disturbed, I decided to write to the author and let her know. (Can you believe it!) Here is a copy of our exchanged e-mails:

Dear Megan,

I discovered your book and was excited to read it. I had heard it was good!

I started reading it right after I read a non-fiction about climbing Mt. Everest. It was nice to read something easy and fun.

Not too far into it, I read a profane word. I kept reading thinking it would not come up again. By page 43, I could not read anymore for all the foul language. Really, we are a family of readers, and anyone could have picked up the book, opened a page and started reading at any time. I would have been embarrassed for any of my children to see that I was reading a book with that language.

It doesn't help the story or the characters...unless you wanted the characters to be that sort to speak that way; in that case, I have no interest in reading that story. I feel language is a real "tell" in a person. I would not want to have a conversation with someone who uses that kind of language. It really means something, it does matter. We certainly don't purposely teach our little 2 year olds how to swear; it's not right.

I am one of those that feels that it is not right for anyone. There are many really great words out there to use; why sink to the foul.

I feel bad, it seems like a funny enjoyable read. Please consider not using foul language in your future books. I think that would only help; you could certainly count me in as a reader then.

Thanks,

Julie Cole

Then I got this response:

Julie:

You're right. My style is not for everyone. But for the record: I
never use foul language in my books for shock value. It's always in
keeping with the characters I'm writing about and their points of
view. Twentysomething men and women say the words in my book. To not
write in the real language that real people use wouldn't be authentic.

I personally don't fill my everyday conversation with F-bombs and the
like. I have a six year old son and I very much believe in leading by
example. To be honest, there have been more than a few times when I've
had my characters say and do things that make me cringe because I
would NEVER say or do these things myself. But as I said, I feel like
these narrative choices are an accurate reflection of contemporary
culture as it really is, not as people wish it to be.

I don't regret what I wrote, but I'm sorry that you were too offended
by the words to enjoy the story.

M.


I was glad she wrote back. I think the conversation is interesting. Not sure if I should write her back or not, but I would ask her if it makes the world a better place to sink to the lowest level, whether that's how the people talk or not. Wouldn't it be a better place if we all reached higher. I think that if a book has no swearing the people wouldn't write and say, "hey where is all that foul language, I missed it!"