Happy Thankgiving!

Lauren's recent blog post reminded me of when she and her siblings were little, and came home from school dressed as pilgrims or Indians. (Jessica--married and teaching Kindergarten, Emily -- now a mom of 4, Philip -- college student)

When the kids were little, Thanksgiving was always at Aunt Donna's. Here's Lauren (now a mom of 4) enjoying the Thanksgiving weekend at Donna's home in Austin.This picture's for you Donna. Here you are with the finest video camera of 1986. We're (Donna with toddler Kristyn, Me with baby Jeremy in stroller, Granny holding toddler Jessica's hand) enjoying a Thanksgiving walk by the river in Austin. (This picture was taken 23 Thanksgivings ago!!!!!!!!)

Tomorrow finds us home with several of our children's families. Three of the boys are off in Utah. Last Thanksgiving, we were in San Antonio for the birth of grandson Colby, who is now in far off Minnesota with his parents. We'll be missing all of you who are away tomorrow. I'm so thankful for all of life's many blessings, and most of all family.

fall harvests

The satsuma orange tree in our backyard is ridiculously overloaded with oranges. Last year, during hurricane Ike, a large branch bearing dozens of oranges got destroyed. This year, the tree produced with a vengeance. This is what we get to enjoy each day. The best tasting fruit, as well as juice, ever ....
My favorite fall vegetable is squash, any kind. Got some growing in the garden, but this is spagetti squash I bought at the store. Fix it like this for a seriously delicious dish (Grandpa and I like it even better than real spaghetti.)

• Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise (easier to cut with a rocking motion of the knife). Scoop out any seeds.
• Cook in the microwave (or you could bake it, but would take longer) cut side down (I put it down on a sheet of parchment paper), for 13min. or til tender -- it won' t get mushy (test by poking it with a fork).
• When done, rake it (lengthwise) with a fork , and it will automatically produce these spaghetti like strands.
• While squash is cooking, prepare the sauce. For just the two of us, I browned up 1 gourmet chicken/ spinach/feta sausage (you could crumble up some tofu, or a bit of lean hamburger, or whatever), with diced garlic. Add a lo-salt pasta sauce or marinara. For a really great taste and lowest sodium, I used Classico "Spicy Red Pepper" Pasta Sauce. (only 300 mgs. of salt). It has just the right amount of zip from the red peppers. Enjoy! It is soooo good and you feel so healthy after eating it.
  

prayers and paperclips!

Yes, that's how we made it to Utah, driving an old car out to Philip (Carl had worked on the car all summer). In an obscure little town (Quanta?) in the Texas panhandle, we broke down. I was at the wheel, preparing to stop at a red light. When my foot reached for the clutch pedal, there was none! So I just had to brake it (clunk, clunk, clunk!). Carl thought I'd forgotten how to drive a stick shift.

The clutch pedal was lying useless, flat on the floor of the car. The pin which secured it in place, was missing. After several hundred miles, it just fell apart. While Carl was examining the situation, I stood in back of the car directing traffic. It was empowering in a weird way to be directing the traffic around us. Truck drivers sure are nice. Two of them stopped to offer assistance. Carl, who has the ability to fix just about anything, asked me if I had a paperclip. Of course I did. And that's how we made it the rest of way to Utah, with a prayer and a paperclip. The little red paperclip, which I used to mark my place in my reading material, was used to fasten the clutch pedal onto the pedal holder.

Early the following morning, the city of Albuquerque lost electric power. In the middle of taking a shower in the hotel room, we were plunged in darkness, and had to fumble around to get ready. Then, as we were driving past Gallup, snow showers started. At one point, we got caught in about 20 minutes of a mini- blizzard where we had almost zero visibility. This picture is the calm before the storm. It was unusual to see snow in Gallup in October. (There was none in Utah.)

No snow or ice on the mountain roads into Utah. We breathed a big sigh of relief when the car made it to Provo .

Jeremy and Philip took us for a drive on the Alpine Loop.

Jeremy put the final touches on his Halloween costume in the engineering lab.

BYU students dressed for Halloween for classes on Friday. Jeremy with unknown student.This was one of my favorites on the BYU campus. (from the movie "Up")

We attended a Tabernacle Choir rehearsal. The ambassador to Spain sat in front of us (far left).

While Andy and Jeremy ran the Skyline trail in Orem, training for future marathons, Carl and I walked it.

We visited with sister Beverly and her family in Layton. I asked Beverly to model the hat she made as part of the beautiful costume, which she also made, for a local Halloween festival.

Happy Birthday to Brian (from his very favorite mother-in-law)

Today is Brian's birthday. I remember the first time he showed up at our door (tall, dark, and handsome -- not the door, but Brian) for his first date with Emily.

They didn't seem to hit it off on that first date, so I thought we'd never see him again. Now look who's in the picture 9 years later, not only Brian, but four beautiful children. Brian is a kind and loving husband and father and we are very thankful that he is in our lives. We love you Brian.