More Progress

First off, Glen is still doing well in his "Biggest Loser" competition at school. As reported 2 weeks ago, he lost 5 pounds the first week. Last week he had lost 2 and this week it was 3 pounds. So he has lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks of dieting. He's not on any particular diet, he's just been exercising and making better food choices. Good going Glen! As for me, I'm holding my own and staying steady...which for this time of the year is progress for me, since I usually gain during the winter months. I still need to start exercising.

As for Eric, he started his first community college class this week. He is still taking a "full" load at the high school but this is a way for him to be introduced to the community college life (full is in quotes because he has several classes with no homework...choir, guitar, and ceramics, with French and theatre having very little homework--only Government and English should be keeping him busy). Our plan is for him to go to the community college next fall. So this is a taste for him.

He is taking Anthropology 201-People and Cultures of the World. They meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30-6:45 and it's a video conference class originating from Carson City. It's a topic he's interested in because it will help him develop cultures in his writing and in developing his Persistence of Memory fictional world that he creates online with a friend of his.

I was told by the counselor that I could attend with him as long as I wanted to. We weren't sure how it would go...would he speak up? So, on Tuesday the teacher called roll and Eric's name was not on it. He did not say anything (the video conference kind of messed it up as she asked for the names of the 2 people in Fallon that weren't on her roll, when there were 3 people in Fallon not on her roll. When she got 2 names, she moved on not realizing she had skipped Eric), so I had to tell the AV lady, Loraine, so she had to catch the teacher's attention and they got Eric's name added to the roll.

When she took roll last night everyone said "here" to their name except for Eric. He made some weird noise instead. I thought "yikes" but the teacher just laughed and moved on.

Last night those who had chosen the topic for their oral presentation were to tell her what topic they wanted and what date they wanted for their presentations. Eric actually spoke up with no prodding from me (actually I don't sit in Eric's line of sight, so catching his attention would be difficult). He did a great job--he said his name, that he was in Fallon and then nicely asked if the topic of "food taboos" had been chosen yet. To some of you who may not know Eric well it might seem silly of me to report on this, but I think it really is a big deal. I interpreted that as he had listened to how others would say a topic only to have Dr. Conaway tell them it was already chosen, so he adapted his wording and made it asking instead of telling, if you know what I mean.

I had emailed Dr. Conaway the other day and told her a bit about Eric and his Asperger's Syndrome, but I haven't heard back from her so I don't know if she received my email. But when he asked for food taboos she said it had not been taken and that it was a very good choice. He is the only one who's choice she commented on, so I wonder if she read my email and is trying to encourage Eric. She told us on Tuesday that she herself has dyslexia and has a PhD so people with disabilities can do anything (or something like that).

Anyway, I think next Tuesday I will attend for the few minutes during the business portion and then go out to the hall and leave him on his own. I think he's up to it...but I may not be. I just want to make sure he gets the support he needs without being babied, but sometimes it's hard to know where the line is...and I know I tend to the "baby" side of the line.

the mailwoman brought us some good things

Well, I just went out to the mailbox to get Saturday's mail. In it were our 2 Alton Brown cookbooks that we ordered for each other for our anniversary ("I'm Just Here for the Food" and "I'm Just Here for More Food"). We were expecting that and I'm excited to start using them. (Can I just say here how much I love things like making links and adding photo to blogs? Technology is mind-boggling.)

Even more exciting was a letter from Andrew's mission President, President G. Lyle Talbot. Andrew has been called as a District Leader (and is now senior companion). I didn't know that they sent out letters to announce that kind of thing. Kind of funny. The letter said that Andrew "will need the sustaining power of your prayers in his behalf." So if you feel so inclined, would you please add Andrew to your prayers? Thanks.

field trips, Les Mis, snow, and texting

Every January we take Glen's drama students to Utah for the Utah Theatre Association's Festival. I think we had 15 students, including Eric. This year it was hosted by Utah Valley University in Orem (last year it was at Weber State in Odgen and next year it will be at Dixie College in St. George). They have workshops during the day and see plays at night. On Thursday the first workshop started at 2 pm. However, Thursday was also the day that our kids could audition for the All-State Choir. So we divided and conquered.

Glen rode the bus with most of his students to Utah (they left at 3 am on Thursday). I took 3 kids and one of their mothers in a van to Carson City for their 10 am audition. Then we drove to Provo, arriving at 9:30 pm. There was supposed to be a 90% chance of snow in Carson that morning...and in Provo that evening, so I was a bit nervous. A lot of prayers were said. We didn't see a single flake fall on Thursday and we able to arrive without any difficulties.

Turns out while we were driving to Provo, the rest of the group was seeing the Pleasant Grove High School's production of "Les Miserables." Our play for Friday night was supposed to be "Little Shop of Horrors" (which I don't like). Not wanting to miss "Les Mis" and not wanting to see "Little Shop," I drove to Pleasant Grove Friday morning and bought tickets for the 5 van people. So we went to Les Mis while the others saw Little Shop.

The play was marvelous. I even liked some of the kids voices better than the voices on my Les Mis CD. The prostitute scene was a bit shocking (I have seen the high school edition before and I don't remember it being so graphic) and I wish they had toned it down, but they sure were talented kids.

It had started snowing slightly before we left to go see the play and it snowed all during the play. We got out and our van looked like this:

We were going 25 mph on the highway getting back to the hotel and it was just a teeny bit slippery, but we made it without an accident, so that was good. The amazing thing is, the snow then stopped. It was gorgeous. Here are some pictures around our hotel:

 

After driving some of the kids up to the first event Saturday morning, I came home. They didn't leave until the end of the conference at 9 pm. I only had to drive through about 3 miles of it snowing and so had a nice trip home. I really feel very blessed. I got in about 4:30 pm Saturday. They got in by 6 am this morning.

The drive home was gorgeous too:

 

Lots of snowy mountains and amazing clouds.

 

Glen and I are coming up in the world. On Thursday Kennedy helped me to send my second ever text message to Glen (the first one was 2 years ago and Hannah helped me). Then on Friday, I sent on by myself. And on Saturday Glen, for the first time ever, sent me a text message all on his own too (it was a one word message--"key" as he had locked himself out of our hotel room). We are really growing up. Texting in another marvel in today's world. Cost us .6 units instead of the 4 that calling would have cost. Love it.

Next field trip: Eric and I are going with the High School's reading club to Santa Barbara at the beginning of February to listen to a lecture by the author Neil Gaiman. That should be fun, too.

Wednesday 20 January 1988

Exactly 22 years ago tonight, Glen and I met while playing Bunco at a Las Vegas 62nd Singles ward activity. We started dating at the end of March, had our first kiss July 20th, started seeing only each other in August, got engaged September 20th, and married on January 21, 1989.

21 years ago on this date Glen started the tradition of giving me a red silk rose for every year we had know each other. So, following tradition, he gave me 22 red silk roses this morning. This is 2010's installment:

Now, sometimes I feel that Glen is pretty lucky. At other times I wonder what he did that was so bad that he deserved to get stuck with me. And at other times, most of the time, I feel we are both lucky (blessed is a better word, actually). Typical marriage, I'm supposing. But on the whole it's been truly wonderful. Happy Anniversary Glen! Thanks for marrying me.

Julie & Julia/Beth & ???

Glen and I recently saw the movie "Julie & Julia." We thought it was cute. But I think Julie's goal was insane (to take one year and cook her way through Julie Child's French cookbook--over 500 recipes--and blog about it)...of course she's not the mother of 5 and active in the LDS church.... I have no desire to follow her lead (you can breathe a sigh of relief now). That would be too much of a commitment and in the end (or way before the end, actually) I would be insane and would not be enjoying the experience.

However, I was kind of intrigued by the idea. If I were to do that I can tell you there would changes made to her "rules." First off, it certainly wouldn't be a French cookbook (no offense to Julia Child). And I can't stand that much commitment (I tease Glen that it's amazing I took the risk of getting married). I also would not be able to cook from the book each day. It would be more like once a week. And I probably wouldn't be able to cook every recipe...there are some things I just have no desire to try.

So if I were to cook at least one recipe a week from a cookbook, which cookbook would I choose? I have decided it would be an Alton Brown cookbook. He has a show on FoodNetwork called "Good Eats" and I love the show. He is a bit nutty and shows the science behind the cooking process. A Bill Nye for the kitchen world.

I recently checked one of his cookbooks out of our local library called "I'm Just Here for More Food: food x mixing + heat = baking." It was the only Alton Brown book (I think he has 6) in our library system and I was happy that our branch had a copy. Anyway, the first 83 pages are about the science behind cooking and the various common ingredients. Then come the recipes. Our pizza from Friday night (see photo below...I just love digital cameras) was using his recipe...I even hand-tossed my portion. I really liked it (though Glen thought it was too chewy, but he had his 4 hours after I made it and didn't heat it up first, so I'm not sure if he had a chance to try it at its best).

Our 21st anniversary is on Thursday...so we are giving each other 2 of Alton's books (Glen likes "Good Eats" and cooking too). Besides the baking book, I ordered "I'm Just Here for the Food" which is more of a general cooking book and not specific to baking. It says in the amazon.com blurb that it is for people who would rather understand their food than follow a recipe. I don't know about that, but I do know I like Alton's recipes and I like learning the whys of cooking.

One recipe of Alton's that I really like is his granola bar recipe. If you care to give it a try, here's the link to the recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/granola-bars-recipe/index.html

So, Julie & Julia/Beth & Brown, I guess.

My husband is a loser and our son is a winner

Glen signed up for the Biggest Loser competition at school. They started last Thursday. Glen has been getting up early to exercise and has been careful with his eating. He managed to lose 5 pounds this week. Way to go Glen!!!!!

Now I just need to follow his lead. Since I'm already cooking healthier foods, I'm already doing better. I just need to get back into exercising.

As of 30 minutes ago, Eric is now an Eagle Scout. We just came from his board of review. Glen, who is at the opening night of "Twelve Angry Women" at the high school doesn't know it yet (he had to leave before the verdict was in).

So congratulate Glen. Congratulate Eric. And go see "Twelve Angry Women" on Friday night (Jan 15th) or Saturday night (Jan 16th) at 7 pm.

These are a few of my favorite things...

We had a nice Christmas. No one really got anything big, and it's actually some of the littlest pleasures that seemed to make me feel happy. First off is a toothpaste lid that Santa gave to Alex. I smile every time I see it on the counter:

You take his paw away from his mouth to squeeze the toothpaste out.

Next is a gift from a friend that I stamp with. She crocheted a lap blanket for each member of our stamping group. I love the colors and am just thrilled.

Next, my parents gave Ryan a quesadilla maker. Big hit. Downside--we're going through cheese way too fast.

 Next we have a gift that I gave my father...and then was surprised by how much I liked it, so went out a bought a copy of my own. It's Susan Boyle's CD. I just love her voice. See my playlist and my favorite youtube videos list to listen to her sing "I Dreamed a Dream."

And lastly, for $10 I bought a new advent calendar after Christmas at Winco. It's not as pretty as the $200 one I saw while visiting my mom in July, but it'll do. Now I just need to find things to put into the drawers for next year.

photos from Elder Andrew Perazzo

Andrew has been on his mission just over 6 months now. He is currently serving in Sioux City, Iowa. He sent one batch of photos from the MTC and just sent another batch. Here they are (I figured out how to use the scanner and put the pictures in a folder so I could find them again...I'm so proud of me!):

Here's Andrew with the Elders from his MTC district: Elder Lunceford (his companion), Andrew, Elder Guest, Elder Allen, Elder Diamond, and Elder Widdison

 Same group, different pose.

The swine flu was rearing its ugly head while Andrew was in the MTC. The uncle of one of the Elders made t-shirts saying "I survived the swine of '09" which has a picture of a pig in missionary attire on front. And on back...

...it talks about the Super-6 (that's what the Elders called themselves) and it has a picture of a farmer with Iowa as his head holding a stalk of corn.

Here Andrew and Elder Diamond pose with a statue of the Church's first missionary in this dispensation: Samuel H. Smith.

While Andrew was in the MTC the new mission presidents were trained...so many of the Apostles were there as well as the Prophet. Andrew said he got about 20' away from the Prophet and later took this picture of where President Monson had been standing. Too funny.

Another funny...there was this Elder in the MTC that looked a lot like Barack Obama, so Andrew had his photo taken with him.

And to prove once again that Elders are, after all, 19 year olds, Andrew had his picture taken while he was "levitating." Any guesses as to how this photo was accomplished???

Now on to the recent photos from Iowa:

Here is Andrew with Sister and President Talbot (his mission President) when he first arrived in Iowa.

This is the entire group that went out into the mission field with Andrew--

Sisters Myers and Jardine, Elders Widdison, Diamond, Lunceford (in back), Allen (in front), Andrew, Elder Guest, Sister and President Talbot.

Andrew didn't say in his letter or on the back of the photo who these missionaries are...his last district perhaps??? (OK, after reading Calista's comment and taking a closer look, I'm guessing this was taken with Andrew's group in the mission home soon after arriving in Iowa)

And lastly:

Andrew says "kudos for anyone who can figure out how I did the 'companionship inventory' picture."

It was really great talking to him on Christmas. My parents were here for the holidays and Glen's parents came over for the phone call.

Andrew just got a new companion, Elder Webster, on Thursday (and of course he doesn't say where he's from...only that he trained one of Andrew's past companions). It's been very cold and snowy...they've been doing a lot of service shoveling snow for people. I will copy and paste below most of his most recent email about their GPS situation:

With this new year came really cold weather.  One day President Talbot had to call our zone and warn us about going outside because it was 20 below zero outside, without windchill.  We could still go out and work, but we could only be outside for 15 minutes at a time before we had to warm up either in our car or inside somewhere.  But that was a couple of days ago, and it hasn't been that cold since.  Now it's all the way up to 1 below zero.  Today's high is supposed to be 3 degrees, I think.

But the good news is that it isn't snowing as hard as it has been.  We only got about an inch on Saturday night.  But there's a funny story I'd like to tell you.

Elder Webster and I are driving our car to far flung cities in our area to visit less actives.  After a really good visit with a Less Active and his non-member wife, who lived about 20 minutes from Sioux City, we were driving to another city farther away from Sioux City.  Elder Webster's GPS told us to go on this back road, which was fine until we come up over this hill to see the road ahead wasn't cleared from snow.  Elder Webster slams on his brakes, but we skid about 16 yards and ram into it head on.  It's only about a foot high, so we travel in about a car's length and get stuck.  Oh, and it's about 8:30 at night.

So we get out of the car and start shoveling it the best we can.  We have no shovel in our car (poor planning on our part) and so we use our hands and feet.  Well, I just use my feet because I only have one glove, I had lost the other one about a week ago and have no idea where it is.  We look at the temperature and notice that it's negative 12 degrees outside.  It was about then that we realize we didn't know where the phone was.  It's not in the car, and we realize it had fallen out into the snow.  We think about going to the nearest house and have someone calling it, but, of course, our phone is on vibrate.

We walk over to the nearest house, which wasn't that far away, only about a rock's throw, and we ask that man there if we could borrow his phone.  He allows us to use his cell phone.  We call the Zone Leaders and they say they'll come to help, and they'll call us back when they're closer.  Then the man's phone dies from low battery.

But everything turned out okay in the end.  The man plugged his phone into the wall, it got juiced up, the Zone Leaders came, we found our phone, we got unstuck, we asked if the guy would be interested in hearing more about the gospel (which he wasn't) and we were on our way home.  Our phone is dead (the cold sucked the juice right out of it) but we get home and plug it in and everything's fine.  We did get home around 10:00 though.  And the front part of our car was broken and the bottom of our car got ripped up a bit.

So that's my story.  It's the most interesting thing that's happened this week.


So, that's what's happening with Andrew these days.